2K Sports Addresses Absence of Charles Barkley from NBA 2K12
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After it was clear that Charles Barkley would not be included in NBA 2K12 as one of the legends followed by the full historic team rosters being released Kotaku made the astute observation that 2K Sports had included a 76ers team that featured Barkley rather than choosing one of the previous year’s squads. There was no reason why the 84-85 Sixers were chosen over any of the others that featured Dr. J prior to Barkley’s rookie year. Not having him on the roster is a glaring miss as instead a role player will fill his spot in the starting lineup.
Kotaku then contacted 2K Sports for comment on the situation after having concluded that it likely wasn’t a creative decision but that plans possibly fell through at a late stage or maybe the company had something in their back pocket regarding Barkley for a later announcement. The company responded last night with the predictable statement about how they hoped to get him in but a deal couldn’t be worked out. They did not go into detail about why that might be – as EA Sports has found with signing individuals (evidenced most notably by Fight Night and the attempts to get Floyd Mayweather) egos can be difficult to deal with.
“There’s no doubt in our minds that Charles is and should always be a key part of the conversation as it relates to who are the NBA’s Greatest players of all time,” a 2K Sports spokesperson told Kotaku. “We have a very positive relationship with Sir Charles and while we were unable to include him in-game this year for a variety of reasons, we share everyone’s hope that he may one day appear in our game.”
Most of the disappointment around the omission of Barkley and others such as Reggie Miller and Allen Iverson is that 2K promoted a poll for what legends fans wanted in 2K12 and insinuated that the results would determine – at least to some extent – what players made it in. Regardless the majority seems happy with the final lineup of legends and the respective team rosters that were obtained for 2K12.