NBA The Run is set to launch on June 9, 2026, bringing an officially licensed NBA and NBPA streetball game to a space long dominated by memory and imitation. Play by Play Studios, the team behind the project first known as The Run: Got Next, has turned a 2021 idea built around entirely fictional characters into a title that now includes 32 NBA players from across the league.
The shift began after the trailer went up and the NBA contacted the studio about licensing its teams and players. That call changed the project’s scale and its identity. What had started as a scrappy streetball concept became NBA The Run, with courts at Venice Beach and The Tenement in the Philippines, street legends that can be unlocked through progression, and a Deluxe Edition priced at $39.99 that includes a Stephen Curry Golden State Warriors '09 Rookie Variant, a Luka Dončić Dallas Mavericks '18 Rookie Variant, a Kevin Durant Seattle SuperSonics '07 Rookie Variant, and 1,000 CRED.
Play By Play’s lineup gives the project some built-in credibility. The studio includes Mike Young, who worked on NBA Street, FIFA Street and SSX before becoming creative director on the Madden franchise, and that pedigree shows in the way NBA The Run is being positioned: less simulation, more rhythm, personality and pace. The game keeps arcade-style play at its center and uses the street-legend progression system as part of that throwback identity, a direct nod to the series that made playground basketball feel larger than life.
It also arrives with a business model that stays away from the pack-heavy approach common in modern sports games. Shop purchases use the CRED system and do not use packs, and the items available in the shop depend on Profile Rank. Winning tournaments in style raises Profile Rank faster and opens the door to more coveted items, tying the economy directly to how well a player performs rather than how many randomized purchases are made. For a game built around swagger, that design choice fits the mood of the court.
The clearest read on how NBA The Run wants to play comes from its athletes. Anthony Davis’s size and rim presence translate directly into the game’s above-the-rim rhythm, while LaMelo Ball is built as the flashy, creative connector who excels at finding teammates and keeping the ball moving. That mix suggests a roster meant not just to fill uniforms, but to shape style and tempo on the floor.
Scott Probst, in describing the partnership, said the NBA and NBPA collaboration takes the studio to a new level and that the small team is scrappy, focused and relentless about creating a new smash hit. The confidence makes sense. NBA Street has been gone for more than a decade, and while NBA 2K’s Neighborhood modes have tried to scratch that itch, they never quite became the thing itself. NBA The Run is trying to occupy that old lane again, only this time with the NBA’s full backing and a game built from the start to carry the league’s name.
That matters because the launch is no longer about whether a nostalgia play can work in theory. On June 9, 2026, the test will be whether an arcade-first basketball game with licensed stars, hidden legends and a court-hopping style can feel fresh without losing the rough-edged energy that made the genre matter in the first place.
