The artificial intelligence was an abomination, the animations were seriously lacking any kind of realism or fluidity for that matter, and the overall feel of the action was just plain bad. Though the screens looked solid, as soon as the players started competing in real time things went awry. Last year's NBA Live 07 was a sterling example of what's wrong with round ball on home consoles.
It isn't crystal clear whether it's the intricacy and subtle nuances of NBA basketball that makes it so difficult to emulate in a videogame, or if it's simply a lack of development skill on the majority of the teams that have produced these games (NBA 2K7 not withstanding), but regardless of the reason behind it there's really no doubting that basketball titles simply do not look like their real life counterpart when put in motion.
