Let's Go, Knicks!

When I was in high school, I used to play as the Knicks in NBA Jam and dream of the real-life team bringing home a championship. As a fortysomething adult, now owning my very own NBA Jam cabinet, I've played as the Knicks and dreamed of the real-life team bringing home a championship. Tonight, they're bringing home a championship for real. For the first time in my lifetime, the New York Knicks are world champions!

Another Grand Champion!

Nathaniel's custom character Grandpa Nuker is now the second NBA Hangtime grand champion of our household!

Grand Champion

Bragging rights! I am the first NBA Hangtime Grand Champion of our household! My Stockton-esque custom character Ace has defeated all 29 teams!

Jammer Time

I'm delighted how much the boys, especially Nathaniel, enjoy NBA Jam. The cabinet includes the three original games in the series, the last of which, NBA Hangtime, has a feature that allows you to create custom players. Of course, we've already created a bevy of our own ballers: my slick shooting guard Ace, Matthew's sharpshooter Dwayne (an obscure Simpsons reference, not a reference to actual NBA player Dwayne Wade), Nathaniel's elderly (yet somehow still quite spry) super-dunker Grandpa Nuker, and Nathaniel's lanky shot-blocker Cornelius D. Nide (get it?). We also have plans to create the main Globetrotter characters from Futurama: Bubblegum Tate, Sweet Clyde, and Curly Joe. The characters may be wacky, but the game gives me a great opportunity to teach the boys about basketball, which had kind of fallen off my radar in recent years. 

Boomshakalaka!

Cross one off the bucket list! I've always wanted to own a stand-up arcade cabinet, and now, thanks to the good folks at Arcade1Up, I've got one! NBA Jam was perhaps my all-time favorite '90s arcade game, so it was an easy choice. 

Matthew and Nathaniel were kind enough to assemble it for me, and now I've got them hooked as well!