Basketball. Michael Jordan. Facial Animations and speech. Jordan. All the players from the 1999 - 2000 NBA season, including rookies. Plus All-Stars teams from past and present. Oh, and Jordan's back.
Like its predecessors in the long-running series, NBA Live 2000 strives for realistic basketball simulation rather than arcade-like gameplay. New moves have been added in this installments, and opponent AI has been tweaked to make victory more dependent on executing the right moves at the right times. As in the previous NBA Live games, it is possible to edit and create basketball players, as well as create and build an own team. This time, it is also possible to use any picture to serve as a player photo.
New to this installment (beside Jordan) is a one-on-one street basketball mode, and a mode that allows management of a team for several seasons, including trading players.
NBA Live 2000 features power forward Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs on the cover. This is weird because Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves was contracted for the motion capture process. However, Garnett does appear on the cover of NBA Live 2001. EA probably choose Duncan because 1999 was the year when the Spurs won their first NBA title.
Awards
Computer Gaming World
March 2000 (Issue #188) – Action Game of the Year
