At long last, NBA 2K16's highly anticipated Pro-Am Mode was made available yesterday thanks to the game's latest patch. And I must say, it was worth the wait.

For those unaware, Pro-Am was completely broken when 2K16 launched on September 25. Players were unable to join a game and try out the mode. In addition, players on the east and west coast could not join each other's games. Operation Sports knocked the game's final review score down a notch due to the issue.

Pro-Am is the true 5-on-5 basketball simulation experience. It's not just NBA 2K, it's a virtual game of legitimate hoops. Defense is key as a simple breakdown will lead to an easy score for the opposing team. Mistakes quickly add up if you're not paying attention, so keep your eyes on the details. Your primary focus needs to be on your assignment, only paying total attention to the ball when it's right next to you. Wandering eyes lead to quick cuts towards the hoop.

Offense is going to be a work in progress for each team as running sets and motion will come with practice and time. It'd be nice if you could call/run a 2K play where the directions would appear for each player, but in Pro-Am, that's not the case. Communication becomes key, and reputations will help teach you each player's tendencies (assuming you stick with the same core team).

Team building should be well thought out. Running on a team with a 6-foot-7 forward at the five spot is problematic for obvious reasons. My team (which featured Steve, Chase, ExtremeGamer and Millennium -- all-stars I say!) ended up swapping out one of our highest-rated players to bring in his 57 overall power forward. He ended up "towering" over the rest of us at 6-foot-11.

A few other items to points out, When our team needed a fifth, we were given 70-rated point each time. The CPU player was not awful, but it's a definite advantage for the opposing squad. Also, if a player fouls out he will be replaced by a CPU player.

After playing four games, I'm itching to get back to more. It's truly practice makes perfect. If the Pro-Am mode was hypothetically in its second year and had failed to work at launch like it did this year, the uproar from the community would have been unbelievable -- it has that much potential.

If you thought juggling the depth and modes in NBA 2K16 was already a challenge, well sorry but things just got even tougher to manage.