...
"Can't BUY a bucket!" The sports caster's voice rang out through the packed stadium. The game had been over for nearly 4 quarters but all the fans still waited with baited breath to witness what might just be the greatest miracle in Jam history. The ball bounced from the rim, up, up... too high for Grant's early jump but Mitch came down with the board, completely unaware of what was at stake. The score was 98-8 with fifteen seconds left in the fourth, the good guys needed two more points and they just lost possession.
Pippen, who had been on fire for the last 3 quarters just missed his second 3 in a row, and now it was time to play defense. Pippen rushed toward Mitch Richmond pushing furiously, missing wildly. Mitch took the ball up the floor and managed to sneak past Pippen at half court. 5 seconds left.
In the NBA, 5 seconds is an eternity. But here, on this court, 5 seconds isn't even 5 seconds, it's like 1.5 seconds and there's no way to stop the clock.
Pippen kicked it into high gear while Grant dropped back to clog the lane and guard against the easy bucket off the pass. Pippen caught up with Richmond, and pushing with all the fury in his 16-bit heart managed to knock the ball away from him. Somehow in the chaos, Grant, having abandoned his spot in the post, and in the kind of moment he has prepared for his whole life, scraped the ball off the hardwood, lights flashed, dreams seemed attainable, 1 seconds left, Bulls possession. Grant took one step toward the basket, but there was too little time, he had to shoot. Somewhere behind half court, with 1 second left on the clock Horace Grant chose to take a full form jumper. He went up, froze in mid air, and the dream Andy X and I shared was shattered once again.
Chicago Wins.
final score: 98-8
"Noooo!" I screamed. I had actually been screaming that for the last 10 seconds, fearing the worst.
"Goddamm it!" yelled Andy X, and threw his little black three-button to the floor.
Statement of intent.
Andy X and I intend to play on the same NBA Jam team and score 100 points against any opponent during normal regulation play.
Game System: Sega Genesis
Team of choice: Chicago Bulls
Quarter length: 5 minutes.
Game speed: 3
Game difficulty: 3
Computer assistance: off
This goal shall be known as The Quest For 100, and we won't stop playing until we have succeeded.
When we first started "The Quest", the most we could ever score in a single game was like 60 points. By now, the previous two times we played we had gotten nerve shatteringly close to the golden number, but 98 was the farthest we had reached yet.
Andy X and I, feeling a little bitter at one another, unable to shake the feeling that we both let one another down in one of the worst single quarter performances either of us could remember, decided to take a break to eat some cereal or something. I honestly don't remember what we did besides stave off tears of shame, and disappointment. By the end of the third quarter we had scored 88 points and looked poised to shatter the 100 point mark. 98 points was a monstrous failure, a break-down of the highest order, and a point of shame for both of us. It would be two days before we took up the quest again.
:Two days later:
"Let's score 100 points in NBA Jam," Andrew said.
"ookay," I said, reluctant to be so openly confident after the debacle of two days earlier.
"We're going to do it."
I wasn't sure that I believed him.
The game started magnificently. Through the first quarter we had scored 30 points. Through the second the tally was 62 and were on pace for 125 points. By the third quarter we took off running, and through our blend of ferocious pushing, unflappable blocking, and the power of the On-Fire three-point shot, racked up 90 points by the end of the third. We had a single quarter to score 10 points. The last time we played, two days prior however, we were unable to score 12 points in a quarter, a paltry number to our usual 25+ point quarters. We knew what we were up against: fate. Would we ever reach the one hundred point mark? How much damage would The Quest for 100 do to us before we could finally claim sweet, personal, esoteric moral victory. What would be left of us?
The beginning of the 4th didn't look good. Pippen, who had been "on fire" for the previous three quarters lost his on-fire almost immediately. Our hearts were raddled, and our minds addled by the overwhelming fear of failure. We could do nothing right. Finally we managed to drain two, two point buckets, and with a third shot from beyond the arc, get on fire one last time to set the score to 97 to six. Threatening to break our on-fire streak, Danny Manning drove down the court, unwittingly and knowingly participating in the greatest humiliation in his humiliating career on the Clippers. Pippen, our aggressive defensive mastermind caught up as he pulled up for the long jay. Pippen stole the ball and approached the three point line with terrorfied bravada.
"From Downtown!" Yelled the caster's voice.
Swish!
By the end of our careers we had nearly doubled our original 60 point marks, and eventiually reaching 118, with a glimpse at the upper most limits of NBA Jam scoring. We predict that 140 points in a single game is attainable, however we posit that any significant point totals over 140 would be impossible due to the physical limitations of the game. In the spirit of the quest for 100, we ask any fan of NBA Jam to present us with a video of a two-person team of players who have scored 140 points against the computer, and implementing the NBA Jam settings posted above in the "Statement of Intent." We will post your video on our page and give you a copy of NBA Jam signed by both Andy X and myself, D.L. Hughley Butler. Good luck. And remember, as Andy X says, "Lose yourself in the JAM!"
