With the sports world about to make a comeback stateside, and some European and Asian countries having already jump-started, a lot of talk about GOATs (Greatest of All Time) and GToATs (Greatest Teams of All Time) have been of debate amongst the sporting world and each sports respective communities. So let’s talk about some GOATs and GToATs the TUF (The Untamed Fan, if you’re keeping score with acronyms) way!

The wonderful developers at NBA 2K continued their incorporation of the OGs of basketball. The All-Time Teams consist of the best players that have donned the dopest throwbacks to be put into a game (uniform) for each respective team, and rated to their peak performance years. However, despite the expanded roster, some players are left out due to licensing reasons. Here’s a whole list of said players (h/t 2kratings.com). Luckily, the Create-A-Player option is available! With the player builds available from past 2K incarnations of MyTeam by the hard workers from 2Kmtcentral, these player builds add to the nostalgia of these great teams by adding historic players to the game that are deeply missed. They have almost every attribute, badge, tendency and hot zone to utilize for building the player, and their alternatives, from their vast database. However, past generations do not have all the badges and tendencies, but tweak to what fits the player. We tried to keep it as sim as possible, by tweaking and adding to areas that were missing to authenticate the emulation, in giving the overall feel of the player to add to the game. It was like literally plugging holes into the ever sieving basketball hearts. If you do not want to go through the grind of making your own players via a database, luckily there is a Player DNA sharing to download likeness, attributes or both.

Going through this process was fun for the creator, and crazy to see the outcomes of a full simulation. The sim had some WOW moments and definitely some WTH moments. With it being a video game simulation based on statistics and algorithms, you never know what’s going to happen! Below will be the add-ons of the missing players/updated players, the settings for the sim, overview of the season, and wrap up:

The Setup

Player Additions: Charles Barkley (PHI x PHX), Manu Ginobili (SAS), Boris Diaw (SAS) Josh Smith (ATL), Joe Johnson (ATL), Hal Greer (PHI), Reggie Miller (IND), Andrei Kirilenko (UTA), Deron Williams(UTA), David West (NOP), Tayshaun Prince (DET), Ron Artest (IND), LeBron James (LAL)*

* Added for being on the team one full year, and creating an impact for the team. Also, a Top 5 player..so..yeah.

Players Removed: Blake Griffin (DET)* , Alvan Adams (PHX), Derek Fisher (LAL), Jeff Teague (ATL), Thurl Bailey (UTA), Kyle Korver (ATL), Detlef Schrempf (IND), Tree Rollins (ATL), Lance Stephenson (IND), Danny Green (SAS), Henry Bibby (PHI), Paul Millsap (UTA), Darryl Dawkins (PHI), Zion Williamson (NOP)* It was tough removing these greats from their teams. They honestly deserved to be there. However, their replacements have a higher rating, and someone had to go.

*denotes not an all-time player, probably added due to lack of likeness contracts. Zion hasn’t played a full season, and Blake Griffin is in no way an All-Time Piston (yet). Plus he’s on the All-Time Clippers team. I mean he was dunking over cars with them, and he’s sitting on the sidelines as a Piston (because of injury).

Updated Players: Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell, Pascal Siakam, Karl Anthony-Towns, Devin Booker

Settings: All playbooks updated to best rated team available, if not, then added default User Playbook 2. Lineup optimization placed on 100. Rotations made 13 players; all-time players aren’t going to ride the line.

Full Sim: 82 games, 12 minutes with optimized simulation normalization for minutes and stats to get the full experience, no Morale effectiveness for rotations (not playing will decrease player attributes, but team playing poorly will) no trades, no signings, all injuries are available.

Pre-Season Power Rankings

All-Star Break

End of Season Awards

Season Champs: Scoring Barkley (22.4 ppg; reminder it’s All-Time, a lot of ball to share!), Rebound Kareem Abdul Jabbar (12 rpg; reminder it’s All-Time and minutes are limited), 3 pt- Damian Lillard 250 – beat Steph Curry by 3!

All-Time Playoffs

End of Season Power Rankings

Summary

This Simulation was crazy and fun. Seeing all of the All-Time players in one field, going up against each other was a blast. Biggest shock factors had to be the Bulls dropping 13 spots in the Power Rankings and barely making the playoffs! Getting up that hill has now reached the virtual landscape. Also, the newer franchises: Memphis and Charlotte, met at the bottom, while the Timberwolves rose to 20. This experience was mesmerizing being able to witness the doppelgangers facing their counterparts, a living Spider-Man meme, played out virtuously on the simmed hardwood. It was also great not seeing inflated stats due to the normalization of stats, and seeing that the averages have been close to what careers have been, outside of being on a Super Team and sharing the ball with other 88+ players. In all, the Sixers won the GToAT title, as one of the most storied and top teams of all-time (#3 on wins), in real life. Honestly was expecting the Celtics vs. Lakers to be the end all be all, but all paths went through the Celtics in the East to win the title. Later, we will try to revisit another GToAT tournament with NHL 20.

Thanks to @hausofwolf84 for the Sim.

Cover Photo: via NBA 2K20