What your NBA 2K22 team intro looks like with real advertisers

When I heard that Visual Concepts had decided to integrate the 30 PAs of the NBA arenas NBA 2K22, which was launched last week, my first thought was, more or less, “It had to be a your working. “

It was. Because not only were guys like John Mason, the Detroit Pistons’ public speech since 2001, in a session delivering their introductions and signing calls, they were recording over days, also representing almost endless eventualities.

“Oh, damn it,” Mason sighed, “One day, the morning session, we lasted two and a half hours, maybe three hours. We made over 2,000 names. Tempo and not tempo.

This is what I wanted to know. “Tempo” means with enthusiasm – the player is a home team player, he has just made a high energy play or has scored a pivot bucket. “Non-tempo” means that it is about a guest player, a Joe Schmoe that Mason is not professionally obliged to put forward.

“To ensure an authentic experience, we had to make sure to capture recordings for a wide range of scenarios players face. NBA 2K22“, a 2K Sports spokesperson told Gameserver.” Announcing thousands of player names past and present, time-out calls, fouls and tonal inflection to cover players traded between teams that occur throughout a season, we made sure to represent every possible scenario that might arise on the pitch. “

This means that when Jerami Grant of Detroit goes from the baseline to poke a dunk this year, Mason will call him “with tempo”. But if Grant is traded or signed with another team two seasons in the future, well, it becomes a non-tempo, two-point call, so what in Little Caesars Arena. Likewise, if a user overrides the AI ​​and steals Milwaukee in a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mason will have to present the Greek Freak as if he is one of the members of Motown.

Image: Visual Concepts / 2K Sports via Polygon

Plus, with so many all-time greats in NBA 2K22from the list on record (more in MyTeam’s constellation of stars past and present), Mason found himself blown away in time, giving Piston foes like Scottie Pippen and Reggie Miller a non-tempo treatment, and props tempo for Bad Boys like John Salley, Vinnie Johnson and Bill Laimbeer.

“Isiah! … THOMAS…. Mason said, echoing his Hall of Fame appeal that preceded his eight-year stay in Detroit. “Of course we made our championship team. It was fun; we have to play. I didn’t know where it was going, but that’s what they do. I was trying to break through; I was just having fun, like a kid in a candy store, watching TV and saying, “Ooh! Oh, let me do this! Let me call him!

Mason is one of 30 arena voices in the game, but his role could get a bit more visibility given where the Pistons ended up in the 2021 Command Draft: First. This means that in MyCareer, the single-player career mode, if you pass the performances of your player created in the opening act (and those games are locked for NBA 2K22easiest difficulty), you will find yourself ranked No. 1 overall by the Pistons.

This posed a problem for me, as I like to give my stars super-fabulous ABA names that aren’t always in the in-game audio log. I don’t think “Antares” or “Vespasian” was on the script. of Mason, so my advice to MyCareer fans looking for full immersion is to start your player builds with names the game recognizes.

Still, it’s quite impressive to hear “Deeee-troit! Basketball! ”From Mason himself when my 7ft 1 cross“ Paint Beast ”parked Patrick Williams’ base runner six rows behind the visitors bench.

The origins of this song have been told over and over again. But they always make a good story. In 2003, ESPN was set to pull out of a game the Pistons dominated with their outstanding but non-telegenic defense, Mason says, and he shouted at his hometown in case this was his last chance on their airwaves. When a fan put the phrase on a poster – and took the poster to a rival’s arena – it stuck.

I would like to think that if my created superstar, Arcturus “The Herdsman” Malone, was actually going for the Pistons, Mason would give his name a special sizzle as well. “I watched every player [I introduce] like a cartoon, ”Mason said. “Ben Wallace [the Pistons’ all-star center for nine seasons] had the bracelets around his biceps; it reminded me of the cartoon Hercules from the 1960s. So, Mason’s emphasis on “Buh-buh-buh-buh Ben” is a tribute to the trill introduction to this show.

Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time Mason’s rallying cry has been heard in the game, although it is the first time he’s done it himself. Pistons fans probably remember hearing it before – Mason’s son certainly did, pointing it out to his father a few years ago. Visual Concepts explained that until NBA 2K22, he had hired a single actor to pose as all the arena assistants (so it wasn’t, in fact, Ray Clay presenting Michael Jordan in NBA 2K11).

For the record, Mason wasn’t bothered by this, he says (Mason says the copyright for the phrase is held by the estate of former owner Bill Davidson). But “I wanted them to just use me,” Mason said. When he received an email inviting him to their recording studio in Novato, Calif., “I exploded like a rocket.

“There are other things I can do for money and for profit,” he said, “But that wasn’t it. I wanted to feel it. So I did it, and I did it with everyone. I’m very happy for the other 29 PA advertisers because they all bring something so unique to the game. We’re all honored that NBA 2K has decided to let us participate.

List file is Polygon’s news and opinion column on the intersection of sports and video games.