No doubt there’s a technical explanation involving the ROM’s self-testing routine and the part of the memory where Petrovic’s audio was stored, but it makes for one hell of a ghost story! Considering all of the rumours surrounding NBA Jam, truth is stranger than fiction. A cabinet in Midway’s own cafeteria confirmed the creepy phenomenon.

Late at night, when it was time to close up and turn out the lights, the cabinets would come alive and Tim Kitzrow’s voice could be heard calling out “Petrovic!” over and over again. Long before creepypastas and urban video game legends perpetuated by the Internet, NBA Jam cabinets were weaving a ghost story of their own. That wasn’t the only way that the future Hall of Famer made his presence felt on the virtual hardwood in the wake of his untimely passing. Petrovic was included in the original NBA Jam as a member of the New Jersey Nets, which meant gamers could still play with the sharpshooting guard following his fatal accident. Coming off his best NBA season and still young at 28, Croatian basketball legend Drazen Petrovic was tragically killed in a car accident in Germany during the 1993 offseason. Tim recalled this tale when I chatted to him a couple of years ago, as well as in some other interviews. This story comes courtesy of Tim Kitzrow, the legendary voice of NBA Jam. So, in the spirit of the holiday – pun fully intended – here are five moments in basketball gaming that make for creepy stories, or at least left us feeling rather weirded out. To that end, there are a few examples that we can name here, and since I’ve been mulling ideas for Halloween-themed features for at least a couple of years now, I’m going to run with five that come to mind for me. One could also consider humour and imagery that just came across as weird or uncomfortable instead. Unless you’re very young, they’re not especially creepy.īesides, if you’re looking for creepy stuff connected with the virtual hardwood, you really have to consider things that weren’t intentional, or aren’t immediately noticeable during gameplay. I mean, the Skeleton Crew is there in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, but they’re cartoonish Halloween decorations at the end of the day. Like most sports games, they’re intended to be family friendly, and the genre doesn’t invite jump scares, gore, or other things that are inclined to scare us. Generally speaking, there aren’t a lot of moments in basketball gaming that are downright horrifying. Halloween is looming, so just for fun, I’m reflecting on some of the creepy moments we’ve seen in various basketball video games. This week’s Five is a list of five moments in basketball gaming that were rather creepy, for one reason or another. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community.

Spooky basket for him