NBA Jam was one of the most iconic games of the 90s, and a major part of its nostalgic heritage is tied to the voice of Tim Kitzrow. In case you’re not aware, Tim Kitzrow is a legendary voice actor attributed with commentary credits in games like Mutant Football League 2 (that’s a game we haven’t talked about in a while), NBA JAM, NBA Superstars, and the legendary NFL Blitz.
In an interview with The Escapist, he revealed that he was paid a measly $50/hour for his voice acting efforts in the 1993 NBA Jam. Kitzrow indicated that he only did a couple of sessions, possibly a bit over 15 hours in total, which barely translated to $800 in total earnings from this venture. For context, when adjusting for inflation, that’s barely $1800 today. NBA Jam was America’s highest-grossing arcade game of 1993, bringing in more than $1 billion in its first year.
“I’d go in, do a couple of sessions – maybe 15 hours total – and that was it. I wasn’t smart enough, savvy enough to know the business, to go, ‘Gee, these games make a lot of money, maybe I should make more than $50 an hour. When the game came out, and I found out it made a billion dollars, that’s when I realised I’d made like 800-and-change, maybe something like that.”
Boomshakalaka!
NBA Jam is a game from the ’90s that we still hold in high regard, so coming across this bit of news this morning was a shock. Unfortunately, this isn’t anything new. According to The Guardian, Hellena Taylor, the original voice actor of Bayonetta, said she was offered an insulting $4,000 flat fee for Bayonetta 3. Former UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson also revealed he received $12,500 in royalties for appearing in UFC 3.
Major sports games benefit highly from real faces, voices, and names, but it looks like the compensation doesn’t match the individual effort. That disconnect is even worse in older games like Fight Night, NBA Street, and NFL Blitz — iconic voices and athletes helped build these franchises, but most were paid a flat rate with no royalties.
Voice actors still face big problems in 2025. Studios are starting to experiment with AI-generated commentary and voice cloning. Embark Studios is already using AI-generated voices for NPC dialogue in The Finals and Arc Raiders, which is what sparked Eurogamer’s harsh and viral review of ARC Raiders.
