NBA 2K12 has historic rosters, in part because the NBA lockout will probably not make the regular rosters all that exciting when the game is released on October 4. The reason this is relevant to SB Nation Atlanta is that one of the historic teams being represented in the best annual NBA game is "Pistol" Pete Maravich's Atlanta Hawks from the 1970-1971 season.
This particular season was Maravich's rookie year when he averaged 23.2 points alongside other notable names like Lou Hudson, Walt Bellamy, Walt Hazzard and Bill Bridges. It wasn't a particularly dominant team as they lost to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, but whenever a video game has the opportunity to include a player nicknamed the Pistol with video game-like highlight reels, it probably should.
In order to include the Hawks and Maravich, a player not deemed one of the 15 legends included in the game, the 2K12 developers decided to match-up Jerry West's Lakers team of the same season. West's team includes Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Gail Goodrich, among others. Before testing the game out to see how Maravich compares to any of today's superstars, players will have to defeat the Lakers in an exhibition game to unlock the team.
If the current version of the Hawks are bad in this game, at least there's a suitable replacement -- with cooler uniforms.
A full list of NBA 2K12's historic rosters can be found at Pasta Padre's website while Kotaku broke down the best non-legends included in the game.