Since there’s not a ton of stuff going on right now in the Nation, well besides Chris Webber looking more and more like he’s going to take the Mavs MLE money, and I really didn’t want to write about the new “KG era” Eastern conference. So, here goes something from my personal vault…

Any of you ever play the SNES game NBA Give ‘N Go? No? You don’t know what you’re missing! That’s my pick for best NBA game ever. My pick doesn’t hold too much weight seeing as how I’ve never played any of the newer ones. I don’t have any version of Playstation or XBox. I have an SNES and the original Nintendo. I refuse to upgrade. I don’t want to try to learn those new controllers with their 65 buttons. I’m happy hiding behind the term “old school”. Besides, I’m frick’n awesome at this game.

This game came out in 1995, I remember getting my copy of it in a discount bin at Block Buster. It was an arcade game first under the title “Run ‘N Gun”. The main difference is that GNG had the NBA license so it had real teams and players (well, beside Jordan and Shaq because they were under license with their own crappy games; Chaos in the Windy City and Shaq-Fu respectively). It was only available on Super Nintendo, sorry Genesis lovers. I like this game because it’s 5-on-5, the players have more dimension, its view is at court level, and it’s at least semi-realistic. Those reason are why it gets my vote over both NBA Jam and NBA Live. The player likenesses are so-so, but there’s definitely too many guys on the game sporting out of control high top box fades. We’re not talking Fresh Prince of Bel-Air big but borderline Kid ‘N Play big.

I usually play with the Pistons who’s roster includes the likes of Joe Dumars, Grant Hill, Allan Houston, Terry Mills, Mark West, Lindsey Hunter, Oliver Miller, Rafael Addison, Eric Leckner, and Billy Curly among others. Houston and Dumars shoot the lights out. It’s also nice because it pre-dates the teal unis. The only time I’m not Detroit is when I play my brother-in-law, he’s picked them as his team so I just squash him with Orlando (Penny, Horace, Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott…).

So, if you still own a SNES go on eBay and get a copy of this game. When you get good let me know so I can whoop you at it. I can say that because this is the only game I was ever really good at. Oh sure, I knew my way around Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball, but I’m the king of GNG.