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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the original All-Time Teams that were featured in early NBA 2K titles.
The concept of All-Time Teams is naturally a staple of sports discussion. Which franchise could field the best lineup with all the players that have ever worn their uniform? Who can boast the best all-time starting lineup? Who would prevail in a showdown of stars, if they could all be together on the team in their prime? Such What Ifs are impossible to conclusively prove in reality, but they’re a great idea for fantasy matchups in video games. Even in the early days of NBA Live modding, the community was creating Legends and All-Time Teams rosters.
Those projects have remained popular over the years, so it’s no surprise that with all of the other historical content in NBA 2K, All-Time squads were eventually added for each franchise. As I noted when I covered those teams in a previous article, while the concept was nothing new, it saved us a lot of time by ensuring that certain players and assets would be in the game by default. However, I neglected to mention that NBA 2K18 wasn’t the first game in the series to feature All-Time Teams, as a few such squads were unlockable in earlier releases. Let’s take a look back…way back…
Since I grew up with NBA Live, and it remained my game of choice throughout the 2000s, there are still gaps in my NBA 2K knowledge. As such, it wasn’t until I was exploring The Crib in the Xbox 360 version of NBA 2K6 that I noticed that All-Time 76ers, All-Time Celtics, All-Time Lakers, and All-Time SuperSonics teams could be unlocked by purchasing the mini basketballs. It’s also possible to unlock the 2000-2003 Draft Classes, International All-Stars, and Rookie and Sophomore teams. Those are all fun squads to have at your disposal, but I was far more interested in the All-Time teams. Obviously, I neglected to mention them in my previous retrospective.
In my defense, NBA 2K18 was the first time that every single franchise had an All-Time squad in the game by default. It was also the first time that they were readily available, since unlockable content has more or less been replaced by the live service and recurrent revenue models. However, it wasn’t the first time that NBA 2K had dabbled with All-Time Teams for specific NBA franchises. In fact, NBA 2K6 wasn’t the first game in the series to feature them, either! Those All-Time 76ers, Celtics, Lakers, and Sonics squads – as well as a team comprised of the best Legends in the game – were previously unlockable in ESPN NBA Basketball, and ESPN NBA 2K5.
Unlocking the All-Time Teams and bonus squads in ESPN NBA Basketball and ESPN NBA 2K5 was a longer progress. In ESPN Basketball, the All-Time 76ers, Celtics, Lakers, and Sonics were unlocked by amassing a total of 150 rebounds, 100 blocks, 20 steals, and 150 assists respectively. In ESPN NBA 2K5, the Lakers were unlocked by winning two games, the Celtics by finishing a game without committing a foul, the 76ers by scoring 127 points in a game, and the SuperSonics by scoring 127 points in three consecutive games. Conversely, once The Crib came along, it was just a matter of earning points by hitting statistical goals, and buying the mini basketballs.
2K did a great job accounting for most of the big names in the history of those four clubs. The Lakers have Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Gail Goodrich, as well as then-active players like Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. The Celtics have Larry Bird and Kevin McHale as you’d expect, but also Paul Pierce. Wilt, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley, and Moses Malone are joined on the 76ers by Allen Iverson. Shawn Kemp is unfortunately missing from the Sonics in NBA 2K6, but Gary Payton is there along with Detlef Schrempf, as well as Spencer Haywood. The lineups do vary slightly from game-to-game, depending on who was licensed.
One consistent detail with those original All-Time Teams that I really enjoy is their custom jerseys. Rather than simply wearing throwbacks or the current uniforms, they have unique jerseys that are loosely based on the contemporary design, simplified and featuring a special patch on the right shoulder. It’s creative, and although the modern trappings of the designs might look strange on some of the older players, it helps the All-Time Teams to stand out from their then-current counterparts. I do also like the modern approach of the All-Time Teams in NBA 2K having almost every uniform in club history at their disposal, but the custom jerseys were a nice touch back then.
At first glance, the inclusion of All-Time Teams for only four franchises might seem underwhelming. The All-Time Sonics might also seem out of place next to those other more storied clubs. Obviously the Sonics were extremely popular and boasted some great players through the years, but one might think that an All-Time Bulls or Knicks squad would be more marketable. Ultimately, it came down to the players that 2K was able to license for the All-Decade teams. If you take a look at those squads, you’ll see that there are a number of 76ers, Celtics, Lakers, and Sonics alumni available. With no Michael Jordan, an All-Time Bulls team obviously doesn’t hold as much appeal.
Naturally, it would’ve been fantastic if they could’ve included an All-Time Bulls squad with MJ in those games. A Legends team for every franchise was probably never going to be feasible, but if they’d been able to account for the Bulls, Knicks, Warriors, Pistons, Spurs, and Rockets along with the 76ers, Celtics, Lakers, and Sonics, those ten squads would cover the league’s most successful clubs, and many of the biggest stars in history. Clearly that wasn’t possible at the time, but to that point, it was still worthwhile adding the All-Time Teams that they did. I’ll always be in favour of utilising the licensed historical players to their full potential with bonus content.
It’s why I can still appreciate NBA 2K only including those four All-Time Teams. It wasn’t absolutely necessary, just as the Draft Class, International All-Stars, and other special teams didn’t need to be part of the roster. However, at the time, NBA 2K was trying to give us as much as possible. It didn’t matter if those teams weren’t the most popular choices, or that many of those players were available elsewhere. If we sought a change of pace, or wanted a fun fantasy matchup without having to edit the rosters, that bonus content came in handy. It represented creativity, and a willingness to put in that extra effort. As unlockables, those extra teams were worthy goals to shoot for.
Not only that, but it was more than NBA Live was doing with its historical content at the time. Although the sixth generation releases and PC ports retained the Decade All-Stars and Legends Pool, EA weren’t making much of an effort to add new players, or stretching their usage to include any additional squads. Furthermore, when NBA Live 06 launched on Xbox 360, there were no Legends to be found. As I’ve noted, it’s a prime example of how NBA 2K continued to go above and beyond by including extra content that appealed to hardcore basketball fans, while NBA Live settled for the bare basics. It underscores the philosophy that allowed NBA 2K to become the top brand.
Unfortunately, NBA 2K6 marked the final appearance of those original All-Time Teams, and the concept wouldn’t be seen in official rosters again until NBA 2K18. Presumably 2K was unable to secure the likeness rights for the additional players that made up those rosters, though the All-Decade squads remained in the game until NBA 2K11, when they were replaced by the classic NBA teams for the Jordan Challenge. Once again, this was still more historical content than what was on offer in the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 versions of NBA Live. Even when Legends did return to EA’s series in NBA Live 14, they were only available to play with in Ultimate Team.
On top of being the last official appearance of All-Time teams for over a decade, there are a couple of other noteworthy tidbits about those All-Time teams in the Xbox 360 version of NBA 2K6. As I mentioned above, Charles Barkley makes one of his rare appearances as a Legend, and can be found on the All-Time 76ers in addition to the 90s West and 80s East squads. Meanwhile, the version of Gary Payton that appears on the All-Time Sonics uses a difference face to the one on the 90s West, and it’s actually a far more accurate likeness for him! The 76ers’ Wilt Chamberlain erroneously sports a headband, while Julius Erving incorrectly has one in his portrait, but not in-game.
The ratings for the Legends are kind of all over the place. Several of them are in the 90s, which is only fair given that we’re talking about some of the best players to ever play the game. On the other hand, far too many of them are maxed out at 99 Overall, including John Havlicek who is also mistakenly listed as a point guard. Jo Jo White is also a 98 Overall, placing him on equal footing with Wilt Chamberlain! If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from fixing up the All-Decade Teams in NBA 2K10, it’s that while NBA 2K has gone to great lengths to include a number of historical teams and players, they also have a long history of not paying enough attention to their ratings.
Still, even with those inaccuracies and the short tenure of the four original All-Time Teams, they were worthy inclusions in NBA 2K. They stand as an example of how 2K was trying to pack in as much content as possible even in the early days of the series, and going that extra mile while NBA Live was beginning to rest on its laurels. Much of the historical content we take for granted in modern titles has been around for longer than we think, with those earlier games paving the way for it to become a staple feature. If you dust off ESPN NBA Basketball, ESPN NBA 2K5, or NBA 2K6 today, those All-Time Teams are fun extras that enhance the retro gaming experience.
