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.
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…
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.
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!
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…
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.
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.
As is often the case, dunks and a variety of different basketball video games are the motif of this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays. Of course, it’s not just about the dunks or even the aerial wizardry, but the setup to the slams. To that point, you’ll see Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Vince Carter all breaking out dazzling moves before mercilessly putting their opponents on a poster. Seven different titles are on display this week, ranging from NBA in the Zone 2 right up to NBA 2K25. 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 potential comebacks that would’ve been fun to play with in video games.
As I’ve taken a few more trips around the sun, I’ve become increasingly bothered by the tendency for veterans to get pushed out of the league. Yes, young players who are the future need their opportunities, and it feels like we’re seeing more All-Stars stick around beyond their fifteenth season, but over the years, quite a few veterans have seemingly been ushered out of the NBA while they were still productive. Other times of course, injuries unfortunately cut their careers short, robbing them of the chance to settle into a veteran mentor role while still having the opportunity to contribute.
Those are the times when we hope to see comebacks, if only so a former star can go out in style rather than fade away unceremoniously. We’ve seen that happen, but not every player who leaves the league too soon gets a chance to return and write a better final chapter. Not only is that a shame in real life, but it sadly puts the kibosh on what could be a fun scenario to play with in video games as well. I’ve already posted two previous articles discussing comebacks that would’ve been fun to see in video games, but some of the examples I’m sharing today – particularly the last one – are returns that I really wish had come to pass. Without any further ado, let’s tip things off with…
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 fictional rookies that are found in the original rosters of unpatched NBA 2K12.
Fortunately, there haven’t been too many lockouts in the history of the NBA. To that point, only two of them have ever ended up cancelling games, and we’ve yet to see an entire season lost to an unresolved labour dispute. We have seen lockouts affect video games however, whenever they’ve been released as scheduled despite a stoppage. The most obvious effect is that those games have launched with previous season rosters, rather than including the offseason moves and a new rookie class that we normally expect to see. This in turn has presented some issues, and necessary workarounds.
For example, the 16-bit version of NBA Live 96 included the expansion draft, as well as codes to easily replace Roster Players with rookies (and Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and assorted Legends!). Only one player in NBA Live 99 – Peja Stojakovic – could win Rookie of the Year in Season mode, though the official PC patch did add the Class of 1998, and any created rookies were also eligible for the award. NBA Full Court Press also received an official roster update. And then, there’s NBA 2K12, and its fictional placeholder rookies that stood in for the Class of 2011 until the lockout was lifted and a patch was released. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 the battle between nostalgia goggles and recency bias.
For a long time – indeed, pretty much as soon as I hit my thirties ten years ago – I’ve found myself defending nostalgia. It’s not surprising. When we’re young, sneering at the older generation and all their silly likes and beliefs, we think we’ll be immune to suffering the same fate. After all, when you’re still in the younger demographic that pop culture is catering to, you don’t consider the next generation that’ll be mocking you the same way you’ve scornfully dismissed your elders! You don’t see yourself getting stuck in your ways, or your tastes and views ever becoming old-fashioned.
To once again reference an iconic and insightful scene from The Simpsons however, it’ll happen to you! You’ll realise just how divisive nostalgic opinions can be as the years go by. Not everyone is nostalgic of course, and the backlash to nostalgia – which often carries the accusation of wearing those proverbial nostalgia goggles – doesn’t just come from the younger crowd. It’s very strange to see one of your generational peers denouncing what you both grew up with, and claiming that new is always better, without any further nuance or exceptions. In any case, it draws up the generational battlelines as we accuse each other of recency bias, or donning nostalgia goggles.
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.
Dunks are definitely the motif once again in this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays, and who could blame the community? With apologies and all due respect to three-point enthusiasts out there, it is the most spectacular play in basketball! If you want proof, just check out this countdown that showcases spectacular slams coming off slick moves, savvy defensive plays, and lobs with pinpoint accuracy. Seven games are on display ranging from NBA Live 2001 to NBA 2K25, which is just another example of the timeless joy of throwing it down on the virtual hardwood. 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 basketball gaming theories that I can’t conclusively prove, but strongly suspect to be true.
Video games have attracted countless theories, rumours, and hoaxes throughout the years. From speculation about secrets to gossip about gameplay mechanics, these stories have spawned myths, legends…and occasionally, actually been correct! Yes, games are often designed to essentially cheat in order to give us a challenge. Yes, sometimes that rumoured hidden content is there (or at least, there’s a remnant of it). And yes, it’s hardly a wild conspiracy theory to suggest that so many modern Triple-A titles are being designed to push gamers towards microtransactions.
Of course, there are the theories that aren’t true: the secret that’s a hoax, the misguided belief as to why something is a certain way, and so on. These are the things that we’re so sure of, or want to believe, but they’ve been proven false. And then, we have the video game theories that we can’t conclusively prove – yet, anyway – but they haven’t necessarily been disproven, and seem quite likely. I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories – philosophical razors tend to make short work of most of them – but I do have a few related to basketball gaming that I am inclined to believe. Well, maybe not conspiracies as such, but they are five basketball gaming theories that I put stock in.
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 midseason rosters in Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside.
Now that roster updates are common and viable on all platforms, we’re accustomed to midseason moves being officially represented in video games. In the 90s and into the early 2000s however, we generally had to make our own roster updates, even on PC. As such, there have been many brief stints and short-lived lineups that don’t appear in any official rosters due to occurring midseason, and being over by the time the next game is released. Outside of those rare official updates, the only way we’d see games reflect midseason rosters would be revised and re-released editions, and late launches.
That brings us to Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside, a Nintendo 64 exclusive released in 1998. Indeed, that is the key factor that sets it apart from other 1998 season titles such as NBA Live 98 and NBA Action 98/NBA Fastbreak ’98. Whereas those games were released in late 1997 ahead of or around the beginning of the season, NBA Courtside came out after the calendar rolled over to 1998, and thus features midseason rosters. To that end, it captures a unique snapshot of the 1998 season, with some stints and lineups that you won’t find in any other games. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 the wasted potential of NBA Live 18, in the wake of its servers being shut down.
NBA Live 18 has recently (and unexpectedly) made its way back into my rotation. Admittedly, it wasn’t an unthinkable prospect. It’s always been the eighth gen NBA Live that I’ve liked best – not that that’s a high bar to clear – and Dee and I also had a fun co-op session with it using Parsec and the Xbox app. Still, I expected it to be an occasional novelty, yet it became a full-blown retro kick. I’ve been revisiting Ultimate Team with my squad of 90s All-Stars, working through the challenges in The One’s Pro-Am Tour, and even assembling some makeshift 2017 and 2025 rosters!
These sessions have reminded me that NBA Live 18 had some good bones, and plenty of potential. In fact, I’d say that I have an even more positive impression of the game than I did when it was new! Of course, that has brought about a mixture of delight and wistfulness. There’s always joy in rediscovering a game or seeing one in a new light, and expanding your rotation. Given that most of my recent retro basketball gaming kicks have been much older, it was also refreshing to find a new one that’s from the past decade. At the same time, even before the server shutdown, the fun I was having with NBA Live 18 was accompanied by nagging thoughts of squandered opportunity.
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