The problem with this game, as with many arcade sports games, is once you figure out what to do, it's insanely easy and gets kind of boring.
There are two tournament plays that are both pretty fun, jam and legends. in Jam tournament you go up against all of the teams in the NBA. then you start facing more cartoonish teams, who are much more difficult. There's one really big problem with legends mode, which would be a really exciting part of this game without this factor, it's that it doesn't have Michael Jordan. how can you have 3 "90s all-star" teams without the greatest basketball player that ever lived? it takes a lot away from the experience.
The gameplay is pretty good, but it gets kind of repetitive. There are "hotspots", in which the player does a crazy messed up dunk from the 3 point line. It is possibly the lamest thing I have ever seen.
The sound is ok at first, but then it gets annoying, the announcer, and the menu music.
Since this game is now about 15 dollars new, i think it's worth it. however NBA street (and nba street 2) is also about 15 dollars, and both are much better arcade basketball games. The create-a-player and create-a-team features are nice. if you create a player, it won't take too long to max out his skills, until you have an amazing unstoppable player.
This game can get really fun but will soon lose its effect.