Anyone who knows me for more than a week or so knows that I am perpetually running NBA 2K MyNBA mode, simming games as my team and making coaching and GM decisions periodically. My most recent game file expanded the league to 36 teams and rebooted the Association with a fantasy draft. I’m also experimenting with bringing in every NBA draft class in order from the beginning, which means seeing the likes of Dolph Schayes and Elgin Baylor playing alongside Steph Curry and Luka Doncic (I’m not ready to talk about the trade).
My most recent draft (the 1965 class) sent forward IRL New York Knicks lifer Bill Bradley to the Washington Wizards. My personal experience with Bill Bradley only extends to his unsuccessful attempt to be the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2000, losing of course to eventual national stage loser Al Gore.
I’ve never seen the man play, at least outside of grainy clips of fast highlights they might have shown during the primaries. I’ve only known his older face, too. His distinctive, sharp-curved eyebrows give way to a jolly-cheeked face perfect for trying to secure the endorsements of Michael Jordan and Robert Reich.
When checking the stats of the finished game, I got to Bradley’s row and for the first time looked at what NBA 2K25 decided his face looked like as a player and wow what a treat.
My guy was plucked straight out of the Xbox 360-era Fallout character creators and dumped into a modern basketball game. Some real Space Jam dream logic to make this happen.
For comparison, here’s one of the starting male faces in Fallout 3:
Credit Bethesda for really nailing a certain “stuck in the 1960s” vibe with these faces, because it clearly works. I’m not saying Bill Bradley’s likeness in NBA 2K is super far off, but his in-game appearance certainly evokes a sense of mid-60s aesthetic that jumps off the screen a little more than what you’d see mid-Knicks game.
Anyway! I should probably go back to doing more important things and not think about what’s happening in the actual NBA or the world in general! Thank you for you service, Fallout’s Bill Bradley!
