by Dee4Three on Mon Oct 14, 2019 10:59 pm
This is a great thread whenever it is posted, as so many classic players are still missing from the classic teams/all time teams.
Licensing is obviously a factor here, but I think "priority" could be another possible issue. A few people reached out to Keith Bogans who was on the 10-11 Bulls and is missing from the game, and asked him if he agrees to be in 2K, he replied to them "Yeah sure, no problem", this tweet had Mike Wang, etc on it (Czar, Manning, etc). Bogans is still not in the game, when he obviously agrees to be in it.
Now, that's Twitter land, which is in no way contractual. We have no idea if 2K reached out to him and he didnt respond, or send him a letter and he didnt respond, etc. Puzzling omissions of players who have been in the game happen at times as well, like Kendrick Perkins. Again, we dont know the backstory or the communication between Perkins and 2K, but Perkins could (but who knows) have an issue with 2Ks support of the retired players association (which is the same gripe Barkley has).
Either way, the list of missing players for the default classic teams is pretty long, with most missing being players 9-13 (or sometimes 6 or 7 through 13) on the teams. Some of the more recent teams that are missing quite a few players is a little odd, and obviously some of the classic teams choices themselves are head scratchers.
I have a list of all the missing classic players on a pad of paper at home, as I used it for my rosters and to fill out teams. I have to see if I can find the page, If I can I'll try to post the list here
I know in the past we had someone post the full list, but they have added more teams since.