Hardwood Paroxysm presents: When the NBA and video games collide

The Golden State Warriors as NHL Hitz

by Andy Liu

I don’t play many video games beyond Madden, NBA Street, and Fire Emblem. The entire notion of consuming time controlling virtual images seemed a bit lonely and depressive. I did, however, love playing NHL Hitz because of the ridiculosity of the entire thing. Like NFL Blitz, there’s nothing realistic about the game itself.

The players can start fights and you button-mash (of course) to try and drain the other team’s life bar. There is no such thing as a pass gone astray. It is utterly impossible to make a bad pass, if you are throwing a puck across the rink, it will end up on a stick like Calvin Johnson’s hands on a football. Then, the best part, when your players start aiming one-timers (shooting the puck as the pass hits the stick), and nailing them on several consecutive goals, the team starts to heat up. Literally. Heat up. You score two goals and a player turns on red fire. You hit three in a row and the entire team is ensconced in blue flames and the only way to douse it is to score on the fired up team.

The Golden State Warriors at home can resemble a team of humans set ablaze with unmissable shots and video-game passing. Stephen Curry, of course, is the signal igniter of all things hot. Klay Thompson is perhaps the best finisher in the entire world after a series of dishes tic-tac-toeing around the perimeter. Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bogut, and Draymond Green are one-timer specialists.

Stephen Curry is often compared to a player lathering himself in video game mode at any time. The Golden State Warriors, as a team, belong in the NHL HItz series more so than any team in the NBA.