NLSC Your source for basketball video games.

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 paying tribute to Doug’s Stats, an essential modding resource in the early days of our community.

I’ll admit that sometimes I yearn for the World Wide Web of yesteryear, when fansites were king and before social media became everything. Selfishly, it’s because we didn’t have to compete with platforms backed by billionaires, but beyond that, I miss seeing other websites that have the same passion that we do. At this point, we’ve outlasted a number of our contemporaries, from fellow NBA Live fansites to our former host, GameSpy. Some of those sites have been preserved by archive.org, but many others are sadly gone forever.

Occasionally, someone will drop by the Forum or one of our social media pages to reminisce and express joy that we’re still around. Obviously it’s always nice to receive flattering compliments and read people’s positive memories of the NLSC, but I also relate to it because I too am heartened to discover a site I once used to visit is still around decades later. One of those sites is Doug’s Stats, which as I mentioned, was once an essential roster modding resource in our community. Doug’s work definitely deserves recognition – even to this day – so let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #578 of the NLSC Podcast!

It’s been a couple of years, so this week community member Ken (aka Stildo33) makes an overdue return to the show! We chat to Ken about his new business venture bringing competitive gaming to kids, and his experiences schooling the youth on the virtual hardwood. We also get his thoughts on NBA 2K25, including MyNBA Eras and the Eras rosters. Ken also provides an update on his retro season mods for NBA 2K19, and we discuss modding techniques and the importance of attention to detail. He also shares more memories of playing Ultimate Basketball for NES and a couple of other old school favourites, how he stays connected to basketball, and his takes on Payton Pritchard and this year’s Boston Celtics.

Check out battlegamingtruck.com for more info on Ken’s new business!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:12:55 — 50.4MB)

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!

NBA 2K9 is a game that’s been in my rotation recently, and as I noted in my Wayback Wednesday retrospective, it’s quickly retroactively rising up the ranks of my favourite 2K releases! Dee and I are also planning to start a co-op season with it, and as such, I’ve been inspired to try my hand at tinkering with the game. On a tip from Pep, I’ve put together a quick file swap mod that restores the Seattle Supersonics jerseys in NBA 2K9 PC.

While the Oklahoma City Thunder only have a home and away uniform in NBA 2K9, a few Seattle Supersonics jerseys remain as unused files. Although there’s no way to add them to the in-game jersey selection, by renaming the files we can overwrite the default Thunder uniforms and replace them. This mod does that for you, and also includes a copy of the original Thunder jerseys so that they can be quickly restored as desired.

The specific Sonics jerseys that were left over are the home and away uniforms from the late 90s, their original home jersey from the 60s, home and away throwbacks from the early 70s, their yellow alternate from the 2000s, and a red home alternate for Valentine’s Day that they didn’t end up wearing (thanks again to Pep for confirmation there). Once again, since you’ll be replacing the default Thunder uniforms, you can only use one home and away jersey at a time. Please see the included readme for more details.

Download the restored Seattle Supersonics jerseys here! I’ve also posted a release and support topic here in the Forum. Please note that these aren’t custom textures, and are just provided as-is. There isn’t much we can do when it comes to NBA 2K9 modding as most of our tools and resources are for NBA 2K10 onwards, but I thought it’d be nice to put together a few minor projects for the archives. To that end, I’m also currently working on an end-of-season roster with final 2009 lineups. Stay tuned for that minimalist project coming in the not too distant future!

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 few thoughts on a nasty surprise that greeted me when I fired up NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 recently.

I’ve been critical of NBA Playgrounds and its sequel NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 over the years. Look, call me a snob if you want, but I still consider the best NBA Jam titles to be the gold standard when it comes to NBA-oriented arcade basketball video games, with NBA Street being the benchmark for the streetball-style releases. As games that attempted to be a mash-up of NBA Jam and NBA Street with a few original ideas sprinkled in, the NBA Playgrounds games fell short of the series that inspired them. From gameplay to roster management, they’re a poor man’s Jam crossed with Street.

At the same time, I have had fun with them, and came to appreciate both a little more after revisiting them in recent years. They’re not fantastic and I’m not a fan of the loot box mechanics or the grinding, but they’re solid and have their moments on the virtual blacktop. I even ended up playing through a season in NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 a while back. To that end, after searching for a game to play while getting some cardio in on my exercise bike, I decided to dust it off again. Unfortunately, I was confronted by a nasty surprise upon firing up the game for the first since 2023! Frankly, it proved that NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 was even more poorly designed than I previously thought.

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Today’s NBA Live 2005 mod releases feature a new version of Modders27’s face update for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Check it out at the link below!

Modders27
Giannis Antetokounmpo Face (Updated to v2.0)

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 community always brings the goods with their submissions for the NLSC Top 10 Plays, but this week’s countdown features some particularly wild highlights! You’ll see some crazy angles and a lot of distance on alley-oops, a putback dunk with flair, an emphatic block, and Steph Curry doing his thing in the clutch. Six different games are featured this week, ranging from NBA Live 95 all the way up to NBA 2K25. It’s the best way to get hyped for another 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.

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 times that basketball video games messed up player appearances.

Considering that there have been several topics that I’ve turned into a multi-part series in The Friday Five in recent years, it’s surprising that I haven’t covered this one since 2018! However, a new batch of examples have presented themselves, so it’s time to talk about five more times that basketball games messed up player appearances. As I noted in the previous article, there are times when we’re a bit harsh in our criticism of video game aesthetics. Modders aren’t under the same restrictions as the developers, from deadlines to properly-licensed assets.

At the same time, there have been some surprisingly sloppy errors and efforts in basketball video games throughout the years, resulting in player appearances being messed up. Whether it’s a poor likeness, mismatched textures, or players having the wrong appearance entirely, they stick out like a sore thumb. Of course, some of these mistakes can fly under the radar if you’re not familiar with the players, or you never played the games in question. To that point, thanks to an expanded collection, an open-minded approach to retro gaming, and a tip on X, these five examples include some that I definitely wouldn’t have thought of in 2018. Let’s tip things off with…

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It’s been a while since we’ve seen new mod releases for NBA Live 2000, but we do have one today, courtesy of boxMAN29. He’s been working on an opening night roster, and the initial version is available to download at the link below. Also shout out to boxMAN29 for starting some fun topics and sharing retro gaming resources for both NBA Live and NBA 2K in the Forum. It’s great to see such passion for revisiting old favourites!

boxMAN29
1999-00 Start of Season Rosters

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 selection of retro jerseys in NBA Live 10.

Some basketball gamers have declared NBA Live 10 to be the best game in the NBA Live series. While I’ve definitely come to enjoy it a lot more over the years and would agree that it’s the last really good release in the series, I still give the nod to NBA Live 06 PC as the best all-around hoops sim from EA Sports. With that being said, NBA Live 10 is very solid and a lot of fun on the sticks, had some great ideas with adidas LIVE Run and Dynamic Season, and even brought back a standalone Playoffs mode. Unfortunately we lost the All-Star Weekend, but Dynasty mode was still there.

And of course, NBA Live 10 brought back retro jerseys! The lack of historical content during the seventh generation NBA Live titles was undoubtedly a knock on the series, especially since Legends and throwback uniforms were still being featured in the sixth generation versions and their PC ports. However, one of the goals for NBA Live 10 was to celebrate basketball culture; an initiative that not only led to the addition of The Hangar, but also the return of retro jerseys. It’s a part of the game that I really enjoy whenever I’m on an NBA Live 10 kick, so let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #577 of the NLSC Podcast!

While we’ll never get sick of basketball gaming, we’re taking a quick timeout from the virtual hardwood this week as we join the community in listing and discussing some of the other video games that are currently in our rotations. This includes reflecting on the aspects of those games that are keeping us hooked on them, while also noting some of the similarities to our basketball gaming habits. We also discuss finding new ways to play old favourites including self-imposed challenges and choosing different classes or character builds, and fondly recall the fun we had getting a small taste of some classic games thanks to shareware and demo discs back in the day.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:22:30 — 57.0MB)

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 advice to retro gamers, namely to always follow your nostalgia.

One of the best decisions that I’ve made for my basketball gaming habits in recent years – with a considerable assist from Dee, of course – is to break the monotonous cycle of grinding up a MyPLAYER every year in the latest game. Clearly, I’m not sick of the MyCAREER experience, as my ongoing game in NBA 2K14 proves. What I am tired of is being hurtled back to square one on an annual basis, in games that I’m just not enjoying as much as many of their predecessors. Realising that, and revisiting some old favourites both solo and co-op, has reignited my passion for retro gaming.

What’s interesting, however, is that I’m not only playing my all-time favourites. In fact, in tandem with expanding my collection of basketball video games, I’ve been seeking out titles that I haven’t played before, or didn’t have the best first impression of, to see if they find a place in my rotation. There are many factors that drive me to give a particular game a shot. Perhaps Dee and I played it, and I decided that I’d like to spend some more time with it solo. It might have a rare appearance of a Legend, or a unique mode. Beyond that though, my nostalgia for a particular style of gameplay, or a specific era in NBA history, is often what steers me towards my latest retro kick.

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V3.0 of Shamgod’s 2016 roster for NBA 2K14 PC is now available! The new release features updates to records, a new global, fixed shoe assignments, jersey corrections, and other enhancements. The key features of V3.0 are as follows:

• All player Career Highs have been updated
• Awards have been updated
• Gamedata updated; Referee uniforms updated to look accurate
• Retroswald13’s cheerleader pack updates the outfits that they wear
• John Holland and Willie Reed’s cyberfaces have been updated

Download the new version of the 2016 roster for NBA 2K14 here in the Forum! Shamgod has also provided a comprehensive changelog for V3.0, which you can find in this post. Shout out once again to Shamgod for all the great work on this project, as well as lending a hand with some logo updates for Paxson-for-3’s 1998 roster for NBA 2K11! It’s great to see the community collaborating and releasing fantastic retro roster projects free of charge in 2025.

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.

Dunks have taken a backseat the past couple of weeks, but the slam is definitely in vogue in the latest NLSC Top 10 Plays! As in real life, there are many spectacular ways to throw it down on the virtual hardwood, and the community has clearly been having a ton of fun taking it to the rim as of late. With that being said, you’ll also find another great clutch moment from the NBA Live 2001 Legends, whose competitive showdowns continue to be inspiring. Eight different games are featured this week, including an overlooked Genesis release, 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 brief stints that were captured for posterity in video games.

Yes, it’s time for another Five that underscores once again that basketball video games end up being interactive almanacs! Last June, I recalled five brief stints that made it into the official rosters of basketball video games, from Rasheed Wallace’s unlikely appearance as an Atlanta Hawk in NBA Ballers to Anfernee Hardaway’s frequently forgotten comeback with the Miami Heat, as seen in NBA 2K7. A combination of late releases, revised editions, and official roster updates have preserved a number of these odd stints for players that we generally picture in a different uniform.

To that point, if we’ve spent a considerable amount of time with a game – especially in the days before official roster updates – we may come to think of these brief stints as lasting much longer than they actually did. That’s definitely the case for me when it comes to at least one of the examples that I’m covering here today. As for the other brief stints, while I do remember them and that they didn’t last long, it’s still thanks to unusual and fortuitous circumstances that they were preserved in the official rosters of video games. Long-time readers will know how much I love trivia like this, so let’s not delay any further; here are five more brief stints that were captured in games!

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Today’s NBA 2K14 mod releases feature a new jersey update from Pep, specifically the 2025 Rising Stars uniforms. Pick it up at the link below!

Pep
NBA Nike Rising Stars 2025 Uniforms

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.