NBA Street is a successful video game created by the EA Sports BIG arm of EA Sports in 2001, and released on the PlayStation 2 that same year. It was adapted for the GameCube in 2002, and followed by sequels for the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox in 2003 and 2005. Its aim is to combine the talent and big names of the NBA with the attitude of streetball.

The basics and the gameplay

A normal basketball game in NBA Street is three-on-three, first to 21, must win by two. As teams play, they also try to accumulate trick points, which are scored through the use of good ballhandling, faking out defenders, pump-faking, blocking, stealing, diving for the ball, shooting from long range, and of course dunking and alley-oops. If a team fills their meter through flashy and effective gameplay, they get to perform a Gamebreaker, which is a special shot that not only adds to their score, but it subtracts from the opponents' score.

In NBA Street Vol. 2, many new features were added to gameplay, including the ability to throw the ball onto a defending player's head ("Off the Heezay") and to pass it off of the backboard (if it returns to the player, it's "Back 2 Papa"; if it goes to a teammate, it's "Back at Ya"). But the major addition was the level 2 gamebreaker. A team can "pocket" its existing gamebreaker while they have the ball and begin to work toward filling the meter again to trigger a GB2. This is a more spectacular shot, and it results in more points changing hands. But there's also a risk, because should a team get a gamebreaker while their opponents have one pocketed, they can "cancel" both of their gamebreakers if the team that wants to cancel has possession.

In NBA Street V3, one addition for gamebreakers is the use of mid-air combos to alter the number of points the shot is worth depending on a sequence of directions on the right analog stick (C-stick for GCN users).

Also in the Street franchise

The success of the Street franchise extended to American football, as EA Sports BIG created NFL Street, released in 2003, and NFL Street 2, released in 2004. The format was also brought to soccer with FIFA Street (2005).

A version of NBA Street, as well as one of NFL Street have been released on the PlayStation Portable or PSP under the titles NBA Street Challenge and NFL Street Unleashed.