In the battle for basketball video game supremacy over the last decade, NBA 2K has obliterated the NBA Live franchise about as badly as Facebook did to MySpace. And if the sneak preview of their 2016 installment is any indication, NBA Live really isn’t doing themselves any favors towards swinging the scales back their way.
This week saw the release of the demo for NBA Live 16, and we can only assume that the Live developers subscribe to the “Bad publicity is better than no publicity” school of thought. The demo caused an uproar on social media for a series of appalling player avatars that can only be described as “Brady-esque.”
Behold “Arrested-During-A-Haircut” Tyus Jones:
NBA Live 16 Tyus Jones is not realistic pic.twitter.com/mLcSNNoHim
— Professor Big Tweets (@HoosierWolves) September 18, 2015
Or perhaps Justise “Stephon Marbury” Winslow is more to your liking:
Lol @dwise007 pic.twitter.com/maXqXKd5DL
— Co (@_cmervin) September 18, 2015
Maybe this not-so-trill Rocket Power version of Willie-Cauley Stein?
nailed it pic.twitter.com/zMtzl5I5IN
— Friendly Bounce (@FriendlyBounce) September 18, 2015
This avatar of new Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell definitely didn’t even stretch doe.
NO. NO. NO. pic.twitter.com/ClLwjRSWZc
— Professor Big Tweets (@HoosierWolves) September 18, 2015
Apparently, the developers don’t understand that Frank Kaminsky and Jeff Hornacek are not the same person…
Okay, I'm done. pic.twitter.com/v64fmW4mwH
— Kris (@5kl) September 18, 2015
…or that Kristaps Porzingis is not actually named Kristaps Nance Jr.
Wait a goddamned minute… pic.twitter.com/IjuW3WmF9p
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) September 18, 2015
And fear not because rookies weren’t the only ones whose appearances were butchered like a Roseanne national anthem.
What they did to Rudy Gobert was the pinnacle of a no class act, so much so that even Gobert himself was crying foul.
Aye @rudygobert27 what happened to you fam pic.twitter.com/d3pLkEj25g
— Mark Russell Pereira (@Mark_R_Pereira) September 18, 2015
Who did this to me??? https://t.co/NGJx97okjg
— rudy gobert (@rudygobert27) September 18, 2015
Is this really the way you treat a two-time NBA champion, now?
Mike Miller was great in Entourage. pic.twitter.com/rpfzhxH8jP
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) September 18, 2015
Looks like they might have exaggerated Eric Bledsoe’s weight gain:
BREAKING: Suns sign Eddy Curry. RT @paulcoro: It looked like Bledsoe got the worst of it on NBA Live 16's Suns pic.twitter.com/FYLaBW9pCq
— Amin Elhassan (@AminESPN) September 18, 2015
Ricky Rubio apparently hired LeBron’s barber:
NBA Live Ricky Rubio has killed man and felt nothing pic.twitter.com/s3E4Wf8LCN
— ders piegel (@_drrs) September 18, 2015
Sweet Mirotic, we hardly knew ye:
So what's going on here? Is this really Nikola Mirotic? pic.twitter.com/I0iiNURwyo
— Rey-Rey (@TheNoLookPass) September 18, 2015
Tyler Zeller will watch you sleep:
big news for the Celtics this season
Tyler Zeller is possessed by a demon pic.twitter.com/z67zCSzaGG
— Brian J Pickett (@BrianPickett) September 18, 2015
Quick! Hide the Declaration of Independence from Dirk!
NBA Live turned Dirk into Nicholas Cage. This is horrifying. pic.twitter.com/wSWY04KOz2
— Tim Cato (@tim_cato) September 18, 2015
And I don’t even have any words to describe this crime against humanity committed on Pelicans forward Luke Babbitt:
This is indefensible @EASPORTSNBA pic.twitter.com/3SkwcdZJvv
— Kazeem Famuyide (@RealLifeKaz) September 18, 2015
HINES WARD FIRST PLAYER TO EVER BE IN MADDEN & NBA LIVE (pic via @Steve_OS ) pic.twitter.com/p7YUfn6zk2
— NBA RETWEET (@RTNBA) September 18, 2015
And just when I thought that Adam Morrison’s “My mustache speaks to me” commercial was the worst thing to ever happen to the NBA Live franchise.
Image via @HeatNationn on Twitter
