EAST LANSING, Mich. — One of the things young basketball players dream about is making it into the “NBA 2K” video game franchise.
Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. has achieved that. The franchise recently announced that it was adding 16 colleges and a player on the men’s and women’s side in the game’s “MyTeam” mode. MSU is one of the schools included. Fears is there on the men’s side, and Grace VanSlooten represents the Spartans on the women’s.
Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
“It’s pretty crazy, obviously,” Fears said after practice Friday. “I’ve been playing since maybe 2K15, 2K13. So being able to be in something like that is special.”
Fears and VanSlooten both have virtual cards in the game where they are rated at 94 overall, which appears to be the case with every college player. In the game’s recent update, a 100 overall card of Michigan State legend Draymond Green was released, as well as the ability to play as Sparty.
2K Memories for Fears
People who grew up playing 2K usually have a list of players and teams that they liked to play with. Fears has a few teams in mind.
“I’m a big KD [Kevin Durant] fan, but I played with the Miami Heat when they had Mario Chalmers, D-Wade, LeBron [James], Chris Bosh,” Fears said. “But also when the Warriors had [Stephen] Curry, KD, Klay [Thompson], that was OP [over-powered}, you couldn’t play with them back in the day. You played with them, you were cheating. It wasn’t fair.”
It’s a special thing to see one’s likeness displayed in a video game setting. College football players, for the most part, have seemed fine taking just a couple hundred dollars for EA Sports to use their image to make the last two standalone college football video games possible.
There is not a standalone college basketball game yet. It hasn’t happened since “NCAA Basketball 10” came out in November 2009. Kalin Lucas was MSU’s leading scorer that year, and it was Green’s sophomore season.
Progress on a standalone game does seem to be happening, though. 2K seems to be planning to release a standalone college hoops video game in 2027. The disappointing part, though, is that early indications are that not every Division I school will be included.
Michigan State almost certainly will be there, but the immersion and overall quality of the game would probably feel a little cheaper if the option to take Oakland to a national championship isn’t there.
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