Sports Illustrated put together a really great oral history of NBA Jam that you should read.

It includes this great little anecdote from Mark Turmell, a developer at game-maker Midway:

Gary Payton got a hold of me and wanted to be in the game. [Payton was still on the verge of breaking out; the Sonics were represented in Jam by Shawn Kemp and Benoit Benjamin.] I told him what we would need, not thinking anything would come of it. It’s a lot of effort, like nine images for the head. . . . Then I received photographs in the mail, Payton standing in front of a wall at all these angles. Then he said, “Oh, I’m buddies with Ken Griffey Jr. and he wants to be in the game. . . . And Michael Jordan wants to be in the game.” … I did a special version of the game with the three of them in it. I sent that to Payton. I was happy to do it, but it was pretty early in his career. It wasn’t even clear it was the right move.

First off, that’s just a great Gary Payton story. But more importantly: There’s a version of NBA Jam with MJ in it! That’s significant because, as the feature notes, Jordan opted out of the NBAPA’s licensing agreement, so he wasn’t included in the legendary game.

The vital question here is: Can I play it?

Turmell actually answered that question earlier this year in a Reddit AMA (hat tip to Polygon for finding it). When asked if he could dump that version on the Interwebs, he replied, “I could! Will try to dig up.” Polygon followed up with Turmell, who had this to say:

“I was referring to EPROMs.” he said. “I have a cabinet stored away with sets of them. “Have to see how they’re labeled when I get in there,” he went on. “Can’t imagine getting into any trouble at this point!” meaning he foresees no rights issues with sharing whatever he has.

There’s only one word for the possibility of the GOAT version of NBA Jam: