Being a professional athlete continues to be the dream of countless youths, no matter the sport. They share grand dreams of representing their country in the FIFA World Cup or suiting up to play under the big lights on Superbowl Sunday. They see themselves hitting that walk-off home run in Game Seven of the World Series, or having the final shot drawn up for them out of a timeout in the NBA Finals. Children and adults across the country purchase jerseys and fantasize about the lives of their favorite professional athletes. Unfortunately, a massive amount of hard work and sacrifice is required to become a professional player on the highest level of any professional sport. Not many are capable of doing what it takes to make it to the top tier, and thus the dreams of many are shattered. But that, my dear friends, is why we have video games.

Just like you probably won’t have many opportunities to slay a real fire-breathing dragon, chances are you’ll never suit up opposite your favorite professional athletes. Enter the limitless world of video games. Games such as the NBA 2K franchise and the NBA Live franchise allow you to fulfill that dream of going pro minus all the pesky hard work. As fun as these games are, they still have a few skeletons in their closets.

20 No Michael Jordan? What Gives?

via amazon.com

Michael Jordan, or the epitome of what it means to be a great basketball player, had not appeared in a major NBA game until NBA 2k11 which he appears as the cover athlete. The reason for Jordan’s absence has been widely speculated upon for some time. Many believe that it was simply a money issue, claiming that companies such as EA were not offering to pay the "GOAT" himself enough to use his image.

While there is some truth to that, the real issue was authenticity.

Before 2011, "His Airness" Michael Jordan did not consider the games realistic enough to provide an adequate representation of his skillset and play. Once he thought the games could faithfully represent his dynamism, he was on board!

19 No More International Teams?

via kotaku.com.au

In the 2014 iteration of NBA 2K, 2K Sports decided to include Euroleague teams in their video games. While many players thought this was the very first time that international teams had been featured, this was not the case. Three years earlier, the NBA Live franchise had introduced international teams, but shortly thereafter experienced a crash (as will be explained lower down).

The idea was met warmly by the NBA 2K fan base; even with some enthusiasm.

However, problems arose when it came to having the rights to use all the player’s likenesses, and in highlighting the supposed skill disparity between international players and NBA players. Ultimately, the idea was scrapped in NBA 2K18, the most recent version of the game.

18 A Spike Lee Joint

via nba2k4life.com

In 2014, 2K Sports had the groundbreaking idea to put Spike Lee, a controversial and outspoken member of the entertainment community, in charge of their beloved MyPlayer game mode. This mode famously allowed the player to create their own character and begin the road to having a Hall of Fame NBA career, making it a major hit. The developers thought they were taking it to the next level by including mega star Spike Lee.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t have been more wrong.

True, with Spike Lee’s influence, the game mode had much more storyline than previous iterations, but it was at the expense of the player’s creativity and game's quality. Individuality was traded for brand representation, and fans were not impressed.

17 Charles Barkley: MIA

via nba.com

Much like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley was also unavailable for play, having excluded himself from the gaming world. In the most recent iteration of the game, you can now play as a large number of All-Time teams, despite still not finding legend Charles Barkley with the Phoenix Suns. Barkley feels that, not only are 2K and EA Sports franchise making too much money off of their games, but that they also are criminally underpaying the athletes whose likenesses they use.

Some would say Barkley has a point, as EA is one of the more profitable and well-known gaming commodities.

But once we remember that most professional athletes make millions from contracts and endorsements alone, sympathy can wear thin indeed.

16 Equal Representation Only In Theory?

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For the very first time in sports video game history, WNBA players and teams were fully represented in this year’s NBA Live 2018. That feels like a bit of a shock, doesn’t it? Everyone knows the WNBA get much less coverage than their male counterpart, but this is not the case across all sports. The Women’s National Soccer team, for example, is more popular than the men’s team. Despite this, you can still only play as the men in the FIFA franchise. In many ways, NBA Live is breaking new ground by putting the WNBA in their game. Though we want to applaud them, we can’t help but feel like this is long overdue. The WNBA has been around for many years, and men aren’t the only ones who play video games.

15 The Decline Of NBA Live

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NBA Live used to be the premier NBA video game franchise, leaping leagues ahead of its counterpart: the NBA 2K franchise. That was until NBA 2K began to close the gap. 2K started simply; already knowing their gaming mechanics were inferior at the time, they added in new aspects to increase game playability. They added the very first Association mode, which was met with a plethora of positive reviews. Then, they slowly but surely enhanced the actual playing of the game, while NBA Live focused on adding additional features such as player badges and All-Star weekend, instead of increasing their gameplay. By the time the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 were released, the NBA 2K franchise had far exceeded their counterpart, which ultimately led to the collapse of NBA Live in 2014.

14 The Dunk Contest

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Speaking of the fall of NBA Live, they were the first to add in the star-studded dunk contest as a playable contest. On paper, that sounded great; talk about playing out your childhood dreams! They even brought in the famous judges that usually oversee the event. But clunky mechanics made the game mode nearly unplayable, requiring too many combinations of buttons to do any sort of meaningful dunk. Most players were turned off by simplistic moves, unavoidable cut-scenes and frustratingly disappointing hype.

It was a great idea, but one that ultimately flopped. Multiple MLB games have mastered the Home Run Derby, so why can't NBA games master the Dunk Contest? Come on, man!

13 Whatever Happened To College Hoops?

via theisozone.com

Everyone loves NCAA basketball, and those who don’t surely love March Madness. I’m sure some of you remember those amazing March Madness college basketball games that ran from 1998 to 2010. Whatever happened to those games?

Sadly, the same thing that happens to most games: money.

Collegiate athletes had disagreements about the lack of compensation they were receiving from such a lucrative gaming franchise. To circumvent this, the games did not use actual player names and varied their likenesses, but still used the university icons, ensuring the schools were still receiving royalties. When the players' demands continued to be ignored, this ultimately led to the discontinuation of the franchise.

via pintrest.com

We haven't yet mentioned the third all-time great missing from the video game sphere: Rasheed Wallace. Though his star power and skill level are considerably less than that of Michael Jordan or Charles Barkley, it is still jarring to NBA fans that Wallace is not featured on the championship teams of the Detroit Pistons in the early 2000’s. Rasheed, unlike Barkley and Jordan, has less of a problem with the financial implications of video game giants.

His problem, surprisingly, is the video game itself.

He’s not a believer in the video game industry and virtual gaming world and would prefer to not be a part of it at all, as witnessed by his purposeful exclusion from NBA 2K18.

11 The Seattle SuperSonics

via basketballjerseyworld.com

The relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics was a shocking and heartbreaking moment for all NBA fans (Oklahoma City residents excluded). When the announcement that All-Time teams would be making their way to NBA 2K18, fans were very excited to see Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp back in their iconic green and yellow styles. They were sorely disappointed when it was revealed that the SuperSonics would not be making an appearance in the new game. According to NBA rules, the integration of SuperSonic history by the Oklahoma City Thunder excluded the Sonics from appearing in any game. We can only hope that, with the possible revivals of the franchise, they will return to the gaming world.

10 The Kyrie Dilemma

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This year’s cover athlete is the dazzling and enigmatic Kyrie Irving; a man who shunned LeBron James and who openly thinks the world is flat.

He graced the world by appearing on the cover of NBA 2K18 in his Cleveland Cavaliers Number Two jersey, or so it seemed...

Right before the game was released, but after copies had already been shipped to their respective stores, Kyrie was traded by Cleveland to Boston, where he currently plays in his Boston Celtics Number Eleven jersey. 2K, to ensure accuracy, was quick on the draw and updated the in-game version of the cover athlete to represent his new team. However, many who pre-ordered were stuck with an image from the past. By time the second shipment went out, 2K had corrected the issue.

9 White Men Can't Jump, The Game

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The 1992 movie White Men Can’t Jump is undoubtedly a classic, starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in one of the great sports films of the 90s. The 1995 video game adaptation with the same title is, unfortunately, an entirely different story. Made for the Atari gameplay system, the game was hailed as one of the worst of all time, boasting terrible graphics, horrendous gameplay mechanics, and an inability to attract attention from better contemporary games. The NBA definitely wants this game forgotten, and with good reason. Loaded with socially suggestive terminology, this game remains at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to NBA games.

8 Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball

via snesaday.com

Appearing as another shameful entry to the pantheon of NBA video games, Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball was released in 1991, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).  This game was a fun departure from the current image the NBA is trying to promote, presenting an arena where there are no foul calls, and where weapon usage is perfectly legal. The NBA considers themselves a family friendly league and definitely do not want a reminder of what happened at the Palace of Auburn Hills, when the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons brawled in 2004. We can be sure that Adam Silver, current NBA commissioner, wants nothing more than for this game to fade quietly into obscurity.

7 Tattoo Lawsuit

via cavsnation.com

NBA 2K17 faced some problematic off-court issues when it came to players' tattoos. LeBron James' tattoo artist sued the gaming franchise because of copyright issues, claiming the company stole his designs. He has a valid point, as LeBron James was paid to use his image and likeness, while the tattoo artist was never compensated for the use of his designs. The game is sold worldwide and the designs can be used and added to custom players.

It’s clear to see why the tattoo artist would feel cheated.

The lawsuit has since been resolved, and tattoos are now acknowledged by copyright as intellectual material independent of either 2K sports or the NBA. I’m sure 2K and the NBA never considered this would happen!

6 Game Sliders

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If you’ve ever played with your younger siblings or younger cousin, then you are familiar with the usage of game sliders. Game Sliders are located in the settings menu of 2K Sports games and with their help, you can change the frequency to which things happen during the game. You can make it easier to steal the ball, or even make contested threes! This changes the game in many ways and makes it much more realistic, which is great for a game that prides itself on its realness and attention to detail. It serves a valuable purpose when playing someone younger or considerably inexperienced, since it can even the playing field. However, it also can poison the integrity of the game when playing against the computer, so watch out.

5 What Came First?

via nba2k4life.com

Today the most popular and well-known NBA sports game is the latest edition of NBA 2K. Very few people know that NBA Live, a game that had to take a hiatus for three years, came out just one year before NBA 2K. NBA Live first came out in 1995, while NBA 2K only became available in 1999. While the 2K franchise is infinitely more popular than its EA sports counterpart at the moment, there was a time when that was the opposite.

It’s almost sad to see a game that many of us played for years as children be reduced to a near laughingstock in the gaming community.

As covered earlier, Live held the mantle until the advent of the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, giving way to 2K in recent years.

4 Agent Zero

via defendernetwork.com

"Agent Zero", "Hibachi" and "The Black President" are just a few of the names that former Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas has acquired over his career. For a couple of years, he dazzled the NBA with quick moves, incredible shots, and an explosive personality.

But unfortunately for the NBA, their newest bright star quickly dropped from the ranks of prestige.

Caught up with multiple legal issues, including the possession of a weapon inside of an NBA locker room, Arenas fell from fame hard. It’s not surprising that the NBA and EA sports would want everyone to forget that Gilbert Arenas was the cover athlete for NBA Live 08.

3 The Dark Years

via nba-live.com

It's clear by now that the NBA Live franchise suffered a major regression as time went on. It was around 2008 that 2K Sports closed the gap on NBA sports games, effectively overtaking EA. The games released by EA Sports from 2008 to 2010 would later be known as the NBA Live Dark Days. Game sales dropped, game quality continued to fall far behind their competitors and soon, the writing was on the wall.

EA tried everything they could in these last years to revive their franchise, but nothing could work.

The dunk contest didn’t bring them back, player badges didn’t generate interest and even their own version of an association mode couldn’t save them. Someone at EA would have to come up with a groundbreaking idea to save the franchise…

2 NBA Elite 11

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That groundbreaking, market-shaking idea would eventually take the shape of NBA Elite 2011. In an effort to revitalize the NBA Live franchise, EA Sports opted for a full on reboot. They were going to change the gameplay mechanics, the graphics, the user interface, all game modes, and the engine on which the game ran.

Unfortunately for them, with only an eighteen-month turnaround, EA did not have the time to fully create a brand new game.

As the release date approached, they put out a demo that was riddled with game bugs and issues, which included an unmissable shot from Lakers' forward Luol Deng. But before the game released, EA cancelled the game to save face. There were no more NBA Live games until NBA Live 2014, released with Portland Trail Blazers' Damien Lillard as the cover athlete.

1 The Former MVP

via espn.com

Derrick Rose was on top of the sports world for years; as the 2011 NBA MVP and the youngest ever to win the award, it looked like he was on the express road to superstardom. Unfortunately, his playing career was derailed with a flurry of knee injuries hitting just the following season. That is not why the NBA wants you to forget that he was a cover athlete.

The NBA wants you to forget because of actions later taken by Derrick Rose.

Recently Rose was found not guilty in an assault case involving a woman and some of his friends. Though exonerated, his reputation was already tarnished and the evidence was very strongly against him. Rose would never recover either from his physical or social injuries in the public perception. The NBA would love for this blemish to be erased and forgotten as soon as possible.