The 2 fictional Atlanta Hawks rookies on ESPN NBA 2K5

Here's some info for you! ESPN NBA 2K5 has 2 fictional rookies on the Atlanta Hawks, they are Tony Williams (Right) and Mark Johnson (Left), I tried looking these players up a while ago, believing that they were real but couldn't find any info about them bc I realized they were fake players, so 2K12 isn't the only 2K to have fictional rookies.

These 2 fictional rookies were removed from the game's roster in the official original XBOX DLC roster updates (Which I hopefully will make a post of in the future) along with Rick Fox and a few others.

Figured I would share these 2 fake rookies on 2K5.

Last edited by boxMAN29 on Wed Dec 18, 2024 1:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

Looks like it was done to ensure they had at least 12 players, since NBA 2K has long enforced that minimum (NBA Live has often enforced the eight player minimum while customising rosters). The roster cut-off date of September 9th 2004 left them without Kenny Anderson, Jon Barry, and Kevin Willis, all of whom signed within the next week or so, and would've given them 13 players.

Good looking out! That's a fun fact.

Looks like it was done to ensure they had at least 12 players, since NBA 2K has long enforced that minimum (NBA Live has often enforced the eight player minimum while customising rosters). The roster cut-off date of September 9th 2004 left them without Kenny Anderson, Jon Barry, and Kevin Willis, all of whom signed within the next week or so, and would've given them 13 players.

Good looking out! That's a fun fact.

Thanks! Also, I think they should have included Royal Ivey and Donta Smith, (in which Donta was popular in international leagues) in their spots instead plus Josh Smith aka J-Smoove is still wearing #42 but is possible to make him wear #5 with a number change tutorial I posted

Ivey's an odd exclusion, as he signed his rookie contract in July. Smith signed in October after the cut-off (and the release of the game for that matter) so he wouldn't have made the cut, but Ivey being absent is definitely strange.

Ivey's an odd exclusion, as he signed his rookie contract in July. Smith signed in October after the cut-off (and the release of the game for that matter) so he wouldn't have made the cut, but Ivey being absent is definitely strange.

Yeah, plus they're not even included in the original Xbox official DLC roster updates, I made them both however so maybe I'll make creation guides for them with preview pictures

Go for it! I love that we have a contingent of retro basketball gamers in our community that are still eager to discuss and create content for old favourites that hold up.

Go for it! I love that we have a contingent of retro basketball gamers in our community that are still eager to discuss and create content for old favourites that hold up.

Will do soon but first I am gonna do my major planned post, and that is the original XBOX ESPN NBA 2K5 DLC, stay tuned!

Updated this as I realized that Marcus Johnson is actually Mark Johnson as I looked in-game on my original Xbox (Silly me lol), so I fixed this post along with a couple other details added, my bad.

Still fictional either way! They needed to wait a couple more weeks to include those signings.

Still fictional either way! They needed to wait a couple more weeks to include those signings.

Yeah, just like those fictional 2K12 rookies bc of the 2011/12 lockout, note: both have common last names in the NBA

Safest choice for Roster Players, outside of calling them Roster Player of course. Then again, that does stick out like a sore thumb!

Turns out, you can re-add these 2 fake rookies in any of the original Xbox official DLC roster updates, here's how:

Start the Association mode with the default roster or any modified version of the default roster but don't do anything then press B then choose save then choose Export Team then export the team with any save name of your choice then load a DLC roster then load the team in the game's Load menu then find the team then sign a couple free agents to the imported version of the Hawks then release Tony Williams and Mark Johnson then delete the imported team in the custom team manager (NOT the save file delete screen), save the DLC roster you just added them to and you're done!

They're inaccessible on the DLC rosters by default but unexpectedly found this workaround.

Just wanted to share this update.

Good to know! Fun to still be discovering things years later. It's one of the reasons I really enjoy retro basketball gaming and revisiting my favourites.