Average Rating: 
Rating:  - NBA2k1 = A great offensive player who can't play defense.
Any bball fan knows about the kind of player who has amazing speed and agility, reads the defender's mind like a book, makes the highlight reel every 2 minutes and has sweet ballhanding skills... but he ends up just keeping the bench cushion warm because he can't play defense ....Which is a darn shame, really, since NBA 2k1 has the smoothest offensive game any console NBA sim has seen. This year, running fast break plays are easier and more active as opposed to the way players stopped mid-transition last year. Beating players off the dribble with your crossover move makes them look silly and you can almost hear their ankles snapping. With the heightened prevalence of using screens, frustrating your defender has never been easier. Plus, with new motion capture animations littered throughout the game, NBA 2k1 is a few leaps and bounds ahead of last year's game in terms of emulating a live NBA match. If you take a look at the movies of LIVE 2001 for PS2, you'll be amazed at how it's not even close to the look and feel of NBA 2k1. LIVE looks awkwardly herky-jerky, showing you how much NBA 2k1 is above and way beyond the competition in the area of capturing the look of the NBA. Where NBA 2k1 runs into a mental block, though, is how it likes to play defense. When you go up for an open finger-roll layup and even a jam, the defender sometimes likes to go through the rim for the block. Stealing balls are way too easy, and you'll find that it happens a lot when you post a player up or do a crossover move. Too often do I try to post someone up with my center and find it slapped away. And don't even think of doing juke or spin moves with a slow player because the computer will steal your ball if you don't get past him every single time. Because of this, some of the worst defenders occasionally end up with 2 or 3 steals in their stats. Also, you'll find that most of your point total will come from inside the paint, because jumpshots are hard to come by and usually do not go in if there is a defender even remotely in front of you. Stats are usually pretty inaccurate. When Kobe Bryant gets a 97 defensive rating and Predrag Stojakovich only a 50 in three-point shooting, you'll quickly see how stats are based primarily on hype and very little intricate research was done. Thankfully, rosters and stats are update-able through the Download feature and I hope teams like the Dallas Mavericks get a little bit of a ratings boost. When all it's said and done, and the preaching about defense! defense! is finished, NBA 2k1 is still a great bball game, and it's still the best bball game yet, despite all of its faults. The defense will annoy you but you can play around it and cope with it. I just hope next year's rendition gets into a defensive stance and does what Gary "The Glove" Payton does best.
Rating:  - Sega Sports took it to the hole
Wow, this game is sweet. NBA 2K1 is by far the best basketball game ever. I love this game. The graphics shine, gameplay is extremely smooth, and there are so many options. Just like NFL 2K1, the franchise mode is cool, the editor is awesome, plus season, streetball, tourney, etc. You can change just about anything you want in the editor too, it's even got all the classic teams, it's pretty hard if you put it on Pro or All-Star, and you can even make your own team- that's what more of these 2Ks need to offer. I love the commentary too, not to mention the online play and the awesome 4 player action. If you like basketball at all, buy this.
Rating: - Actually a 4-1/2
This is the best basketball game i have played, until i get my hands on a PS2 and play NBA Live 2001. The game is nice, it has it's flaws but is there really a "perfect game" out there (besides Soul Calibur)? The graphics are off the hook, all the options and indepthness of the game are excellent. Of course everyone has been nit-picking about how long the computer holds on to the ball. Obviously if your up by ten points and the computer is running down their own clock, do you really care if the use up the whole shot clock? No. BUT, it you're the one down by ten and trying to make a run in the 4th quarter then that's a problem (and any real life basketball team is not going to rush a shot if there up in the fourth quarter!). I am upset that my created player and rosters would not transfer to the franchise mode so "I" myself could drop some stats in franchise mode. If you played NBA Live all your life like I have, this game needs some getting used too (like button controls for instance). I never finished an entire 82 game basketball season on NBA live because it just wasn't worth it with no franchise mode but now I think I'll ride out the season!
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