If Kon Kneuppel can get the Charlotte Hornets basketball to be relevant again, we have one of the 90s most iconic sports games to thank. During the NCAA Tournament, his mom told CBS's Tracy Wolfson that young Kon wasn't all that interested in round ball at first. She purchased a Nintendo Wii and NBA Jam, and the rest is NCAA history.
Knueppel averaged 14.4 points as a freshman for the Duke Blue Devils, helping lead them to the Final Four where Houston ended their chance to earn a championship. Still, Kneuppel made the most of his run, as the Charlotte Hornets picked him 4th overall in the NBA draft. In fairness, the fact that both Kon parents played college basketball probably helped just a little bit.
NBA Jam was an arcade institution in the 90s, with college and pro basketball players being just as obsessed with it as the rest of us were. Shaquille O' Neal even had an arcade Jam machine that he had moved from town to town while he traveled during his NBA career.
I have been banging the drum for an NBA Jam revival for years now. EA did release a new version in 2011, but that was a substitute when it realized NBA Elite 11 was so bad they couldn't ship it without ending their basketball franchise. Sadly, EA never did figure out how to fix its basketball title issues and we haven't seen NBA Live, Elite, or Jam since then. Bring it back, EA. NBA Jam deserves better than being remembered as part of NBA Live's last desperate gasp.