Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is Part 8 in an ongoing series looking at players that only appeared on certain teams in video games.

Just when I thought I’d finished this series with Part 7 last year, I was presented with a bunch of names making it clear that some further articles were in order! Shout out to David L for his memory and research on the topic, as he provided a vast majority of the examples that I’ll be discussing in the articles to come. There are some significant names and other well-known players that I overlooked in the previous instalments, and once they were pointed out, I knew I’d have to follow up on them. Other players aren’t as famous, but hardcore basketball fans and gamers will no doubt recall them.

As I’ve said before, players end up only appearing on certain teams in games for very familiar reasons. Before official updates were common, the default rosters remained a snapshot of some point during the offseason. If a player ended up being cut or traded after the roster cut-off date, the game would preserve a stint that never came to be in real life. Similarly, a player might have remained on a team’s roster beyond the game’s launch, but still didn’t ever play for them before they parted ways. And of course, official roster updates also sometimes reflect these stints. Whatever the case may be, they’ve left us with some interesting NBA and roster trivia in a variety of games.

1. Nick Anderson (Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA Live 2003 & NBA 2K3)

Due to being the Magic’s first ever Draft pick in 1989, and the success and popularity of the team during the Shaq & Penny era of the 90s, Nick Anderson is undoubtedly best known for his time in Orlando. He was traded to the Sacramento Kings prior to the 2000 season however, spending two years with them before being sent to the newly-relocated Memphis Grizzlies as part of the Jason Williams-Mike Bibby swap. That’s where he concluded his career in 2002, contrary to what NBA Live 2003 and NBA 2K3 may lead you to believe. In both games – more specifically the PS2 version of NBA Live 2003 – Nick Anderson appears on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ roster.

At the 2002 Draft, the Grizzlies traded Anderson along with Matt Barnes – the 46th overall pick that year – to Cleveland for Wesley Person. Incidentally, this also led to a phantom stint for Barnes, not to mention an earlier debut on the virtual hardwood as he didn’t tally his first minute in the NBA until the following season. Anderson’s career was conversely winding down by that point, and after being released by the Cavs in October, he retired. He’s already a free agent in the PC version of NBA Live 2003, which is how I ended up overlooking this phantom stint. As another notable name from the 90s however, it’s definitely an example that’s worth mentioning.

2. Andrew Bynum (Philadelphia 76ers, NBA 2K13)

It’s very easy to overlook Andrew Bynum’s later career, following his departure from the Los Angeles Lakers. It certainly helps that he was out of the league before he was even 30 – he wouldn’t even be the oldest player in the league today – and appeared in a total of 26 games following his lone All-Star campaign. All of those games came with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers however, after he missed the entire 2013 season. Had his knee not ruled him out for an entire year, he would’ve suited up for the Philadelphia 76ers. That’s where you’ll find him in the rosters of NBA 2K13.

Bynum ended up in the City of Brotherly Love by way of the four-team trade that sent Dwight Howard to Los Angeles for the first of his three stints with the Lakers. He was sidelined during training camp due to knee problems, and infamously suffered another setback when he injured his left knee while bowling. Bynum was projected to return around the All-Star break, but his knees didn’t improve, leading to him finishing out the year and his contract without playing a single game for the 76ers. He also had a phantom stint with the Bulls in real life as part of the Cavs’ trade for Luol Deng, but as he was immediately cut by Chicago, it wasn’t included in the official roster update.

3. Mark Jackson (Denver Nuggets, NBA Live 2003)

There are times that I wish I’d titled this series “phantom stints” rather than “players who only appeared on certain teams in games”; mostly for SEO reasons, but also because there’s some more wiggle room in that term! Technically speaking, Mark Jackson did play for the Denver Nuggets in real life, so his appearance on their roster isn’t exclusive to the virtual hardwood. However, that half-season stint came during the 1997 campaign, after the Indiana Pacers traded him for Jalen Rose, and then brought him back in a trade deadline deal. Several 1997 season games accurately reflect the brief time that Mark Jackson did actually play in the Mile High City.

Conversely, the PlayStation 2 version of NBA Live 2003 includes a phantom stint. By 2002, Jackson had ended up back with the Knicks, which of course had made him a familiar face back in a familiar place. It wasn’t a long reunion though, as he was part of the trade that brought Antonio McDyess to New York. Jackson remained on the Nuggets’ roster beyond the cut-off for the PS2 release of NBA Live 2003, but was released in late September and signed with the Utah Jazz in early October, where you’ll find him in the PC version. It’s a different kind of example as he was a Nugget before, but a potential second stint didn’t come to fruition except in a video game.

4. Derek Harper (Detroit Pistons, NBA Live 2000)

After a sixteen year career that included a handful of seasons as a notable All-Star snub, Derek Harper called it a day in 1999. He was still a productive player into his late 30s, and it’s possible that he might’ve stuck around for at least another year or two. However, after spending what turned out to be his final season with the Los Angeles Lakers in the abbreviated 1999 campaign, Harper was traded to the Detroit Pistons. He didn’t report to his new team though, instead opting for retirement. Then again, that might’ve always been his intention, as the Lakers traded him in order to dump his contract and free up cap space to sign another Harper, namely Ron.

That deal completed in September of 1999 was reflected in the PlayStation version of NBA Live 2000, making Derek Harper’s phantom Pistons stint tangible. However, he’s still on the Lakers in the PC version of the game. Not only that, but he’s the only Harper in the official rosters of that release, as Ron was a free agent and thus not included (though he was in the Nintendo 64 version, still on the Chicago Bulls). I didn’t pick up the PlayStation version of NBA Live 2000 until I started expanding my collection many years later, and I’d forgotten about the trade and his refusal to report. So, once again, I appreciate the heads up from David L about this noteworthy trivia!

5. Rick Fox (Boston Celtics, NBA Live 2005 & ESPN NBA 2K5)

This is a similar situation to the aforementioned Mark Jackson example, as Rick Fox began his career with the Boston Celtics, and basically spent half of his career with them. However, he was set to become a familiar face back in a familiar place in 2004, only to end up with a phantom stint that made it into video games. After the Lakers’ superteam experiment came up short against the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 Finals, they began moving in a new direction. The team sided with Kobe Bryant as his feud with Shaquille O’Neal came to a head. Karl Malone was let go, and Gary Payton was traded to their long-time rival Celtics, with Rick Fox also being included in that deal.

Although he’d still been a regular starter during his final season with the Lakers, Fox had been battling foot problems. He only appeared in 38 regular season games, and was relegated to the bench in the Playoffs. With nagging injuries and a beckoning acting career, Fox retired rather than pursue a second stint with the Celtics. It was a move that came after the trade was included in NBA Live 2005 and ESPN NBA 2K5, though only in the PlayStation 2 version of the former. Once again, in this instance “phantom stint” is a better term than “only appeared on certain teams in games”. It’s still within the spirit of this series in my opinion, so it makes the cut for this list.

Do you remember these phantom stints? What are your favourite examples of players who only appeared on certain teams in video games? Let me know in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! There’ll be more examples to come, but that’s all for now, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.