The 2010-11 Miami Heat are going to be a very special and unique team in many ways. This Heat squad may also end up being the best NBA video game team to date.

This year the Heat will surely be rated as high -- if not higher -- as any other team in NBA Elite or NBA 2K. The Heat will probably ruin online play as well since everyone will play as them.

This got me thinking, what were the best "video game" NBA teams ever in the times before video games? Which teams would have ruined online play in the '70s and '80s?

To get to the bottom of this, I think we first have to define what makes a great NBA video game team.

Great video game teams must have at least two superstars. One should be a big who can finish and preferably block shots, and the other should be a slasher who can finish strong at the rim. Those two dynamic players should also be surrounded by size and shooters.

Now, it’s possible to have this combination and still not do well in real life. Take the 2004-05 Houston Rockets for example. They won 51 games and did not get out of the first round, but they were a great video game team with the combination of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.

So with that explanation out of the way, here is my top-five list of teams that go down as the greatest NBA "video game" teams before video games.

5. 1985-86 Houston Rockets

In real life, the '86 Rockets made it to the NBA Finals and lost to the Boston Celtics after upsetting the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. This team would have been a beast in video games if they had been around back then.

They were the best example of "Twin Towers" with 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson and second-year Hakeem Olajuwon. We all know that height is extremely important in video games, and can you imagine the way a player like Sampson would have been rated?

His mobility, along with his size and athleticism, would have been rewarded like crazy in the digital world. Then you put Olajuwon next to him, and basically this team would have been impossible to beat.

Olajuwon in the '80s would have probably been the highest-rated player ever. If 99 was not the highest rating, an '80s Olajuwon would have been around a 108 or so -- a '92 Michael Jordan would have come in a close second at around 106.

The sheer size of this team would have been too much for anyone to contend with, and the cheese when playing with a team like this one online would have been at an all-time high.

4. 1976-77 Philadelphia 76ers

This season was the first one after the ABA merged with the NBA. Video games would have gone crazy for a year like this and transformed a ton. There would have been a huge shift to more arcade-like features in an NBA Live '77 game with the influence of ABA players and the showmanship they brought to the hardwood.

No one player embodied this image better than Julius Erving. Dr. J would have been one of the top two rated players in the '77 season alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

This Sixers team would have flourished in a video game at this time. Dr. J would have been the best player, but guys like George McGinnis and World B. Free would have received good ratings as well. Throw in "Chocolate Thunder" Darryl Dawkins off the bench, and you have quite a dominating force in a pretty diluted league at the time.

3. 1987-88 Los Angeles Lakers

After winning it all in the '87 season, these Lakers would have been rated through the roof. Not only had Magic Johnson morphed into Magic 2.0 and taken over the alpha-dog role from Kareem, but head coach Pat Riley guaranteed a repeat after the season. Video game creators would have loved that and definitely rewarded this team.

Obviously, Magic would have been the man on this team, and he would have been one of the biggest mismatches in NBA video game history since it is harder to switch defensive assignments in video games than it is in real life.

Kareem still would have been rated pretty high as well, even though he was on his last leg. James Worthy would have been the perfect third option, always finishing Magic's passes on the break -- he had also reached his prime by this season.

2. 1986-87 Boston Celtics

I am aware that this team did not win it all -- and that the 1986 Celtics are considered by many to be the best team ever -- but we are talking about video games here, not real life. Video game teams are always rated higher after winning a championship, not before.

After the '86 season, the makers of NBA 1K86 would have loved this team. Bill Walton’s rating would have been its highest since the '70s, and Larry Bird and Kevin McHale were also peaking at the time.

Plus, Bird being a great 3-point shooter would have been one of the rarest weapons in basketball games at the time. At the end of the day, this team may have ended up being considered the most cheesy ever. With Bird having something like a 95 3-point rating and three 6-foot-11-plus big men inside snagging every offensive rebound, no one would have been able to topple them.

1. 1968-69 Los Angeles Lakers

The '69 Lakers would have been the closest thing to the 2010-11 Miami Heat. They had just added Wilt Chamberlain, who was just passed his prime but still a huge offensive threat and the most dominant player in the league.

Combine Wilt with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor -- both would have been two of the top three rated perimeter players in the league at the time alongside Oscar Robertson -- and this team becomes the original "Big 3."

This team would have been better for video games than the '72 Lakers who won it all because they had Baylor, Wilt was closer to his prime and the Celtics did not have much left in the tank. No other team in NBA Elite '69 could have matched them. There is no way that online leagues would be allowing a user to control the Lakers back then. No way.


Andrew Kennedy is a staff writer for OS. He lives in Orlando and is really good at watching sports and playing video games a lot. You can follow him on Twitter @akennedy41, on OS as crusaderhoops10 or at his sports blog akennedy13.wordpress.com.