You’ve heard of Christmas and Christmas in July, but my Christmas comes in October in the form of NBA 2K and NBA Elite. I am always frantically searching for new information for these titles, and my imagination goes wild thinking about past games and players. Inevitably, this led me down the path of pondering about the best video game players ever to grace a console, which leads me to this article about the ultimate video game basketball team.

PG – Nate Robinson, NBA 2K10
I know he was listed on the OS All-Star team earlier this year, but I’m taking it a step further. When KyrptoNate catches fire in NBA 2K10, he can't be cooled. Maybe I had his shot down perfectly, but this UW star would drop a minimum of five 3s a night for me. He is the first floor general I would take in the virtual hoops draft. Hopefully 2K11 has not toned him down too much, otherwise I may need a new point.

SG – Rodney Stuckey, NBA 2K8
This may surprise some people, but for those hardcore 2K players out there, you know how insanely good this rookie out of Eastern Washington was in this game. Rated at the high mark of 75, Stuckey could guard the best, break the best and drain the rock from anywhere on the floor. Plus, he would only get better with progression. Not long after his rookie season, his rating was as high as 91 overall. Sorry Kobe and D-Wade, but Stuckey gets my vote here.

SF – Antoine Walker, NBA Live 2003
Walker was a beast from beyond the arc in the '03 installation of the Live series. His defense was not the best, but his offensive skills would dominate the best of the best. In the 3-point shootout, I could drain every shot with him. In game, I could average over 40 points with him. When it comes down to it, Walker was better then LeBron in any of his games. Simply put, I do not care about rebounds and assists if you are scoring me 40 points a game.

PF – Shawn Kemp, NBA Jam
Maybe my homerism is coming out here, or maybe the ability to dunk, drain treys and block shots are good traits to have in a video game. I’ll take the latter on that one. The Reign Man was unstoppable in Jam. Sure, Jam was an arcade game that does not really compare to the sim games we have today, but Kemp deserves his props for how beastly he was in this game.

C – Stretch, NBA Street Vol. 2
Don’t hate on me because I’m choosing a clone of Dr. J. This guy is quite possibly the greatest video-game player ever to step foot on the court or Rucker Park. His name described his body and his game. He could play every position (a taller Magic maybe?) as well as any other player out there. In fact, I rarely used him just because of how good he was. Now, to put him on a squad like the one I have compiled here would definitely do one thing -- scare the Miami Heat.


Who do you think should be a part of your own ultimate NBA video-game team? The rules are simple: You can take any player from any version of an NBA title and put his skills to work on your own squad. However, you can only select one player for each position -- NO EXCEPTIONS.