The Franchise Man: Top 5 NBA 'Video Game' Teams Before Video Games

[eye guy]

Quote:

I don't think the versions of virtual Wilt we've seen over the years do him justice since a skill-cap of 99 is sellling him short.

No, 99 would've been alright, but the rest of the NBA roster might've had to been an average of 60-65...

[bigdnlaca]

Sorry but you not including the sixers championship team of 83 is a travesty. (think that was the year they won it all). That team was on of the best teams of all time. Moses coming off an mvp season to join dr.j, cheeks, toney, and others. You can also include the sixer team in 84-85 that included all the great players plus barkley.

[crandolph]

Mr. Kennedy.....read Bill Simmon's book, huh???..........anyways, i like the article. But In your summary before the list, you said each team needed two superstars. Big man and a slasher. How about and NBA MVP with an unstoppable shot and a guy who once averaged a triple-double. Like the list, but you forgot the 1970-71 Bucks. Kareem and The Big O. Thats all you need.

[crusaderhoops10]

Quote: Originally Posted by crandolph

Mr. Kennedy.....read Bill Simmon's book, huh???..........anyways, i like the article. But In your summary before the list, you said each team needed two superstars. Big man and a slasher. How about and NBA MVP with an unstoppable shot and a guy who once averaged a triple-double. Like the list, but you forgot the 1970-71 Bucks. Kareem and The Big O. Thats all you need.

Of course I read it and I couldn't help using the term "Magic 2.0" in a piece like this.

There should of been an honorable mention section of this article. Obviously '83 Sixers, '71 Bucks and '67 Sixers would be on it. But as I'm sure you all can tell, this wasn't a list of the best teams in NBA history otherwise I'd of gone with the '86 Celtics instead of '87.

The '67 Sixers definitely are up there, I just didn't go with them because I was already using a Wilt team at number 1 (I know, lame excuse). I mean, it would be pretty boring if every team on the list was one that Wilt played for just because he was so dominant. That's why I didn't do a list of the best video game teams from the 90's because they all would have been Jordan's Bulls.

Here's the reasons why I left off the '83 Sixers and '71 Bucks.

NBA video games would have been obsessed with Lakers and Celtics by 1983. There's no way that before the Sixers even won the title would that team have been rated as well as LA or Boston. Plus, both LA and Boston would have had big men that could have matched Moses in video games, even though Moses dominated in real life.

The dominance that came with those Sixers teams all started with Moses and I doubt that video games would have captured that with Kareem on LA's teams and the bigs in Boston. Moses dominating the glass the way he did is kind of like Barkley when it comes to video games. Try creating a 6'6'' Barkley and grabbing 14 boards a game in a video game. It doesn't happen, height matters too much, hence the '86 Rockets and a 7'4'' Sampson being so valuable.

As for the '71 Bucks, Big O wasn't enough for me as a slasher that late in his career. And right after the Knicks won the title, you know everyone on that Knicks team would have been rated in the 80's a la an '06 Spurs team. The Bucks wouldn't have been the best rated team on that game.

But both of those teams were definitely on my mind along with the Knicks teams and late 80's Pistons.

It's funny though how no one argues for the team that won 11 titles. Maybe because their best player probably would have been rated a 90 even though somehow we should have found a way to rate him a 115 with a computer glitch not allowing him to lose big games.

[Eski33]

You have to include the 88-89 Pistons. Those guys made defense in the NBA what it is today. Back then, every team scored in the 100's...The Pistons were the first to hold teams in the low 90's over the course of an entire season.

[aloncho11]

'83 Sixers and the Blazers and Supersonics championship teams with Walton and Dennis Johnson would be awesome..

[tril]

great read.
too many teams to mention. Im surprised you didn't mention any of the Bucks teams, especially the 70-71 bucks.
Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Bob Dandridge- most underrated player of that era, Jon McGlokin,

if you all want comparisons to the Heat, then the 7071 Bucks should be the one that should be mentioned.
This team was stacked.

[aloncho11]

I don't like the 10-11 Heat..they haven't accomplished anything yet and people are already talking...i certainly don't know how the Team's staff are going to manage those 3 egos...Bosh I can get, there should be no problem with him , since he's a laid back guy and just wants to win. But Lebron and Wade...oh brother, neither of them will want to be the #2 guy on the team and that could be a problem.