Calling all nerds! NBA 2K9 Chicago Bulls Player Ratings Leak! New 2K9 features!

By Sean Mackey

So, apparently this is a leaked list of the player ratings for NBA 2K9. We all knew that there would be a slight ratings drop for a lot of players on the Bulls after the lackluster season. For example, Thomas is down to a 73 after an optimistic 76 rating on last year's game. Drew Gooden and Thabo's ratings both went up a tad. I've posted the old ratings in parenthesis to the right of the new ones for your comparing pleasures. In my opinion, they're about where they need to be after a bad year, nobody dropped mass ratings points so that's good. Also, if I might add, It'll be fun to finally play as Aaron Gray who for some reason was snubbed on 2K8.

2K9 Ratings
Luol Deng - 84 (Same)
Kirk Hinrich - 84 (85)
Ben Gordon - 82 (Same)
Derrick Rose - 80 (New Player)
Andres Nocioni - 80 (82)
Larry Hughes - 79 (81)
Drew Gooden - 76 (73)
Joakim Noah - 74 (76)
Thabo Sefolosha - 73 (72)
Tyrus Thomas - 73 (76)
Aaron Gray - 72 (New Player)
Cedric Simmons - 66 (Same)

The new features on 2K9 this year include the first ever 5 on 5 online play. This would normally seem lame if you didn't have the ball, but you'll be able to tug other players jerseys to slow them down and play hard defense which will be cool. The game also includes something called "living players". This feature will automatically update player ratings, trades and starting lineups weekly. How cool is that?

The best new addition to the game has to be the Create a Player downloads. For the first time ever, you'll be able to create players and upload them for other users to download. Users will also be able to rate your created player so that you'll be able to pick the best rendition of that particular baller. This will solve the problem with annoying people begging other users on message forums for people to post CAP attributes (which I might add was damn near impossible with last years game unless you took screen shots and posted them online).

Overall it looks like it's going to be an awesome game, even better than last year and 2K8 was the best basketball game I've ever played. With new animations, smoother gameplay and the new features mentioned above, 2K9 seems poised to out do EA Sports for the 3rd straight year in a row.

P.S. to all gamers still playing NBA Live:
Your game is lame. Do yourself a favor and switch over, you won't regret it.