USA Basketball, 2K partner to bring 2016 Olympic team to NBA 2K17

NBA 2K17 will feature the 2016 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team, with coach Mike Krzyzewski, and the 1992 "Dream Team," it was announced Wednesday.

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NBA 2K17 will feature the 2016 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, with coach Mike Krzyzewski, and the 1992 “Dream Team,” 2K announced on Wednesday.

NBA 2K will partner with USA Basketball to once again bring the teams to its popular NBA video game, as it did four years ago, in greater detail. Now, you can pit Kevin Durant, Paul George, ​Kyrie Irving and the 2016 Olympic team against the Warriors, and see which team’s version of KD scores more. 

“In 2K13, we had a pretty basic integration. With the partnership with USAB, we’ve done a lot more,” vice president of marketing Alfie Brody said in a phone interview. “It’s the quality of the experience. The graphics have improved dramatically in the next-gen consoles.”

Krzyzewski is the biggest difference in the two releases. The longtime Duke coach and leader of the Olympic team since 2008 will appear on the sidelines in the game, and will become the voice and face of a new game tutorial. 

• Olympics preview: Even without stars, U.S. men's basketball favored in Rio

While the 1992 team will feature the detailed faces of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and the like, you won’t see Krzyzewski as an assistant on the sideline helping Chuck Daly coach the team. He’s exclusive to this year’s squad.

To get the Dream Team, and a custom USA Basketball jersey for your MyPlayer to wear, you can pre-order the game. If you choose not to, you'll have to pay to add the 1992 team to your game.

What 2K will choose to do in the future with Team USA remains to be seen, but they intend to remain partners and continue featuring the team in 2020, when Gregg Popovich will take over as head coach.

“They’ve been very good partners,” Brody said. “We love the story we write, the narrative we can build around the USAB team. I think our focus would be on building and innovating what we’ve done...for the next round, four years from now, we’re going to really focus on new and fresh. Whether it’s a new mode in the game, or some special feature around USAB.”

The game is set to be released on Sept. 20, but you can grab a copy four days early by pre-ordering.