As if Jay-Z didn’t need anymore props, now game geeks can thank the god MC for NBA 2K13’s latest advancement. Yesterday, 2K Sports announced that the legendary 1992 USA Olympic Basketball team, also known as “The Dream Team,” will be in NBA 2K13 and you can thank the game’s executive producer for that.
“The Dream Team wasn’t going to happen this year for us without Jay’s involvement and assistance upon doing it,” Jason Argent, vice-president of marketing for 2K Sports told ESPN, “and we’re obviously very happy that he did that.”
“Obviously the core of the game is always what happens on the court, but we’re trying to bring more of the truer picture of the NBA to what it is as an entertainment product,” Argent said. “You’ve seen some of the things we’ve done in the past with our soundtracks and the bands, so when we sat down after launching last year’s game, that was a primary directive for us, and we said, ‘How do we do that?’ We started to put that list together of things that helped achieve that, and Jay-Z kept rising to the top of that list.”
In a conference call Argent said that Jay-Z influenced 2K Sports to strike a deal with USA Basketball and individually with Charles Barkley, who’s not part of the National Basketball Retired Players Association. Conspicuous by his absence is Chicago Bulls Hall Of Famer, Scottie Pippen, who couldn’t strike a deal with the company. Afterward, the video game company was allowed to return to the creative lab to incorporate not only the ’92 Dream Team but this year’s 2012 Olympic squad into 2K13. Now the debates can end of who would win in a game, sort of.
” Jay loves the game of basketball. He clearly does as an honor of the Nets, and that’s important to us from a credibility and authenticity standpoint. He’s also added quite a bit to the game beyond presentation.”
Jay-Z also personally handpicked the game’s official soundtrack, which should be in stores in the Fall.
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Photo: GQ, 2K Sports
