NLSC Your source for basketball video games.

NBA 2K16 is almost a decade old now, but it remains an excellent game worthy of new mod releases! To that point, with the Orlando Magic recently unveiling their new branding, Nba2kfadeaway has released a 2026 season court update. Check it out at the link below!

Nba2kfadeaway
25-26 Orlando Magic Floor

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.

Earlier this week in Episode #582 of the NLSC Podcast, we joined the community in discussing our offseason basketball gaming plans. To that point, it’s clear that the 2025 season drawing to a close isn’t dampening everyone’s enthusiasm for the virtual hardwood! This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays once again delivers the goods with ferocious dunks, nifty layups, beautiful passes, and other spectacular moves by the stars of yesterday and today. Six different games are featured in this week’s countdown, from NBA 07 through 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 a list of five things that make multi-season modes in basketball video games awesome.

Growing up with the basketball video games of the 90s, I was able to experience some classic releases and see the genre evolve in some big ways from year-to-year. That of course includes the introduction of multi-season modes. If you go back and look at our early Wishlists for NBA Live, you’ll see that we were keen to see Season mode expand into an experience that lasted several years, and truly allowed us to play GM. Our wish was granted in NBA Live 2000 PC, and since then, multi-season franchise and eventually career modes have become staples of NBA Live and NBA 2K.

For gamers who prefer online team play and competitive modes in general, playing several full seasons against the CPU may not sound like a lot of fun. Gamers who prefer the card collecting modes may also not find the structure of the NBA-oriented modes to be all that appealing. For that matter, anyone who’s satisfied with a single, isolated NBA campaign may not feel the need to continue into Year 2 and beyond. It should be noted that these are all valid opinions and ways to experience basketball games, but as someone who has really enjoyed the extended journey that franchise and career play offers, I’ll give you five reasons why multi-season modes are so fun.

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Today’s NBA Live 2005 mod releases feature the latest cyberface from Modder27. This time it’s an update for Tyrese Haliburton, who is about to make his NBA Finals debut. Check it out at the link below!

Modders27
Tyrese Haliburton 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.

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 iconic point after a dunk in NBA Live 95.

The National Basketball Association is extremely image-conscious to say the least! Throughout the years, they’ve tried to curb behaviour by players and coaches that may harm their reputation, including taking a zero-tolerance approach to complaints to the referees after a whistle. Of course, in practice, this has usually just meant that their favoured stars still get to have their say, while role players are assessed a technical foul for rolling their eyes! The NBA has also discouraged taunting, which is why the late Dikembe Mutombo had to make a point of wagging his finger towards the crowd.

Unsurprisingly – and honestly, quite fairly – the NBA retains control over how it is portrayed in licensed products, including video games. This means that we won’t see unsportsmanlike technical fouls, brawls, or anything else the league doesn’t want to spotlight, represented on the virtual hardwood. Therefore, it’s funny to think that a blatant display of taunting was once prominently featured in an NBA video game! That is of course the point after throwing down a dunk in NBA Live 95, something that long-time hoops gamers nostalgically recall. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #582 of the NLSC Podcast!

With the 2025 NBA season rapidly drawing to a close, how will we be spending our Summer (or for that matter, our Winter) on the virtual hardwood? This week, we join the community in discussing the basketball video games that we plan to play and mod in the coming months. While NBA 2K25 will remain in the lineup, it’s clear that basketball gamers will still be sticking with some old favourites! We also discuss if and how the offseason impacts our basketball gaming habits, some of the mods that we’d like to work on, and other video games that will likely be in our rotations when we need a break from hoops. Spoiler: a new Garfield Kart game might just be among them!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 42:30 — 29.5MB)

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!

Today’s NBA 2K25 mod releases feature Froob’s custom St. Patrick’s Day jerseys for the Boston Celtics, which are based on the Vegas Golden Knights’ designs. Check them out at the link below!

Froob
Boston Celtics St. Paddys 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.

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 a response to a question that’s often lobbed at retro basketball gamers: why are you playing that?

I’m sure that at this point, it’s hardly a secret that I’m an enthusiastic advocate for retro basketball gaming. I’ve written a number of articles detailing the fun that I’m having revisiting old favourites and discovering new retro kicks, and explaining why I think it’s worth considering if you’re not enjoying newer titles. To that point, I don’t want to keep harping on points or treading familiar ground in my articles, but the fact of the matter is that there’s still pushback and scorn when it comes to playing older games. Again, “why are you playing that?” is the common refrain here.

Obviously, this is the internet where everyone has an opinion, and believes that their preferences are correct. However, I will entertain the question of why I and others still play older basketball video games, because I’m sure that some people are asking that in good faith. Considering all of the technological advances that have been made over generations of basketball games, not to mention the fact there’s a new NBA season every year, I’m sure it is quite puzzling that some of us do choose to play games with outdated graphics, simpler mechanics, and old rosters. Nostalgia is a major factor, but there’s more to it than that, and the stigma against retro basketball gaming is insulting.

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Today’s NBA Live 2004 mod releases aren’t exactly new, but they are important ones to preserve! With permission, JuicyShaqMeat has uploaded Seushiro’s custom AIACT and depth of field ENB updates for safekeeping, in a pack that you can find at the link below.

Seushiro
Seushiro’s Myxed AIACTs and ENBs for Live 2004

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.

This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays is further proof that dunks are exciting no matter who’s throwing them down! Big men, guards, and wing players are crossing up, slipping by, and overpowering defenders to rock the rim. As always though, there is one play that stands a chance of topping a spectacular dunk, and that’s a clutch shot in the waning seconds. This week’s countdown has you covered there, too! Six different games are featured this week, from NBA ShootOut 2004 right through 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.

You may recall that back in February, johnz1 released a new mod for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, bringing the 2020s to the game. V2.0 of the project is now available!

The new version of NBA Jam: 2020s On Fire Edition adds three new teams to the lineup: Detroit, Houston, and Toronto. A couple of players have been removed from teams where they’re no longer a good fit, and the final game in Road Trip is now USA vs. France. Player appearances and ratings have also been updated, along with some team uniforms. Please note that V2.0 essentially functions as a new game, so save files from V1.0 unfortunately won’t work with the new release. Check out the readme for more information on installation.

Key features of V2.0 can be found below. As previously noted, this mod isn’t an update for the 2025 season. Rather, it adds squads from on the recent past with a couple of current lineups, making the selection more of a “best teams of 2020” scenario. To that end, some franchises have multiple teams to choose from. Once again, more information can be found in the release notes below.

Download the new version of NBA Jam: 2020s On Fire Edition here! For more information and previews, check out the release topic here. johnz1 has done some amazing work updating an all-time classic, so shout out to him as always for the awesome mod, and for making it available to one and all free of charge. Stay tuned for more of his projects for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition!

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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 frustrating aspects of old school season modes.

So, I’ve already covered why old school season modes in NBA Live and other early titles were so much fun, and I stand by that. They were the pinnacle of campaign play at the time, and if you’re a keen retro gamer who doesn’t mind a simpler experience, I highly recommend beginning a season in an old favourite today! With that being said, once those modes were fleshed out with some basic staples, it took a while before the next big innovation. We certainly recognised the drawbacks and limitations, and we dreamed of modes that lasted longer and represented the NBA in greater detail.

Thankfully, video game developers had the same vision, which led to the introduction of franchise and single player career modes. Interestingly, old school season modes stuck around as a legacy option in games with franchise modes, such as NBA Live and NBA 2K. It also remained the flagship mode in titles that were lagging behind the two brand leaders. Although it didn’t hurt to keep them in games – indeed, I believe there’s value in offering a streamlined option – it was painfully obvious how primitive they now were! Once again though, we already had our criticisms before then. With that in mind, here are five ways that old school season modes could be frustrating.

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As you may have seen from a couple of previous bulletins, Paxson-for-3 has released 1997 and 1998 rosters for NBA 2K11 PC. He has continued to work on updates for both of those projects, and to that end, new versions of each are now available!

The 1997 roster now includes 57 additional faces, while 61 faces have been added to the 1998 roster for NBA 2K11. These updates come courtesy of clutchcity1994-1995, so shout out to him as well! A few updates and fixes have also been made to players in the 1997 mod.

For those who may be unaware, both rosters include season-accurate team branding. The appropriate jerseys have been assigned as the default home and away uniforms, so there’s no need to manually select them before games. In short, both mods are extremely detailed retro rosters, perfect for anyone who’d like to throw it back to a couple of iconic seasons in one of the best basketball video games of all-time.

Download the 1997 roster here, and pick up the 1998 mod here! Thanks go out once again to Paxson-for-3 for providing these classic season rosters for NBA 2K11. He’s indicated that he’s working on some other retro roster projects for the game, so be sure to stay tuned for further previews and releases!

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 dusting off NBA Live 2004 to see when LeBron James will retire in its Dynasty mode.

As of writing, it seems a safe guess to say that LeBron James will likely play at least one more season. He has an opportunity to set a new record by playing in his 23rd campaign, not to mention add to his career statistics and possibly contend for another championship. It would also give him an opportunity to further mentor his son Bronny and likely play some more minutes side-by-side with him, while also enjoying a full retirement tour. And of course, if by some chance he does decide that the 2025 season was his last, he’s obviously had a long and extremely successful career.

His longevity, while certainly impressive, isn’t altogether surprising. Not only are we seeing more players stick around for 16+ seasons, but LeBron is obviously a superb athlete, and has remained healthy throughout his career. As with other greats who came straight out of high school, it was commonly speculated that LeBron would go on to have a long career, but what did contemporary video games predict? With Dynasty mode in NBA Live 2004 consisting of 25 seasons, the game may still be able to correctly predict when LeBron will retire! Let’s take a look back…way back…

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V3.4 of Shamgod’s 2016 roster for NBA 2K14 PC is now available! If you aren’t familiar with the previous releases, in addition to updating the game for the 2016 season, this project aims to replicate the presentation and aesthetic of NBA 2K16. Key features of the latest release are as follows:

• Zoom Kobe VI has been updated (Fixed MyCareer crashing)
• Warmups updated to have smaller logos on the pants
• Jabari Parker’s cyberface has been updated
• BBVA logo has been updated for All-Star Game Presentation

Shamgod has also changed the featured game to the 2015 NBA Finals matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, updated player portraits, and fixed some accessories. With player appearances and presentation taken care of, a major ratings update is planned for the next release, so stay tuned for that.

Download the new version of the 2016 roster for NBA 2K14 here, and check out this post for more information on the changes in V3.4! In addition to further updates to this project, Shamgod has been working on some other great mods for NBA 2K14, which you can find here. As always, shout out to Shamgod and everyone else still keeping old favourites alive with some fantastic releases, and of course, making them freely available to the community. Your efforts are very much appreciated!