This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the transitional rosters of the 1999 lockout season, as captured in NBA Live 99 PC.
It’s been 25 years since a lockout led to NBA games being cancelled for the first time, with the threat of an entire season being lost. I’ll admit that I wasn’t paying attention to the looming labour crisis as a teenage Chicago Bulls fan in 1998. I was focused on following the action, hoping that Michael Jordan would win another scoring title and the Bulls would end the year as champions once more. The rumours that concerned me were that it would be The Last Dance, which it obviously was. Furthermore, the magazines I was reading weren’t really covering it, and NBA Action definitely wasn’t!
Fortunately, the season was saved when ultimatums were issued – though, it wouldn’t be the last labour dispute – and the 1999 lockout ended on January 20th, 1999. On top of shortening the 1999 campaign to 50 games, it also meant that video games such as NBA Live had to launch with final 1998 season rosters. Fortunately for PC gamers, EA Sports released an official patch that not only fixed a few bugs, but updated the game for the new season. As such, NBA Live 99 PC in its updated state does preserve the rosters from a weird, yet memorable season. Let’s take a look back…way back…