NLSC Your source for basketball video games.

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on how my basketball gaming has increasingly involved hitting the streets to virtually hoop.

One of the most valuable life lessons I’ve learned is the importance of remaining open-minded, trying new things, and being willing to step outside your comfort zone. As someone who was a picky eater growing up, it’s been a delight to give new cuisine a chance, and discover that I have a taste for foods I was once intimidated by. Meeting new friends has introduced me to hobbies, interests, and experiences that I might not have tried otherwise. As for basketball gaming, I’ve been able to shed brand loyalty and established habits to find new retro kicks, and different ways of enjoying them.

Case in point: my recent appreciation for virtually balling in the streets! There’s plenty of irony here. First of all, playful jabs at JaoSming and his enthusiasm for Blacktop mode were running gags on old episodes of the NLSC Podcast, yet here I am enjoying the type of virtual streetball gameplay that he championed! Second, I’ve been highly critical of NBA Live’s focus on The Streets, particularly in NBA Live 19, so the last thing I expected was to get hooked on the Pro-Am Tour in NBA Live 18. I do still stand by many of my previous criticisms, but like a dish I swore I’d never eat, I’ve developed a taste for – with apologies to the Doobie Brothers – takin’ it to the streets.

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In today’s NBA 2K25 mod releases, CatScooter has released an updated version of his fix that removes sponsor logos from Association, Icon, and Statement jerseys. Check it out at the link below!

CatScooter
Remove Brands From Jerseys

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.

Every week, the NLSC Top 10 Plays indirectly poses a question: is there a more spectacular play in basketball, real or virtual, than a dunk? Well, slams may ultimately be king, but you know what else is fun? Buzzer beaters from way downtown, incredible blocks and other stops, and crossovers that leave defenders in the dust! You’ll find an array of such highlights in this week’s countdown, which also spotlights seven different games ranging from NBA Live 95 to NBA 2K25. I know you want to get hyped for a weekend of basketball gaming, so let’s get to the action!

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five players and their short-lived stints that nevertheless became iconic.

Even when a player has had stints with multiple teams, there’s usually one that stands out as their most famous or memorable. Interestingly, it isn’t always the team that they spent the bulk of their career with. Sometimes, it’s the short-lived stints that produce the most success or notoriety, so they’re the ones that are best remembered and often talked about. Personal nostalgia also comes into play here. I’d suggest that we tend to associate players with the teams they played for when we first started watching and taking a keen interest in basketball, or at least very early on in our fandom.

To that point, our perception of time also changes as we age. A player having a three or four-year stint seemed like a long tenure back when I was a teenage hoop head, but now that I’m older, it’s over in a blink! Looking back, I’ve realised that there are quite a few Hall of Fame players whose most iconic stints were actually rather short-lived. Despite that brevity however, those are the jerseys that we tend to picture them in. As such, it’s interesting to reflect on how long those stints actually lasted, and why they became so iconic to the point of eclipsing longer tenures. With that in mind, here are five all-time greats, and their iconic short-lived stints that I tend to remember best.

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Although I’ve been mixing things up with NBA Live 18 and a couple of other titles, some familiar favourites remain in the rotation. That includes continuing to play my way through Year 6 in NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, and to that end, I’ve put together the highlights from Games 61-71!

Unfortunately, the virtual Philadelphia 76ers’ bid to go 82-0 will have to wait until next season, as the Memphis Grizzlies snapped our winning streak at 66 games. As I mentioned on the NLSC Podcast, I admittedly messed around too much and failed to turn on the jets in the fourth quarter of that game, blowing the opportunity for an undefeated season. Nevertheless, this stretch of games produced some more entertaining highlights, and NBA 2K14 MyCAREER continues to be a blast. Playing through to the current day remains a long-term goal, so we’ll see if I can reach 2025 in 2025.

While previous compilations have covered 10-game stretches, with an 82-game schedule, I decided that the final two reels for the regular season will include 11 games apiece. Once the Playoffs begin, I’ll post highlight reels at the end of each round. Obviously, my intention is to go all the way to the NBA Finals and capture title number six, so if all goes well, there’ll be four reels from the 2019 Playoffs. After that, it’ll be on to Year 7!

With that being said, watch the highlights from Games 61-71 below! For further updates on my journey through NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, check out this topic in the Stories section of the Forum. Be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more basketball gaming content, and as always, feel free to post suggestions of games that you’d like to see Dee and I play! We’ll do our best to connect on them, and share the highlights with you.

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the basketball games of the 2008 season, and explaining why I believe it was the weakest lineup to date.

As much as I miss having multiple annual releases in the basketball gaming space – especially when we had at least three or four companies throwing their hat into the ring – it clearly wasn’t sustainable. The quality of those games was inconsistent across the board, and it didn’t help that some of them were console and regional exclusives. To that point, it’s no wonder that many series didn’t last nearly as long as NBA 2K, or even NBA Live. Still, it was great having so many choices that brought their own ideas to the table, and there were usually at least one or two fantastic games each year.

Nominating the best or strongest year in basketball gaming is tough; in fact, that’s a topic that Dee and I might have to tackle on the podcast, with the community’s input. If we’re talking about the worst or weakest season for basketball games though, I do have an answer that – while obviously subjective – I am confident in. After going back and reviewing NBA Live 08, NBA 2K8, and Sony’s NBA 08, I believe that 2008 is the frontrunner for the weakest season for basketball video games. I certainly wouldn’t expect everyone to agree, but I have my reasons. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #557 of the NLSC Podcast!

What does “sim” really entail when it comes to basketball video games? There are definitely some myths and misunderstandings, which we’re certainly eager to clear up! This includes how realism affects the virtual hardwood, and how recent games have performed in their approach to the sim style. Talking real hoops leads into us joining the community in recalling the go-to moves that we like to use when we play basketball, whether it’s in an organised league or pick-up. We also recap a co-op session of NBA 2K17 featuring the Ultimate Classic Teams Roster and a couple of quintessential video game teams, and provide a PSA regarding NBA 2K23 and its impending server shutdown.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:00:18 — 41.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some reflections on the server shutdowns that have taken place in 2024 – or will soon take place – as it relates to basketball gaming.

As gamers, we all know too well that server shutdowns are inevitable. While it’s unfortunate, it’s also understandable. There comes a point where there simply aren’t enough people still playing a game to justify the cost, time, and energy required to maintain online support. We’re also given a clear heads up in the documentation for games. For example, following a change in policy in the wake of the backlash to the NBA 2K14 server shutdown in 2015, we’ve been able to bank on 27 months of online support for each game in the NBA 2K series thereafter.

Still, even when we know that they’re coming, and can understand the reasons behind them, server shutdowns remain a bummer. Most of us are going to be left with some unfinished business, or just be disappointed that we can’t revisit and continue playing a memorable save in a connected mode. To that end, as of writing, we’ve lost online support for one Triple-A basketball game in 2024, while a second will see its server shutdowns happen very soon. Meanwhile, the closure of another online service was a blow for anyone still playing their Xbox 360. As such, I’m reflecting on those server shutdowns, and how my basketball gaming has been (or will be) impacted by them.

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You may have noticed a few plays in the weekly NLSC Top 10 being credited to Team NLSC. They’re from co-op games that Dee and I have played over Parsec, which continues to be a lot of fun. Dee is always assembling highlights from those sessions, with our most recent games featuring NBA Live 18 and NBA 2K17.

The NBA Live 18 highlights are from our game against the Denver Nuggets using the Utah Jazz. As we recalled in Episode #556 of the NLSC Podcast, this was a revenge game after the first contest got away from us. We were definitely trying to put on a show with Donovan Mitchell, and it produced some spectacular moments that were immensely satisfying to pull off!

In a game that we’ll undoubtedly discuss on an upcoming show, we also fired up NBA 2K17 to play with Dee’s Ultimate Classic Teams Roster. This allowed us to flash back to the mid 2000s and take on Kobe Bryant’s post-Shaq, pre-Pau Lakers with a New Jersey Nets squad featuring Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson. Those Nets are a quintessential Video Game Team, with Vinsanity unsurprisingly providing many of the highlights.

Check out both highlight reels below! As always, be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play. We’ll do our best to get them into the rotation, and of course, talk about them on the NLSC Podcast!

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Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.

This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays once again spans generations, with a variety of games and NBA greats! Some of them may be wearing different jerseys due to the fantastic scenarios the virtual hardwood facilitates, but there’s no mistaking Dr. J’s signature aerial abilities, the lightning-quick crossovers of Allen Iverson, and LeBron James’ trademark dunks as both a young man and elder statesmen of the league. Eight games are featured this week, ranging from NBA Live 2005 to NBA 2K25. As always, our Top 10 is the best way to get pumped up for a weekend of basketball gaming, so let’s get to the action!

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is another list of five stints that never officially appeared in basketball video games.

It’s Part 3 in what is becoming an ongoing series recalling stints that never officially appeared in video games! I’m always wary of spending too long on certain topics, but since I ended up going to Part 21 in my series about players who only appeared on certain teams in games, a third article definitely isn’t that crazy. Besides, as long as there are interesting examples to talk about and stories to revisit, I’d rather not leave them on the table. Considering that all five players this time around were All-Stars, they’re undoubtedly too important not to discuss!

When it comes to stints that don’t officially appear in any video games, it’s usually because it was a very brief tenure, and generally the result of a midseason signing or trade. Alternatively, the move may have happened quite early in the year or even in the offseason, but missed the roster cut-off date for the game, and no official roster update ever accounted for it (in many cases because the game predates such updates becoming commonplace). This list contains examples of both, as well as a rather unique example that’s…well, there’s no question that it belongs on a list of stints with no official representation, but at the same time, it sort of was included. Let’s begin!

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One of our goals when it comes to offering free file hosting to the community is the preservation of mods and modding tools. To that end, it’s always satisfying when we can track down a lost file or utility, and ensure that it’s readily available once again. While fixing some broken links some months back, I noted that I was unable to find V1.2 of Looyh’s File Export Console for NBA 2K21. In the short term, I uploaded V1.1, but thanks to Skysect, V1.2 has been located and reuploaded to our Downloads database. If you’ve been looking for it, pick it up at the link below!

Looyh
NBA 2K21 File Export Console

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m reflecting on how we’ve now reached the end of Franchise mode in NBA Live 2000 in real life.

To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – a classic film that I surprisingly haven’t referenced more often in my various articles – “life moves pretty fast“. That may not sound like a particularly profound piece of wisdom, but it is funny how a date that once seemed so futuristic is suddenly the present. In the 90s, the future draft picks in the 2000s that were being thrown into trades seemed so far away. Of course, back then the Year 2000 sounded incredibly sci-fi in general. Then it arrived, and apart from some very old computers rolling back to 1980 on their calendar, 2000 felt very much like 1999!

Around the turn of the millennium, we received one of the all-time great basketball video games: NBA Live 2000. The crowning achievement of the original NBA Live development team still holds up, especially the PC version which also brought us the first iteration of Franchise mode. Sim heads had been longing for multi-season play, and after NBA Live 99 gave us a small taste of the concept, Franchise in NBA Live 2000 truly delivered the goods. With the ability to play or simulate up to 25 seasons, we could reach the once faraway year of 2024! Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #556 of the NLSC Podcast!

What are some of the worst basketball and basketball video game takes that we’ve encountered over the years? This week, we join our fellow gamers and hoop heads in recalling an assortment of truly terrible opinions that definitely made us scoff! We also played a couple of co-op games of NBA Live 18 using Parsec and the Xbox App. As we discuss, these sessions not only reminded us of the promising potential that NBA Live 18 had, but also saw us gain some satisfying revenge following a tough defeat. On that note, we also join the community in reflecting on the most devastating losses that we’ve endured on the virtual hardwood.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:28:06 — 60.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on players either using renders or real photos for portraits in basketball video games.

When you’re a fan of a specific sport or genre – probably both in the case of basketball video games – it’s easy to get stuck in a bubble. As such, it’s always interesting to take a glance at other fandoms, and observe familiar debates over similar issues. Of course, if you’re part of multiple fandoms, you may have had those discussions many times! Case in point, I happened across a thread in the WWE Games subreddit that raises a question about an issue that I’ve had as a fan of both basketball and wrestling games: in-game renders, or real life photos for portraits?

Reading through that discussion reminded me of my own conflicting thoughts on the matter throughout the years. Like many incompatible preferences, both are reasonable to desire, and both have clear advantages and disadvantages. To that end, it’s hardly surprising that the debate rages on, and that it’s difficult to find common ground. In the grand scheme of things, there are certainly more important issues with basketball and wrestling games than whether their presentation makes use of in-game renders or real portraits. All the same, the little things in gaming definitely do still matter. And so, while I don’t expect to settle the debate here, I’ll throw in my two cents once again.

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