Citing "sources confirmed," ESPN reports that EA Sports has acquired the rights to the NBA Jam series and is readying a new Wii-exclusive entry. The long-lost over-the-top balling franchise, which emerged out of Midway in 1993, has laid dormant since 2003, when Acclaim produced a PlayStation 2 and Xbox entry simply titled "NBA Jam."

But while Acclaim and Midway both produced entries in the nearly twenty-year-old franchise, it seems the NBA itself has retained ownership of the "NBA Jam" property.

Of course, Destructoid recently chimed in, claiming that EA's "new game" is a Wii football trainer, but that doesn't automatically disprove either rumor. After all, EA Sports certainly has more than one unannounced project in the works, and one rumor specifies a revival of an existing franchise, while another points to a new property. Regardless of what happens, though, let's just hope the "boom," "shaka" and "laka" remain intact.