Michael Jordan will ‘fight the flu’ in NBA 2K11

Get ready to break out the Air Jordans and that Space Jam DVD because it’s time to get your Michael Jordan on! That’s right – seven years after he retired from professional basketball and 12 years into the NBA 2K series, “His Airness” will be getting the royal treatment in 2K Sports’ next NBA video game installment.

After more than a decade of declining to appear in any NBA-licensed video game, Michael Jordan has finally been transformed to a bunch of pixels and polygons and whatever else they use in video games
Not only will Michael Jordan finally appear as a playable athlete in the game, he will be featured on the cover of the box art and a special game mode will be incorporated, called “The Jordan Challenge.” In this mode, players will have to complete 10 challenges based on what 2K considers the most important games in Jordan’s venerable career.

For example, players will apparently need to defeat the Cavaliers by 69 points in a challenge designed to simulate a March 1990 match that Jordan himself calls his greatest moment ever. Another part of the Jordan mode requires players to “attempt to battle back from the flu to defeat the Jazz in Game 6 of the 1997 finals,” according to an official 2K announcement. We’re not sure how a video game will incorporate having the flu, but if someone has managed to create a peripheral that sneezes in your face, we’re totally sold.