NBA Jam is a legendary basketball game that still has a place in gaming in a world where hyper-realistic basketball simulations are good enough that players get upset about their player ratings. It wasn’t very realistic when it debuted in 1993, but it set the standard for arcade basketball for the next few decades.
The game is still beloved to a lot of basketball fans, and it’s not hard to find a hipster barcade and see an NBA Jam machine there you can play. Eternal debates about the best team in that game happen to this day, and nostalgia is a powerful thing in this modern world. That’s why a single basketball being bought, one that you can’t even play with, is a significant bit of news.
Much of the box art for the original NBA Jam was of a custom NBA JAM basketball that appeared to be bursting through the letters JAM in the background. It was extremely early 90s style, and just a bit too colorful and etched to seem real.
Print ad promoting Acclaim's ports of NBA Jam to Sega CD and the Game Boy, 1994 pic.twitter.com/owMFJ8PFZt
— NBA Jam (the book) (@nbajambook) November 20, 2018
There are a lot of iconic things about the game, but the image of that ball is often the first thing that comes to mind when the game is discussed. As it turns out, that ball is real. The box art is not an illustration, it’s a photograph. Which means there really is an NBA Jam basketball, and a video game collector recently bought it.
BOOMSHAKALAKA! It's here! The original prop basketball used in the production of NBA JAM box art and promotional material! pic.twitter.com/NjfmThxh8W
— Steve Lin (@stevenplin) November 20, 2018
Steve Lin, a video game historian who also works at Discord, posted a picture of the ball earlier in the week and shared some backstory about the ball and how he came to acquire it. As it turns out, the ball isn’t useable and actually is full-scale model made of resin with the NBA Jam logo etched into it. That means you can’t dribble it, but 25 years later it still looks great.
Lin said he’s going to eventually donate it to a museum along with the other pieces in his collection, but for now he wants to hang onto it and enjoy the fact that he hung around in an auction long enough to snag a bit of basketball history.
For sure this will be going to a museum along with the rest of my collection. I'm just going to hang onto it for a while and wonder about the cosmic series of events that allowed me to acquire it.
— Steve Lin (@stevenplin) November 20, 2018
The whole thread has a few interesting questions and Lin provides answers for them, too. The jovial exchange highlights how much people really love that game. Thankfully, the ball seems to be in really good hands.
