NBA Live 09 is a basketball simulation game where you control the athletes yourself. You can choose to play a whole season, playoffs, or the FIBA World Championship. In Dynasty Mode, you take on the role of a basketball team's executive, managing tasks like transfers and training. The Live Academy Mode offers special challenges, such as scoring a certain number of points in a set time limit. Be-a-Pro Mode lets you control just one athlete.
The key innovation in NBA Live 09 is "Dynamic DNA", which updates the game's statistics with real-world data from the NBA league. This helps the game make smart tactical decisions, and you can choose to play it manually or disable the system altogether. You can also relive a match exactly as it happened in real life. The Pick & Roll controls for offense are new too - holding a button lets an athlete block the ball while you control another player moves into position.