NBA The Run tips off Wave One with five 2000s legends
The free update adds Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and Dirk Nowitzki, two new cameras and 11 licensed 2000s tracks.
NBA The Run has its first seasonal update. Wave One — 2000s Legends went live on 29 September 2026 as a free download for every player, and the studio calls it the biggest addition to the 3v3 streetball game since it launched in June.
The headline act is a five-player class of 2000s NBA legends: Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and Dirk Nowitzki, each carrying their signature moves and each with an alternate jersey that turns back the clock.
What the legends cost
Every legend can be unlocked individually for 5,000 Cred, the in-game currency earned by playing, or bought together as one downloadable pack for $9.99 in the Microsoft Store. The update itself costs nothing, and the five join a roster that already spans current NBA stars, this year's rookies, rookie variants of selected players and the game's own Street Legends.
Championship Belts give that roster a new long-term job. Knockout Squads and Knockout Solos each carry their own belt, earned by winning with individual players rather than settling on one favoured line-up, and a running belt count sits in the main menu for friends to compare.
Two new cameras and 11 licensed tracks
Drive Cam places the camera behind your player and looks towards the basket you are attacking. Drive Flip Cam swings between your offensive and defensive ends instead. Both are aimed at reading passing lanes and judging defensive positioning more easily, and the studio says style moves read better from the new angles.
Run Anthems adds 11 licensed tracks drawn from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles — the four cities whose courts appear in the game. The studio says it dug through hundreds of artists to keep the playlist authentic to the 2000s rather than simply chasing the era's biggest names, and the selection was vetted with the game's announcer, Bobbito Garcia. Players who prefer the original score can switch to licensed, original or a blend of the two in Settings.
Practice, custom matches and a rebuilt dunk package
Practice Mode puts you against the CPU on any court and any ruleset, and Custom Matches invite up to five friends into private online games in Knockout Solos or Knockout Squads. Neither mode touches progression or awards Cred, which makes them a pressure-free place to test new players and line-ups.
The update also adds new driving layups, standing dunks, alley-oops and advanced dunk animations, two new tournament courts in Dyckman — in day and tournament variants — and Spring Garden Elementary, plus new taunts, banners, badges and jerseys. Goaltending has been significantly reduced, which the studio identifies as one of the areas players asked it to address, and it says a Campaign mode is currently targeted for spring 2027.
Our opinion
Wave One is the moment NBA The Run stops looking like a launch and starts looking like a platform. The interesting choice is not the five legends — that is the lure — but the structure built around them. Championship Belts reward you for rotating a whole roster instead of mastering one squad, Practice Mode and Custom Matches deliberately pay no Cred, and the licensed soundtrack is drawn from the four cities the game actually plays in rather than licensed at random. Those are decisions that make the game better rather than simply longer. The $9.99 legend bundle is a fair price for an optional shortcut, and leaving each legend unlockable with earned Cred keeps the roster reachable without spending. The caveat is familiar: a live-service game lives or dies on whether Wave Two arrives with the same attention, and a Campaign still promised for spring 2027 is a lot of runway. On this evidence, NBA The Run has earned the benefit of the doubt.