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 another list of five stints that never officially appeared in basketball video games.
Yes, it’s time to reflect on another five stints that never appeared in video games; at least in any official rosters! As someone who enjoys basketball and basketball video game trivia alike, topics like this are always fun to dive into. It’s also risky, though. While I do have an extensive collection and try my best to thoroughly research in order to ensure these claims are accurate, I’m not infallible. This was made painfully clear after a previous article, when an assumption led me to overlook NBA Ballers and its inclusion of Rasheed Wallace’s brief stopover with the Atlanta Hawks.
Of course, that was also a handy reminder to do my due diligence! I believe that this time around, I’ve covered all of my bases by checking every game that I own, and crosschecking release dates and any roster listings that I can find online in ones that I don’t. And so, with the help of David L, I’ve compiled this list of five more players with stints that never appeared in games, as well as some others that I’ll get to in future articles. I’ll also once again clarify that I’m referring to official appearances, i.e. in the default rosters or an official roster update, so community-made rosters don’t count. With that being said, let’s look at five players and their unrepresented stints!
Most fans probably remember Vladimir Radmanovic as a member of the Seattle Supersonics, where he began his NBA career and had his best seasons, or perhaps as a solid reserve on a Los Angeles Lakers team that went to the NBA Finals in 2008. A midseason trade to the Charlotte Bobcats in 2009 meant that Radmanovic actually missed out on becoming a two-time champion with the Kobe Bryant-led Lakers. I’ll admit that I had a false memory of him being on at least one of the title squads, likely mixing it up with the 2008 Finals appearance. However, you will indeed find him on the Bobcats in updates for 2009 titles, as well as the default rosters of 2010 releases.
Conversely, you won’t find Radmanovic’s stint with the Los Angeles Clippers – which directly preceded his time with the Lakers – in any official rosters. The Supersonics sent him to the Clippers a little over a week before the trade deadline, in exchange for Chris Wilcox. The later release of the Xbox 360 versions of NBA Live 06 and NBA 2K6 accounted for some offseason deals that missed the cut in the PC and sixth gen versions, but they still came out long before that swap, as did NBA 06 (the only other sim set in 2006). As for Radmanovic’s time with the Clippers, though it was brief, it was one of his best stints, and the last time that he averaged double digits in scoring.
The “lockout season” of 1999 produced quite a few examples of familiar faces in strange places, so if you’ve forgotten about B.J. Armstrong’s stint with the Orlando Magic, it’s definitely understandable. Furthermore, Armstrong’s career had already reached a premature and rapid decline after leaving the Chicago Bulls in 1995 when he was selected first overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 1995 Expansion Draft. That of course led to a phantom stint that’s captured in NBA in the Zone, and a subsequent trade to Golden State, where he actually had a fine 1995-96 season. He even started ahead of Tim Hardaway, a point of contention that led to Tim Bug’s trade to Miami.
Injuries cut short his 1997 season, after which he was relegated to a bench role for the rest of his career. He remained a solid backup at point guard though, and after being traded to the Charlotte Hornets for Muggsy Bogues in 1998, he helped them steal a win from the Bulls in their second round clash. He was then included in the Glen Rice for Eddie Jones swap in March 1999, but was immediately waived by the Lakers. He signed with Orlando for the rest of the year, but the move came too late to be included in the official update for NBA Live 99 PC. In fact, he was removed from the rosters entirely! No other 1999 season games came out late enough to account for this stint.
Talk about a player who would thrive with the modern NBA’s mindset towards three-point shooting! Dennis Scott was one of the best sharpshooters of the 90s, setting the old record for three-pointers in a season with 267 in 1996, also nailing a then-record 11 threes in a single game that same year. A key player on some great young Orlando Magic teams, 3-D’s career took a sharp downturn in 1997 after an infamous summer camp incident where his frustration with the team boiled over. This led to Scott being traded to the Dallas Mavericks, who sent him to the Phoenix Suns for Cedric Ceballos just before the deadline. After the lockout ended, Scott joined the New York Knicks.
3-D’s stint in the Big Apple is accounted for in the roster update for the PC version of NBA Live 99, but he didn’t finish the 1999 season with the Knicks. They cut him in March, leading to him signing a 10-day contract with Minnesota; an experience that he said made him appreciate players who had a tougher road to the NBA than he did as a standout college player and lottery selection. The Timberwolves signed him for the rest of the season after that, but he then joined the Vancouver Grizzlies for his final NBA stint. As a result, no games officially reflect Dennis Scott’s time with the Timberwolves, though it was obviously accounted for in our unofficial roster updates.
It seems that once a player comes up in one of my articles about video game and NBA roster trivia, he’s destined to keep popping up from time to time! Tom Gugliotta has joined that group, as I’ve even dedicated an entire Wayback Wednesday to his career and its impact on video games. To that point though, while Googs’ career produced some interesting stints that were captured on the virtual hardwood, his Utah Jazz tenure is one that can’t be found in any official rosters. That’s because it lasted all of 25 games during the 2004 season, after the Phoenix Suns traded him to Utah at the deadline. He then signed with Boston, where you’ll find him in 2005 season games.
Only one game set in 2004 came out late enough to potentially include Googs’ stint with the Jazz: NBA Ballers, the release that captures Rasheed Wallace’s brief time in Atlanta. That game only included a selection of prominent players rather than full teams however, and by that point in his career, Tom Gugliotta was definitely past his prime. He did actually start 24 of the 25 games he played for the Jazz though, and while his numbers weren’t anything special, it was the most court time he’d seen since the 2002 season. Googs also had the unenviable task of replacing Karl Malone, who was still putting up All-Star numbers for the Jazz before joining the Lakers in 2004.
When Steve Francis was traded to the Orlando Magic for Tracy McGrady in 2004, it only seemed appropriate that Cuttino Mobley was included in the deal. Not only did it result in one of the fairest blockbusters in NBA history – though Houston ultimately did get the better end of the deal – it kept an exciting, high-scoring, inside-outside backcourt duo together…well, for about half a season, anyway. The Magic traded Mobley to the Sacramento Kings for Doug Christie in January. While Christie was unhappy with the deal and finished the year on the injured list before being amnestied in the 2005 offseason, the change of scenery seemed to suit Mobley much better.
Mobley finished the regular season third on the Kings in scoring, and had a solid showing in the Playoffs, though Sacramento lost to the Seattle Supersonics in five games. A free agent in the offseason, Mobley signed a five-year, $42 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers; a lucrative contract for a third option back in 2005. As was often the case with brief stints that began with a midseason trade, the lack of official roster updates or a title with a late release, combined with an early free agent signing, meant that Mobley’s time with the Kings isn’t officially represented in any video games. Once again of course, community-made rosters took care of the trade.
Can you recall any other stints that never officially appeared in video games? Let me know in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.
The post The Friday Five: 5 Stints That Never Appeared in Games (Part 2) appeared first on NLSC.
