Today’s mod releases for NBA 2K25 include two more Magic-Bird era courts from Bassman58, and a few tattoo updates by bluejaybrandon. Check them out at the links below!

Bassman58
Utah Jazz Magic-Bird Era Court
Washington Bullets Magic-Bird Era Court

bluejaybrandon
Norman Powell Tattoo Update
Marvin Bagley III Tattoo Update
Harry Giles III Tattoo Update

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 taking an in-depth look back at NBA Street Homecourt with a video retrospective.

Eighteen years ago tomorrow, the Xbox 360 version of NBA Street Homecourt was released, with the PlayStation 3 version dropping a couple of weeks later. Featuring authentic courts where NBA players honed their talents growing up, it marked a tonal shift in the series. As such, it’s easily the most divisive NBA Street game! However, while it may not have been a hit with everyone, it definitely has its strong points. I’ve always enjoyed it for what it is, and the fact that I caught an early glimpse of it at an NBA Live 07 community event undoubtedly contributes to my nostalgia for it! This video retrospective is a long time coming, so let’s take a look back…way back…

I hope that you enjoyed this deep dive into the final console release in the NBA Street series! What are your thoughts on NBA Street Homecourt? Is it an overlooked gem, a blunder, or somewhere in between? Have your say in the comments below! I’m keen to produce more video retrospectives for Wayback Wednesday throughout 2025, so be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel if you haven’t already. On top of retrospectives, essays, and podcast episodes, you’ll also find the weekly Top 10 Plays and plenty of gameplay reels. As always, feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play, or be covered in a future Wayback Wednesday.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #568 of the NLSC Podcast!

This week, we’re reacting to the 2025 Slam Dunk Contest, and the suggestion that threepeat champion Mac McClung has established himself as the greatest dunker of all-time. We’re inclined to disagree, and are bewildered by the lack of acknowledgement of the boosts that he gets on most of his dunk attempts! Additionally, we’ve got a few thoughts on the use of props and gimmicks in the contest in general. We also join the community in discussing the most frustrating types of players to play with and against in organised leagues and pick-up alike, and recap a couple of fantastic sessions with NBA Live 16 and NBA Live 10; two games that continue to surprise and delight us, years later.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 59:57 — 41.5MB)

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!

If you thought johnz1 was done after his last awesome release for the PlayStation 3 version of NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, you were wrong! After flashing back to the 90s, johnz1 now brings NBA Jam: On Fire Edition into the current decade with the release of the 2020s On Fire Edition mod.

Rather than being an update for the 2025 campaign or a specific season in particular, NBA Jam: 2020s On Fire Edition features each club’s best team from the 2020s so far. Some teams are accurate as of 2025 – such as the Los Angeles Lakers with Luka Doncic and LeBron James – but other squads are from the recent past. Presently, Detroit, Houston, and Toronto have not been updated with 2020s squads, but johnz1 intends to do that in a future release.

You’ll also find some bonus teams and players unlockable in the Store. The mod also adds new arenas, jerseys, shoes, faces, and coaches, as well as additional gameplay options for Jam Now mode. The Road Trip campaign has also been updated, and includes some rules that the mode originally didn’t use. Full release notes can be found below.

Download NBA Jam: 2020s On Fire Edition here, and check out the release and support topic here! As with johnz1’s previous mods, it can be installed on both the RPCS3 emulator and jailbroken PS3s. Please see the installation instructions for more details. Shout out to johnz1 for producing yet another amazing mod for a classic game!

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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 the lines between Triple-A gaming and mobile gaming have well and truly become blurred.

We’re living in the age of hot takes, clickbait, and extreme opinions. With that being said, as much as algorithms may not reward it, I prefer to steer clear of hyperbole and reactionary viewpoints in my content. To that end, if I express a strong and potentially controversial opinion, it’s because I mean it. I don’t want to devalue adjectives, be they positive or negative. If you call every new release the best, or frequently declare games to be garbage without further explanation, then eventually you undermine your credibility. Well, your credibility should be in question, anyway!

Mind you, sometimes harsh, unvarnished criticisms that may seem like hyperbolic insults are in fact fair and accurate. A good example is the assertion that Triple-A games are becoming more and more like mobile titles. There’s plenty of evidence that the suits at major studios have taken notes on mobile gaming’s ability to milk gamers for recurrent revenue, and pushed for those mechanics to be incorporated into console and PC games. As such, it hasn’t gone unnoticed how games like NBA 2K now have features and economies akin to free-to-play titles. Recently, I had an experience that made it clear just how blurred the lines are between Triple-A and mobile gaming.

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As a keen retro gamer, it’s always exciting to receive a notification about new mod releases for games like NBA Live 2005! Modders27 has been diligently updating the game for a while now, and his latest release is a new face for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Check it out at the link below!

Modders27
Giannis Antetokounmpo Face

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 Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.

The All-Star Weekend is upon us, and while many of us have lost our enthusiasm for the midseason classic in real life, it’s still a blast in video games! A few of the entries in this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays demonstrate that, as the league’s brightest stars strut their stuff on the virtual hardwood. As always, it’s not just NBA 2K25 that’s in gamers’ rotations, as you’ll see a couple of classic releases among the six titles featured in this week’s countdown. Spectacular dunks, fantastic two-way plays, ankle breakers…you should know what to expect by now, 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 comments that annoy content creators.

Oh, a topic like this always feels risky! It’s impossible not to sound arrogant or ungrateful, blaming the audience instead of looking inwards. Indeed, that’s the kind of attitude that I’ve readily pushed back against when developers have tried to lay blame at the feet of gamers, rather than acknowledge issues in their titles. When it comes to encouraging engagement, there are many ways that content creators can err, from subpar work to how they speak of and to their readers, viewers, and listeners. If you put creative work out into the world, you’re going to run the gamut of responses to it.

Mind you, just as some content creators have a disgracefully disdainful view of their audience – particularly anyone who dares question their opinions – people jumping in the comments can forget that there’s a human being behind what they consume (well, unless it’s AI-generated, but that’s a gripe for another time). While it’s great to receive comments and know that your work is being seen and appreciated, there are definitely some discouraging responses and needlessly unpleasant interactions. You might say that that’s just the risk we take with any creative endeavour, but if I can be frank here today, there are some comments that content creators like me would prefer not to see.

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It’s nice to see some more mod releases for NBA 2K25 being added to our Downloads database, with the latest one being a Fred Van Vleet tattoo update from bluejaybrandon. Pick it up at the link below!

bluejaybrandon
Fred Van Vleet Tattoo Update

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 pondering a historical What If; namely, what if Karl Malone broke the all-time scoring record?

Welcome to what I hope will be a recurring Wayback Wednesday feature, in which I explore some intriguing NBA What Ifs, illustrated by basketball video games! For a hardcore basketball and history buff, diving into the league’s biggest What Ifs can be just as interesting as reflecting on real events, results, and records. What small change would have a huge impact on NBA history? Which important events that defined the legacies of teams and players are dependent on a particular decision or twist of fate? For want of a nail, what possible butterfly effects can we imagine?

Considering that I remain a huge fan of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, you might think that I’d be inclined to explore a hypothetical involving them. After all, for all of their success during the 90s, there are a couple of What Ifs there! I will get to them at some point as I do have my own opinions to share, but they’re popular NBA What Ifs that have been discussed many times before. As such, for my first What If, I’m imagining a timeline where Karl Malone breaks the all-time scoring record. It’s a once-feasible event that’s hardly discussed now, so let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #567 of the NLSC Podcast!

At the suggestion of one of our listeners, this week we’re breaking out the proverbial crystal ball to gaze into the future, and discuss what we think NBA 2K – and video games in general, for that matter – will be like in five years. This includes our expectations for innovations in gameplay, graphics, and modes, as well as fairness to gamers and the possibility that NBA 2K will finally have competition again at some point, be it NBA Live or another title. We also touch on the idea that consoles will be replaced by a Netflix-like streaming service for games, VR, and some other predictions regarding the future of gaming.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 36:46 — 25.6MB)

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!

It’s always satisfying when the community can track down long-lost files, and that’s what’s happened with today’s NBA Live 2000 mod releases! SSJYOUNGJ21 was able to locate Air Assault’s old Dream Teams roster for NBA Live 2000 PC, which includes four iterations of Team USA, as well as squads of Slam Dunk and Three-Point Shootout champions. Check it out at the link below!

Air Assault
Dream Teams Roster

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.

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 cranky thoughts about social media as an Elder Millennial on those platforms.

As an Elder Millennial who has been using the internet since 1997, I’m no stranger to the negativity of cyberspace (do we even call it that, anymore?). It’s been over twenty years since Penny Arcade bestowed The GIFT upon us, succinctly explaining how utterly feral some people get when they’re anonymous. As you can imagine, running a fansite with a forum attached for over two decades has provided first-hand experience with that! My point is that I’m no stranger to the toxicity of the internet, and that the phenomenon has been normalised long before social media in its current form.

And yet, there’s something about social media these days that makes me, an Elder Millennial – or Millennial Prime, as I personally prefer – feel like channelling Grampa Simpson and yelling at some clouds. After all, that is what we’re doing whenever we rage against social media and online toxicity; both in the punny, literal sense of data being stored in the cloud, and the metaphorical sense of a pointless exercise. We all know that people are jerks online. We know that platforms without moderation invite hateful views at worst and unpleasant discourse at best. Still, I believe that the dismal state of social media continues to hit new lows, without many viable alternatives.

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Today’s mod releases for NBA 2K25 feature bluejaybrandon’s tattoo updates for Payton Pritchard, Kel’el Ware, and Kawhi Leonard. Pick them all up at the links below!

bluejaybrandon
Payton Pritchard Tattoo Update
Kel’el Ware Tattoo Update
Kawhi Leonard Tattoo Update

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 Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.

The NLSC Top 10 Plays is debuting some fresh pop outs this week, but the community absolutely bringing it with their highlights is certainly nothing new! To that end, expect to see the usual assortment of breathtaking alley-oops, rim-rattling poster dunks, slick passes, merciless blocks, and cold-blooded clutch plays. Seven different games are featured in the countdown this week, ranging from NBA Live 2005 through to NBA 2K25. As always, it’s just what you need to get hyped for a weekend on the virtual hardwood, 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.