Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is Part 9 in an ongoing series looking at players that only appeared on certain teams in video games.

Yes, it’s time to revisit one of my favourite roster trivia topics! As I said when I resumed this series with Part 8, I was actually ready to be done with it after Part 7. After all, I was starting to get into more obscure examples, with players who weren’t as noteworthy unless you were a hardcore fan in the 90s through to the early 2000s. As it turned out however, I’d missed a number of more well-known players who only appeared on certain teams in video games. I’d also overlooked some slightly lesser-known names that keen fans with good memories will nevertheless likely recall.

Even though the reasons for these players only appearing on certain teams in video games and never in real life come down to the same basic circumstances, it’s still interesting to look back at how they got there. If nothing else, it’s easy to forget that players were with certain teams if only for a minute, even if we recall that they did bounce around the league during their careers. As always, basketball video games serve as interactive almanacs here, capturing a snapshot the same way that they preserve familiar faces in strange places, and their returns to familiar places. Once again, shout out to David L for providing a heads up on a number of these examples.

1. Antoine Walker (Memphis Grizzlies, NBA Live 09 & NBA 2K9)

It’s easy to forget that Antoine Walker spent his final NBA season playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves; a stint I’ve covered as an example of a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. It’s even easier to forget that his NBA swansong could’ve come with the Memphis Grizzlies instead. Following his single season with the Timberwolves, Walker was traded to Memphis during the 2008 Draft along with Marko Jaric, Greg Buckner, and the rights to O.J. Mayo, for Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, Jason Collins, and the rights to Kevin Love. While the exchange of rookies was the focus of the deal, it’s worth noting that Antoine Walker was in fact part of bringing Love to Minnesota.

He wasn’t immediately cast aside by the Grizzlies, either. Walker appeared in two preseason games for Memphis, and although he was inactive, remained on their roster through to December 2008. He was released on the 19th without ever playing in an official game for them though, bringing his NBA career to an end. Given the timing of those moves, Walker does appear on the Grizzlies in the default rosters of NBA Live 09 and NBA 2K9. Although I was certainly following the NBA intently and creating unofficial roster updates at the time, this is another phantom stint that slipped my mind while researching previous articles, probably due to the official updates.

2. Robert Pack (Boston Celtics, NBA Live 2001 PS1)

Although he’s best known for his time with the Denver Nuggets and did play 259 games for them in four seasons split between two stints, Robert Pack played 293 games for other teams. That includes 86 games over three and a half seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, 72 as a rookie on the 1992 Portland Trail Blazers, and 60 between two stints with the New Jersey Nets. Pack also played single seasons in Washington (31 games), New Orleans (28 games), and Minnesota (16 games). One team that he didn’t tally a single minute for was the Celtics, though his NBA journey did take him through Boston for a brief time in 2000, thanks to a massive four-team trade.

Mind you, it’s probably the least exciting four-team deal in NBA history, as it was comprised of role players, past-their-prime journeyman, and only one former All-Star (Dana Barros). Nevertheless, it made Robert Pack a Celtic for all of two months, as he was traded to the Nuggets to become a familiar face back in a familiar place. The later release dates for the PC and PlayStation 2 versions of NBA Live 2001 allowed them to account for that trade, but he was still in Boston when the rosters for the original PlayStation release were finalised. As a result, it flew under my radar as I didn’t have the PS1 version until years later, and only then after David L pointed it out to me.

3. Chris Mills (Celtics, NBA Live 98/Mavericks, NBA Live 2004 & ESPN Basketball)

As evident from this being the ninth article in a series documenting players who only appeared for certain teams in video games, there are actually quite a few examples to share! In fact, I’ve elected to skip some of them if they’re not particularly memorable players, and/or their story isn’t all that interesting. However, I can’t leave out a player who only appeared on certain teams in video games not once, but twice! After four years with the Cleveland Cavaliers – the last three as a regular starter – Chris Mills became a free agent, and signed with the Boston Celtics in the 1997 offseason. It therefore makes sense that he’s a Celtic in the default rosters of NBA Live 98 PC.

However, as this was back in the days of teams being able to sign players during the offseason and basically trade them immediately if they wanted, that’s exactly what happened with Mills. In October he was dealt to the Knicks, giving him a phantom stint. This happened again in the offseason of 2003 when the Golden State Warriors traded him to the Dallas Mavericks; a move seen in NBA Live 2004 and ESPN NBA Basketball. Mills missed the entire season, and indeed didn’t play in the NBA again. He was traded to Boston in October and Atlanta in February, giving him a second phantom stint with the Celtics and one with the Hawks, albeit not in video games.

4. Quentin Richardson (Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA Live 10)

This is one that I discovered during my NBA Live 10 kick in 2021. Even though I was maintaining a roster update for older NBA Live games on PC at the time, I’d forgotten about this phantom stint. Following four years as a fixture on the New York Knicks, Q-Rich had a turbulent 2009 offseason. First, he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies for Darko Milicic. Less than a month later, he was traded again to the Los Angeles Clippers for Zach Randolph. This would’ve made him a familiar face back in a familiar place, but instead it was a return that was over before it could begin. Three days later he was on the move yet again, acquired by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

About three weeks after that, he was traded a fourth time, ending up with the Miami Heat. That’s where Richardson spent the 2010 season, before moving on to Orlando a year later. If you still have an official roster update from 2010 for NBA Live 10, you can find him employing his talents in South Beach. If you’re stuck with the original roster though – or you choose to reset to the default lineups – Richardson will be back in Minnesota, where he was when the game shipped. As I said, after more than a decade, I’d forgotten all about his whirlwind offseason and Timberwolves stint that only appeared in NBA Live 10. Of course, that’s the whole point of this series!

5. Tony Battie (Los Angeles Lakers, NBA Live 99)

The default rosters of NBA Live 99 capture a league in limbo. With the lockout in effect, the game couldn’t include the new, unsigned rookie class, and had to ship with final 1998 season rosters. Of course, any trades that occur during the Playoffs, Draft, and right through to the end of June, are technically part of the previous season. That’s why you’ll see Chris Webber on the Sacramento Kings and Mitch Richmond on the Washington Wizards in NBA Live 99’s default 1998 rosters, even though they didn’t debut for their new teams until the 1999 campaign. The same goes for Nick Van Exel, who is already on the Denver Nuggets due to a trade that went down at the Draft.

Said trade saw the Nuggets send Tony Battie and rookie Tyronn Lue to the Lakers in return for Van Exel, who had been benched in favour of Derek Fisher despite being an All-Star in 1998. However, whereas Nick Van Exel debuted with Denver in the 1999 season and spent some productive years there before becoming a journeymen bench player later on, Tony Battie would never play for the Los Angeles Lakers. When the lockout lifted and the abbreviated offseason got underway, the Lakers traded him to Boston for Travis Knight, who returned to the team he debuted with. The move was reflected in the official roster update, but Battie still has a phantom stint to his name.

Do any of these examples of players who only appeared for certain teams in video games ring a bell for you? Can you recall any other infamous phantom stints that I haven’t covered already? Let me know in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.

The post The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Only Appeared on Certain Teams in Games (Part 9) appeared first on NLSC.