What’s the greatest basketball video game of all time?

[Liam_Gallagher]

NBA Live 2004.

Still has smooth graphics that hold up in 2025. The beginning of Marv Albert integrated into the game. LeBron's first time in Live. Awesome rating system. The list goes on.

[bonita_the_frog]

NBA Shootout was released in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004.
Which year was the best?
Did it get better every year, or was one of the earlier games the best?
I've seen them on ebay but they're all in America, so i guess they won't work on my ps1 because i'm Australian so my ps1 is PAL.

[niQ]

So much nostalgia in this thread.

Countless hours playing NBA Jam/Hangtime, Street V1/V2, Live/2K. I vaguely even remember some Looney Tunes b-ball game.

I forgot which game it was (live/2k) around 06-08, where Chris Bosh basically had this broken hook shot or something that I was able to spam even all the way to the 3-point line.

[metalinguss]

NBa Live 08 (PC) only because I was playing it even with the new versions coming out because of this forum where you could download updated rosters including rookies every season.

[Mean_Streets]

NBA Live 2004.

Still has smooth graphics that hold up in 2025. The beginning of Marv Albert integrated into the game. LeBron's first time in Live. Awesome rating system. The list goes on.

The differences between Live 2003 and Live 2004 were crazy. 2003 was a very good game and was well received, better than the '01 & '02 versions, surprisingly they took a gamble and changed everything to a more slowed down realistic game in Live 2004, 2003 was very fast paced and arcade like which worked, even the free throws were different in 2004. It paid off. Every Live game from their 2003-2005 versions was top notch.

[xb3at band1tx]

2K11 was so good it annihilated EA’s bball series

So good unfortunately it tanked 2K’s own ambition and introduce an era of insane gambling-esque features to their online components

[Dominator83]

NBA Hoopz Dreamcast

If we're going real old school, Arch Rivals NES/Sega Genesis

[peZt]

NBA 2k12 for me. Cause it was basically 2k11 but with a more advanced post up game. After that the series slowly went to ****. I haven't played in a decade and recently watched a gameplay video of 2k26 and it has the same animation issues that the series had for almost 2 decades now. Players look shiny and unrealistic, players either move through mud or teleport 10 feet in 1 second

[JujitsuFlip]

So much nostalgia in this thread.

Countless hours playing NBA Jam/Hangtime, Street V1/V2, Live/2K. I vaguely even remember some Looney Tunes b-ball game.

I forgot which game it was (live/2k) around 06-08, where Chris Bosh basically had this broken hook shot or something that I was able to spam even all the way to the 3-point line.

In NBA 2k13, Bynum's drop step was unguardeable lol

I'd go online, put Jrue at 1, J-Rich at 2, Swaggy P at 3, Thad Young at 4, and Bynum at 5. Just spread the floor and dump it in the post to Bynum all game lol if he got doubled, just kick it out to an open shooter.

[Joshyjess]

Lot of good ones have already been mentioned like NBA Jam, NBA Live 95 and Lakers vs. Celtics. One classic probably still missing is this:

Watch on YouTube

Look at page 2 of this thread, and you'll see it was mentioned (just without a picture or video)

[Childs]

Watch on YouTube

[UcanUwill]

Also, this:

Watch on YouTube

There was a very stupid story related to this Family guy joke. Apparently, they used actual youtubers footage for this joke in the episode, and maybe they had permission to use it, cause the story was not youtuber being upset or anything. But after the episode aired, stupid youtube bot copy right struck originai youtubers video as a stole footage from Family guy...

[Liam_Gallagher]

So much nostalgia in this thread.

Countless hours playing NBA Jam/Hangtime, Street V1/V2, Live/2K. I vaguely even remember some Looney Tunes b-ball game.

I forgot which game it was (live/2k) around 06-08, where Chris Bosh basically had this broken hook shot or something that I was able to spam even all the way to the 3-point line.

In NBA 2k13, Bynum's drop step was unguardeable lol

I'd go online, put Jrue at 1, J-Rich at 2, Swaggy P at 3, Thad Young at 4, and Bynum at 5. Just spread the floor and dump it in the post to Bynum all game lol if he got doubled, just kick it out to an open shooter.

Bynum in a Sixers uniform only existed in a video game.

[Calvin Klein]

Also, this:

Watch on YouTube

There was a very stupid story related to this Family guy joke. Apparently, they used actual youtubers footage for this joke in the episode, and maybe they had permission to use it, cause the story was not youtuber being upset or anything. But after the episode aired, stupid youtube bot copy right struck originai youtubers video as a stole footage from Family guy...

Reminds me of the Captain Tsubasa NES game. We found out that if you inserted the cartridge a little bit crooked, some players appeared with super boosted ratings. I never found out if this was actually intended or not, but it did happen.

Watch on YouTube

[JujitsuFlip]

So much nostalgia in this thread.

Countless hours playing NBA Jam/Hangtime, Street V1/V2, Live/2K. I vaguely even remember some Looney Tunes b-ball game.

I forgot which game it was (live/2k) around 06-08, where Chris Bosh basically had this broken hook shot or something that I was able to spam even all the way to the 3-point line.

In NBA 2k13, Bynum's drop step was unguardeable lol

I'd go online, put Jrue at 1, J-Rich at 2, Swaggy P at 3, Thad Young at 4, and Bynum at 5. Just spread the floor and dump it in the post to Bynum all game lol if he got doubled, just kick it out to an open shooter.

Bynum in a Sixers uniform only existed in a video game.

To be fair, he did go to media day hahahah