For my family and I, the holidays are traditionally a time when we pile into a rental car and head down to Florida to enjoy some warm weather.

Historically, the best part of these trips has not been the beaches, the ocean, the golf courses or the big-screen TV with the fancy satellite package; rather, it is the outdoor basketball courts next to our hotel, which are packed every day from breakfast to dinner with a large mix of athletes:

Mostly the courts are filled with kids who are just beginning their high school careers and twenty-somethings like myself who are still in their athletic prime, but there are also a few older guys in their thirties/forties who are just out there reliving past athletic glories.

There is something special about these pick-up games. There is something about getting a random group of people together and bonding around a common goal (scoring hoops) that really captures the essence of sports and friendly competition.

It is the kind of feeling I would like to share with my out-of-state friends at times when it is too dark to see the hoop outside. At times when my only hope of getting some camaraderie going is the Xbox and the crappy off-brand cable modem that furnishes all the hotel rooms down here.

But if you have tried to play the five-on-five team play modes in either of this year’s NBA games, you may have noticed that the brand of basketball that plays out on each of those virtual courts is nothing like the type of basketball you would see in a real NBA game, much less a real pick-up game.

Technical issues aside -- and in 2K9's case, that is a pretty big issue to overlook -- the main thing that kills the team play experience in Live and 2K9 is the way the game engines completely break down when you start replacing the computer players and their conservative A.I. scripts with human players who tend to have a win-at-all-costs mentality -- even if that means abusing exploits in the game engine to the point that the game no longer resembles real basketball.

Computer-Assisted Inbounds and Baseball Passes

In theory, having the computer move all the players but the inbound man and the point guard back across the half-court line on made baskets should have kept the cherry-picking, inbound thieves from disrupting the natural flow of the game.

In reality, sending the other three offensive players up the court and not being able to immediately take control of the point guard to get the ball inbounds after a made basket actually helps out the cherry pickers by limiting the ways that the offense can get the ball in bounds. This happens because the cherry pickers are racing back across the half-court line and getting into the passing lanes.

The result of Live's broken computer-assisted inbound system is that 99 percent of the teams you will play online have at least one or two dedicated "inbound thieves" who will probably cause at least a couple of steals a game, regardless of how careful your point guard is at trying to avoid the ball hawks.

In real basketball, the best way to punish teams who full-court press is to push the ball up court and counter attack with an odd-man fast break before the defense can get back and get set.

But in NBA Live, punishing all these cherry-picking ball hawks with a fast break is all too easy because the offense can launch the ball up the court with a single, gravity-defying "baseball pass" that covers three-fourths or more of the floor.

How ridiculous are these "baseball passes"? Well, let me just say that I have never seen Rajon Rondo take the ball out of Kendrick Perkins’ hands and throw a laser pass 90 feet in the air to Ray Allen in stride for a layup under the basket at the other end of the floor.

Since the majority of people you will meet online try to intercept every single inbounds pass -- regardless of how many times you yell at them for giving up dunks to their men -- the NBA Live Team Play experience tends to devolve into little more than teams trading off baseball passes and odd-man breaks.

What really ruins the experience, though, is the fact that the baseball passes do not just come into play on made baskets; they also get abused on missed shots, where defenses will send two or three guys sprinting up the court as soon as the shot animation starts, leaving only two or three bigs down low to get the defensive rebound.

And if one of those bigs happens to get the rebound, he will usually complete a hail mary to one of the little guys at the other end of the floor for an easy layup.

Momentum, or the Lack Thereof

Inbound thieves and baseball passes might not be a problem in NBA 2K9, but that does not stop 2K’s Team Play from being a total disaster from a gameplay perspective.

Like NBA Live, a lot of the issues in 2K9’s Team Play stem from one major gameplay flaw: a turbo button that can be held down indefinitely with no penalty. Since fatigue is completely turned off during each game’s team play mode, turbo running becomes a major issue when trying to play off-ball defense.

Since players in these games have no momentum at all when they are moving without the ball, offensive players can basically just run around in circles to get themselves open and there is nothing the defense can do to hold its ground or force the offensive player from going wherever he wants on the floor.

In both games, the "most wanted" area of the floor is the paint, and because defenders have no way whatsoever of establishing position or holding their ground in the paint, it tends to become as congested and chaotic as a mob rushing into a toy store on Black Friday.

And thanks to the exclusive NBA circle that prevents the defense from drawing charges around the basket, the only thing the defense can do against paint-happy players (i.e. pretty much everyone you will play online) is to tape some pogo springs to their shoes and start jumping around like a team of defensive-minded jackrabbits.

Remember the defunct-then-revived sport Slamball, the four-on-four variation of basketball that places four trampolines inside the 3-point arc? That is basically what both of these games play like online.

Players clog the paint, jumping around like they have all got springs in their shoes, while the offense takes nothing but dunks/layups and the occasional 3-pointer.

And that would be OK if this actually was a Slamball game, but it is not.

These games are supposed to be a reasonable replication of NBA basketball, but quite frankly, when you are trying to play five-on-five pick-up games online, Live and 2K9 are not a reasonable representation of basketball at any level -- rec league, AAU, pick-up, whatever. Online, these games play nothing like basketball.

Putting an End To "TURBO TIME!"

I have a simple plea for developers: Either take away the turbo button or put in some serious fatigue penalties for people who keep their finger on the turbo trigger all game long.

A major part of EA’s overhaul to the NHL series was removing the game’s turbo button; it certainly has not hurt that product -- EA Canada’s NHL games have been "on fire" the last two years in terms of their gameplay quality.

It is time for other developers to follow EA Canada’s lead and ditch this outdated gameplay mechanic that does not really do anything but cause game engines to break down once human players and their win-at-all-costs mindsets enter the equation.

Give Gamers Some Way To Play Solid Off-Ball Defense

The number one reason why the paint gets so cluttered and clogged in Live and 2K9 is because the defensive players have no way to use their muscle and body positioning to keep the offense out of the paint.

Off-ball defense, specifically off-ball positioning, is the most important part of playing defense on a real basketball court. The fact that it is completely absent from the current editions of our NBA games is an insult to the fans who want their games to bear some resemblance to the sport its emulating.

Create a Momentum System for Non-Ball Handlers

This would also solve the problem of ball handlers getting chased down from behind on fast breaks. But more important than the fast break issue is the effect that momentum, or lack thereof, has on off-ball defense.

In real life, off-ball players have to make cuts or use screens to get open, but in both of this year’s games, offensive players can simply run around in circles to get open, and the defensive players have no chance at all of staying with their men or deflecting any passes that might get thrown their way. This issue leads to the next problem.

Give Gamers More Ways To Contest Passes

Right now, the only way defenders can contest a pass in these games is to take an awkward, lunging swipe at the air and hope that the ball happens to collide with some part of the animation frame.

Quick swipes? Leaping deflections on overhead passes? All of these things are completely absent from this year’s NBA games, and giving defenders access to some of these tools would go a long way to fixing the paint abuse that ruins both games online.

Penalize Defenders for Leaving Their Feet

Again, these games are not supposed to emulate Slamball, where the best defensive strategy is to stand under the goal and bounce up and down on a trampoline.

In fact, in the NBA, players who leave their feet and do not get a block/deflection usually get drawn into a foul or maneuvered around for an easy layup or quick dish to a nearby teammate.

In each of this year's games, nothing of the sort ever occurs.

As a big-time fan and player of basketball, it is disappointing to see that -- even after a pair of patches -- this year's NBA games are essentially unplayable online with randoms.

And in the case of Live and 2K9, I have had no real choice but to shelve both games and take the same approach I have in real life with my underachieving, home-state Grizzlies:

Wait until next year and hope for the best.