TITLE
Should NBA Jam Be in the NBA Hall of Fame?
AUTHOR
Gregory Leporati
PUBLICATION
GQ
YEAR
2024
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
Tim Kitzrow has lost track of how many retro video game conventions he’s attended.The longtime voice actor—best known for his color commentary in the classic arcade game, NBA Jam—appears at so many of them each year that it’s practically become his full-time job. Billing himself as “Mr. Boomshakalaka,” in honor of one of his more memorable catchphrases, he crisscrosses the country, signing autographs for throngs of gamers and basketball fans of a certain age.
“They come up to me and say that my voice helped define their childhood,” says Kitzrow, who is somewhat in disbelief that he’s still talking about an arcade game released over 30 years ago. But such was the magnitude of NBA Jam, whose high-flying dunks and cartoonish take on basketball captivated gamers when it was released in 1993. “People from their 20s all the way to their 50s tell me they grew up on Jam,” he says.
Keeping the game’s legacy alive at conventions across the country is all well and good, but Kitzrow—along with other key members of the NBA Jam design team—have been spending the past few years lobbying for a loftier goal: They want to see their game inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Yes, an arcade game enshrined in Springfield, alongside the likes of Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, and Michael Jordan.
Or, well, something like that. Any sort of recognition would do.
GAMES MENTIONED
NBA Jam (1993)
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Reyan Ali
Sal DiVita
Tim Kitzrow
Carly Kocurek
Mark Turmell