The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Only Appeared on Certain Teams in Games (Part 19)
Andrew
In this week's Friday Five, Andrew lists five more players that only appeared on certain teams in basketball video games, and not real life.
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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 Part 19 in an ongoing series looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in video games.

In Part 18 last month, I covered a couple of well-known players who only appeared on certain teams in video games, including an example from last season. For Part 19, I’m going back a bit further, with the most recent phantom stint occurring during the 2015 campaign. The older examples are also more obscure names that even hardcore NBA fans likely haven’t thought about in years. I do enjoy discussing those players though, as I’m sure that I’m not the only one that gets a nostalgic kick out of seeing or hearing the name of a long-forgotten journeyman that was once a mainstay in the league!

The fifth example – the one from the 2015 season – is the only player to have enjoyed a lengthy NBA career, which included an All-Star appearance and a couple of other honours. It’s obviously a good idea to include at least one player that we’ve all heard of and remember, but I’m also pleased with that example because it’s another one that I encountered by chance! As I’ve said before, David L has been extremely helpful in pointing out many players that needed to be covered in this series, but it’s always fun when serendipity delivers another name to me. With that being said, let’s get to the next group of five players whose phantom stints have been preserved in video games!

1. John Thomas (New York Knicks, NBA Live 98)

Although he only played 208 games over five years in the league – with a four year gap between his third and fourth campaigns – John Thomas is a name that probably sounds familiar if you were watching the NBA between 1997 and 2006. He was a 6’9″ power forward/centre who latched on with a handful of teams looking for an extra big to bring off the bench, and even started 11 of the 39 games he played for the Toronto Raptors in the lockout-shortened 1999 season. Thomas spent a majority of his career in Toronto, having landed there during his rookie season when he was included in the deal that sent fellow freshman Chauncey Billups to the Raptors for Kenny Anderson.

However, unlike Billups, Thomas wasn’t originally drafted by the Celtics. The Knicks selected him with the 25th pick in 1997, and you’ll find him on their roster in NBA Live 98 PC. It’s the closest he would come to suiting up for them, as New York dealt him to Boston along with Dontae’ Jones for Chris Mills. As I’ve discussed in previous articles, Jones and Mills also ended up with phantom stints as a result of that trade. Mills has the weirdest story as he’d just signed with the Celtics that offseason; back then, there was no rule against signing another team’s free agent, and trading them soon afterwards. As for Thomas, it was an interesting start to his journeyman career.

2. Amal McCaskill (Detroit Pistons, NBA Live 2005 & ESPN NBA 2K5)

Even before I discovered the NLSC and the roster updates that our founders had made, I’d developed an interest in updating NBA Live 96 PC for the 1997 season. To that end, all the big moves of the 1996 offseason are burned into my memory. I also became very familiar with the famous Class of 1996 before they’d even distinguished themselves in the league, because I was adding them to NBA Live 96’s rosters. I was also collecting trading cards at the time, which is where I got my first look at the 1996 rookie crop in their new NBA jerseys. One of those players was Amal McCaskill, a 6’11” centre who was a second round pick of the Orlando Magic, taken 49th overall.

While Shaquille O’Neal’s departure left a huge hole in the middle, McCaskill didn’t get much of an opportunity to play. After appearing in only 17 games in his rookie season, he was out of the league and playing overseas. I remember thinking that was it for him in the NBA. However, he signed with the San Antonio Spurs for the 2002 season. He then spent 2003 with the Atlanta Hawks, and joined the Philadelphia 76ers in 2004. The 76ers then traded him to the defending champion Detroit Pistons along with Derrick Coleman. McCaskill was cut in October, bringing an end to his NBA career, but he appears on the Pistons’ roster in NBA Live 2005 and ESPN NBA 2K5.

3. Soumaila Samake (Phoenix Suns, NBA Live 2002)

A second round pick of the New Jersey Nets in 2000, Soumaila Samake didn’t have a memorable NBA career. With lifetime averages of 1.4 points and 1.6 rebounds per game, it’s fair to say that he’s likely mostly remembered by long-time basketball gamers as “that player at the end of the Nets’ bench” in games like NBA Live 2001. However, there are some interesting facts about Samake’s career. He’s the first Malian player in league history, which is special for a country that has only produced two NBA players to date. On a less positive note, he also became only the third player in NBA history to catch a suspension for steroid use, albeit due to a dietary supplement.

And of course, since he’s on this list, he’s obviously among the players who only appeared for certain teams in video games! Like many of those players, his phantom stint was due to his inclusion in a deal involving much bigger names. Specifically, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns along with Stephon Marbury for Jason Kidd and Chris Dudley. While Kidd would lead the Nets to their first of two NBA Finals appearances and Marbury had a fine season in Phoenix, Samake and Dudley didn’t stay with their new teams (which would’ve actually been a second Nets stint for the latter). However, Samake was still a Sun until October, and appears on their roster in NBA Live 2002.

4. Rodney White (Los Angeles Clippers, NBA 2K6)

There have been several players who gained memetic popularity in our community, including Joel Anthony and Darrick Martin, on top of widely popular bench players such as Brian Scalabrine. Being a community of basketball gamers and NBA fans, the popularity of several players who were a long way from being All-Stars came from a mixture of high hopes for young prospects on our favourite teams, players who turned into stars in our franchise games, and running jokes about busts and benchwarmers. To that point, Rodney White was a player that some members of our community saw as a future star. Well, possibly; a few of those remarks were likely tongue-in-cheek!

Either way, I’m sure that the Detroit Pistons hoped he could turn into a special player when they took him ninth overall in 2001. For the record, that was ahead of players such as Tony Parker, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Zach Randolph, and Gilbert Arenas! Unfortunately, White was a bust. He was traded to Denver after one season, where he had a respectable year on a terrible team. It turned out to be his peak though, and White would be traded to the Golden State Warriors in 2005. The Los Angeles Clippers signed him in October, but cut him shortly before the season tipped off. His phantom Clippers stint was made tangible in the rosters of NBA 2K6 for Xbox 360.

5. Andrei Kirilenko (Philadelphia 76ers, NBA Live 15 & NBA 2K15)

As a member of the Utah Jazz, Andrei Kirilenko – creatively nicknamed AK-47 – was a constant five-by-five threat, successfully tallying such a stat line three times. That’s second all-time to Hakeem Olajuwon, who achieved the mark on six occasions. I’ve touched on Kirilenko’s post-Jazz career in previous articles, as his stints with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Brooklyn Nets were strange sights that are preserved in video games. That’s some fun trivia to look back on, but while I was revisiting NBA Live 15 and capturing some screenshots, I happened to see him on the Philadelphia 76ers. That reminded me that his NBA career had ended with a phantom stint.

So, how did his on-paper-only appearance – which was also at one point reflected in the rosters of NBA 2K15 – come about? Despite starting all 64 games for Minnesota in 2013 and posting numbers that were generally in line with his last few years in Utah, Kirilenko took on a greatly reduced role in Brooklyn, and only appeared in 45 games in 2014. He returned to the team for a second year, but played sparingly in seven games before being granted a leave of absence. While on hiatus, Kirilenko was traded to Philadelphia in December. He refused to report to his new team, and was released in February, resulting in a phantom stint and his return to CSKA Moscow.