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 a list of five coincidences with squads in the series of Legends Challenges in NBA Live 19 Ultimate Team.

As was the case with NBA Live 18, Ultimate Team has been one of my main modes of choice during my NBA Live 19 kick. It’s the only way to play with all the Legends, which appeals to my nostalgic approach to basketball gaming these days. Because I’m getting into NBA Live 19 Ultimate Team so late in the game, I’ll still have plenty of unfinished Challenges when the servers are shut down. With that in mind, I’m picking and choosing the ones that appeal to me the most. Needless to say, that includes the 31-game series of Legends Challenges!

Each game in the series of Legends Challenges places a former great back in uniform, albeit the jersey that their respective teams are sporting during the 2019 season. While they may be playing alongside one or two of their former teammates – or at least other greats who played for that team at some point – the squads are generally comprised of whichever Legends would make for a challenging lineup. For the most part, it doesn’t seem that those out-of-place Legends have been selected for any specific reason. To that end, I noted what I believe are some fun coincidences with the (mis)placement of certain players in the Legends Challenges, from actual history to infamous What Ifs.

1. Dominique Wilkins on a Utah Jazz Squad

A number of exciting dunkers have played for the Utah Jazz over the years, including Darrell Griffith, Blue Edwards, Jeremy Evans, and Jamie Watson. That list could’ve also included the Human Highlight Film, Dominique Wilkins. Coming off a dismal 25-57 season in 1982, the Utah Jazz selected Nique with the third overall pick. He would’ve joined a team that had an outstanding (yet historically underrated) scorer in Adrian Dantley, the aforementioned Darrell Griffith, and fellow rookie Mark Eaton, who was about to become one of the league’s premiere shot blockers. Unfortunately for the Jazz – but quite fortunately for the Atlanta Hawks – that wouldn’t come to pass.

The plan was for Wilkins to play power forward alongside Dantley in the frontcourt; an idea that Nique wasn’t keen on, given the size, physicality, and general role of players at the four back then. At an impasse, the Jazz traded him to the Hawks for John Drew, Freeman Williams, and cash, in what is undoubtedly one of the most lopsided deals in NBA history. Granted, the arrival of Stockton and Malone in 1984 and 1985 respectively eased the pain of losing Wilkins like that, but it’s an intriguing What If that Nique himself has wondered about. To that end, it was a fun coincidence to see him on the Jazz in the Legends Challenges in NBA Live 19 Ultimate Team.

2. Rony Seikaly on a Utah Jazz Squad

Speaking of players who didn’t want to play in Utah, Rony Seikaly also ended up sporting a Jazz jersey in an Ultimate Team Challenge. Unlike Nique however, the prospect of Seikaly playing in Utah didn’t arise until much later in his career. After a college career at Syracuse where he became one of the school’s all-time best players, the Miami Heat made Seikaly their first ever draft pick in 1988. Even though he spent most of his career in Miami, I often associate Seikaly with the Golden State Warriors, since that’s who he was playing for when I really got into basketball and basketball video games. Ironically, his Golden State stint is the second-shortest of his career.

Seikaly was traded to the Warriors on November 2nd, 1994, spending the 1995 and 1996 seasons with the team. He was then traded to the Orlando Magic, coincidentally on November 2nd, 1996. After a solid season with the Magic, Seikaly was traded to the New Jersey Nets in 1998, but barely played for them due to injuries before being released in 1999. So, where do the Jazz come in? Before the deal with the Nets, the Magic had agreed to send him to Utah for Chris Morris, Greg Foster, and a draft pick. Seikaly refused to report to the Jazz, forcing Orlando to rescind the trade and deal him to the Nets instead. As such, it was funny to see him playing for the Jazz in LUT 19!

3. Kevin Garnett on a Los Angeles Lakers Squad

Compared to Dominique Wilkins and Rony Seikaly potentially playing for the Jazz, the What If of Kevin Garnett donning the purple and gold of the Los Angeles Lakers is slightly further from reality. After all, the Lakers never held KG’s Draft rights, nor was a deal ever completed and then cancelled. Still, come the 2007 offseason, KG going to the Lakers became a possibility. With the Minnesota Timberwolves finally listening to trade offers, several teams were vying to make a deal. In addition to the Lakers, the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors, and even Indiana Pacers, were rumoured to be making a play for him.

Of course, the Celtics ended up acquiring KG from Minnesota and Ray Allen from the Seattle Supersonics, leading to Boston winning it all that year. As it turned out however, the Lakers were originally KG’s top choice. Not only that, but they had a handshake deal with then-Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor that included Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum. When KG couldn’t get hold of Kobe Bryant to discuss the possibility of them teaming up though, it left the door open for the Celtics to sell him on coming to Boston and get a deal done. Considering how different history would’ve been had KG gone to LA, I got a kick out of seeing him there on that Legends squad.

4. Tim Duncan on a Boston Celtics Squad

Seeing as how I’m not a Celtics fan, I’m probably not qualified to speak on this, but my guess is that getting Kevin Garnett in 2007 and winning the 2008 title may have slightly up made up for missing out on Tim Duncan ten years earlier. With Duncan as the prize of the 1997 NBA Draft, teams had something to tank for, and the Celtics were widely considered to be doing just that. Luck wasn’t on their side though, as even with two first round picks and the second-worst record in the league – giving them a 36% chance of winning the lottery – they ended up with the third and sixth picks. Instead, the San Antonio Spurs reaped the benefits of a disastrous 1997 season.

When it comes to What Ifs for Tim Duncan, joining Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady in Orlando is the one that’s brought up more often. It makes sense, as he was set to do that before Gregg Popovich convinced him to remain in San Antonio (or Doc Rivers blew the deal by refusing to budge on team policy, depending on who you believe). Still, Duncan ending up with the Celtics in 1997 makes for a very interesting alternate timeline indeed. I suppose it’s possible that this was in fact an intentional reference by the producers, but given that the game was developed in Orlando, any Magic fans on staff likely didn’t want to think about any hypothetical scenarios involving Duncan!

5. Spud Webb on an Orlando Magic Squad

Let’s wrap up with the only stint on this list that actually happened! When we think of Spud Webb, we mostly remember his original run in Atlanta, where he defeated his teammate Dominique Wilkins in the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest. 90s kids like me will also remember his time with the Sacramento Kings, as captured in a number of video games. You may even recall that he had a short return stint with the Hawks in 1996, before finishing the season in Minnesota. His final NBA run with the Magic is rarely mentioned, though. It’s hardly surprising as he played all of four games on a 10-day contract, and the stint wasn’t represented in the official rosters of any video games.

I’m sure there were some history buffs among the hardcore hoop heads working on Ultimate Team in NBA Live 19, so without confirmation, I can’t rule out that this was in fact a deep cut. Indeed, you could say that about all of these coincidences found in the Legends Challenges. However, considering that a majority of Legends appearing on squads centring on a different player have no such connections to any historical events or What Ifs, I’m inclined to think that they were coincidental. Whatever the case though, I enjoyed seeing them during my playthrough of the Legends Challenges in LUT 19, including this potentially unintentional nod to Spud’s short Magic stint.

Ultimate Team and MyTEAM gamers, have you encountered any other coincidences involving Legends and historical challenges in those modes? Do you believe that they were mere coincidences, or do you suspect they were intentional? Are you an NBA Live 19 developer who can confirm this either way? Have your say 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 Coincidences in LUT 19 Legends Challenges appeared first on NLSC.