NLSC Your source for basketball video games.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #543 of the NLSC Podcast!

After celebrating a milestone, we delve into some NBA 2K25 MyTEAM news, courtesy of the latest Courtside Report. The biggest news of course is the return of the Auction House, and while it’s a welcome development, it’s also invited a predictably cynical response. Although we’re intrigued by the details and will give the mode a try if we like the gameplay, we’re certainly sceptical; a sentiment that the community clearly shares. We also discuss the positives and negatives of community days in light of last week’s NBA 2K25 event, and recap our sessions playing NBA 2K10 and NBA Jam: On Fire Edition with the 1992 season roster and Legends On Fire Edition mods respectively.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 59:50 — 41.4MB)

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!

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 my 23rd anniversary as NLSC webmaster, with the age of forty looming on the horizon.

Today marks 23 years since I took over running the NLSC! I feel like I say it on every anniversary, but it’s been an extremely fun and interesting ride with its fair share of ups and downs. There have been some unpleasant moments and challenging times, but at the end of the day, I’m glad that I accepted Tim’s offer to take the reins. While there are some things that I might’ve done differently given the benefit of hindsight, I’m proud of the work that I’ve done, grateful for the friendships I’ve made, and awed by some of the opportunities that I’ve had. I’ll never regret taking the gig!

With that being said, 23 years is a long time to do anything, especially an online endeavour such as running a website. I didn’t create the NLSC, but at this point, I’ve been maintaining it for about four times as long as our founders! Of course, neither I nor the site would be here without the work of the original NLSC trio, so I’ll always give them credit for tipping things off way back in 1996. To that point though, unless you’ve been around since the black background days, you may not be aware of that era! Along with turning forty in about six weeks’ time, it only further emphasises just how long I’ve been the NLSC’s webmaster, and how quickly the years have gone by.

Read More »

As you’ve hopefully seen if you’re subscribed to our YouTube channel, Dee and I have uploaded several basketball gaming highlight reels recently. Between covering NBA 2K25 news and our other original content, I’ve neglected to share those uploads on the front page, so here’s a round-up of our latest work!

With my in-depth retrospective of 24/7 in this week’s Wayback Wednesday, it only made sense to share highlights from my playthroughs of the mode in NBA 2K6 and NBA 2K7. Both the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic and Legends Charity Tournament were fun ways to cap off a couple of modes that I was glad to finally delve into.

In my previous YouTube round-up bulletin, I shared Dee’s highlights from a game of NBA Superstars between the Celtics and Clippers. It wasn’t the only matchup that he played, as he also had a fun time showing out with Ja Morant and the Grizzlies, as you’ll see in this reel.

Dee and I have been making a point to connect on Parsec as often as possible as of late, and he’s compiled highlight reels from some extremely fun basketball gaming sessions. That includes a showdown of underdogs in NBA ShootOut 2004, and in a nod to the new Steph Era in NBA 2K25’s MyNBA Eras, a game between the Cavaliers and Warriors in NBA 2K17.

I’ve also uploaded highlights from a game of NBA Live 09 featuring the default placeholder Oklahoma City branding, and two games of NBA Street Homecourt: one between squads of WNBA stars, and one featuring the Coatesville All-Stars taking on the Baltimore All-Stars at Cloverdale.

Check out all of those basketball gaming highlight reels below! Don’t forget to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and as always, be sure 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 share the highlights with you all.

Read More »

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 so often the case in the NLSC Top 10 Plays, a plethora of poster dunks reign supreme this week. I doubt there’ll be any complaints though, as the next best thing to throwing down a monster dunk on the virtual hardwood is seeing someone else pull off an amazing aerial display! On top of that, we’ve also got some signature moves from Hakeem Olajuwon and Manu Ginobili, and a huge clutch play in a fiercely competitive game of johnz1’s Legends On Fire Edition mod for NBA Jam: OFE. 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 game intros that were in some way misleading.

There’s something special about the best basketball game intros. Sure, we often end up skipping them because we’re keen to play, but most of us will watch them in their entirety the first time we fire up a game, and probably a few times after that as well. The combination of a great song and either real NBA footage or a highlight reel created in the game itself is a fantastic way to get us in the mood to play some virtual basketball. They underscored how the games were made for hardcore hoop heads, celebrating a beautiful sport and putting the NBA in our hands.

Cynically, I might suggest that that’s why basketball game intros have been phased out over the years. As they’ve tried to appeal to a wider audience and lean into online modes starring user avatars, there’s a large portion of the userbase that probably won’t get hyped up by NBA highlights. Less cynically, the fact that intros do end up getting skipped is probably a factor as well. And of course, if we’re being honest, basketball game intros can be misleading, even deceptive. Like a carefully curated preview or back-of-the-box promotional materials, intros can oversell a game with promises of quality and features it just can’t deliver upon. Here are five examples of such intros.

Read More »

This week’s Courtside Report provides an insight into MyTEAM in NBA 2K25. There are definitely some significant changes in the mode this year, including the return of a feature that was greatly missed in NBA 2K24.

That feature is of course the Auction House, which was replaced by the Player Market last year. It’s back in NBA 2K25 however, with some enhancements to make it more user-friendly. There will also be some verification checks in place, to make sure that it isn’t being abused. 2K are warning that there will be a zero-tolerance policy in effect here.

Other key additions and improvements to NBA 2K25 MyTEAM include Breakout City and Triple Threat Park. The former is a new board-based single player mode, while the latter remasters Rivet City from NBA 2K16 to bring a park atmosphere to MyTEAM’s online modes. There will also be weekly events, and new ways to earn rewards with the MyTEAM Rep system.

Again, there’s a ton of detail in the NBA 2K25 MyTEAM Courtside Report – especially compared to the more modest preview of The W – so as always, I’d recommend giving it a read. However, I’ve also summarised the key information below, if you’d like a quick overview. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and join in the discussion here our NBA 2K25 Forum!

Read More »

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 various iterations of 24/7 mode in NBA 2K.

There are many features, modes, and concepts in basketball video games that are older than we may recall. To that point, MyCAREER has been a staple of NBA 2K since its debut as My Player way back in NBA 2K10; a game released in 2009. For that matter, the story-driven approach to MyCAREER has been the standard for over ten years now, debuting in NBA 2K14 Next Gen and appearing in almost three times as many games as the original version of the mode. In short, a single player career mode is nothing new at this point.

However, the concept is even older than that! While we didn’t get a fully-fledged NBA-oriented career experience until 2009, earlier games did experiment with single player campaign modes. Indeed, NBA 2K branched out into this area very early on in the series, introducing 24/7 mode in ESPN NBA Basketball (aka NBA 2K4). It was relatively short-lived as it was phased out after NBA 2K7, but it stands as a creative concept that undoubtedly paved the way for modern career modes. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #542 of the NLSC Podcast!

As the NBA 2K25 preview season rolls on, this week we’re reacting to reveal of the Steph Era, some of the other additions to MyNBA, the return of MyGM, and some enhancements to The W. We also read out some reactions from the community, from their thoughts on the new era to which one they’re planning on playing. Suffice it to say, opinions on the Steph Era are divided – as we discuss, there are issues with the starting point if nothing else – but we’re generally in favour of the idea. To that end, it inspired a session of NBA 2K17 where we took on LeBron’s Cavaliers with Steph’s Warriors. We recap that session as well as a game of NBA ShootOut 2004, and also touch on some more NBA roster trivia.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:10:36 — 48.8MB)

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 a few thoughts on the lure of online team play.

I haven’t bothered putting any serious effort into levelling up a MyPLAYER since NBA 2K21 on PlayStation 5. As I’ve explained in detail before, I was fed up with the grind, and weary of the toxicity in The Rec and NBA 2K’s online scene in general. After revisiting some old favourites and giving other older releases a second chance, I realised just how much fun I was missing out on, and quit the grind. Changing my basketball gaming habits has been so refreshing, and it’s obviously given me new topics to discuss as well. I left online team play behind, and I haven’t looked back.

Well…sort of. Kenny, Leo, and I gave 3-v-3 Pro-Am and The Rec another try in NBA 2K23 on PlayStation 5, and for the first month, we actually had some fun sessions! Of course, by Season 2, the community had figured out the meta and the hardcore online gamers had levelled up their MyPLAYERs, at which point the lack of matchmaking kept throwing us in there with super serious, souped-up opponents. It wasn’t a tough decision to leave it all behind again, and honestly, NBA 2K23 dropped out of my rotation entirely not long afterwards. However, that brief return and fond memories of NBA 2K16 and NBA 2K17 demonstrate that there’s still a lure to online team play.

Read More »

PatTheHead’s comprehensive retro roster pack for NBA 2K13 continues to celebrate the history of Olympic Basketball. Indeed, the latest version takes us right back to the beginning of basketball’s inclusion as a medal sport, with rosters for the 1936 Games in Berlin!

Notably, James Naismith – the inventor of basketball, of course – was invited to the Games and presented the medals to the winners. To that end, the roster replaces Barack Obama in the White House visit cutscene in Association mode with Dr. Naismith! Accordingly, Pat would like to give a shout out to Maravich for providing a spot-on face update.

As I mentioned in the bulletin for the previous release, in addition to Olympic rosters, the pack features a host of retro season mods, including rosters for the NBA, ABA, BAA, NBL, and ABL. There’s also a 2024 roster if you’d like to bring NBA 2K13 up to date.

Head over to the release topic in the Forum for the download links and further previews! Once again, Pat also makes a point of sharing interesting historical facts and trivia about the seasons, leagues, and Olympic Games featured in his rosters, so history buffs will definitely want to check it out. As always, hats off to Pat and everyone else keeping classic games alive with new mods!

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.

You can always count on the NLSC Top 10 Plays for a good time and to get hyped for a weekend of basketball gaming, but every so often, you’ll also get a few surprises as well! For example, you normally wouldn’t expect to see a highlight from NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360 in the countdown – and rightfully so – but this week offers up an exception. On top of that, we’ve got NBA Street Showdown making its first appearance in the Top 10, an assortment of posters that you’ll want to watch again and again, and another gamewinner. 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 phantom stints that didn’t appear in any video games.

Through my series of Friday Fives documenting players who only appeared on certain teams in video games – up to 21 parts and counting! – I’ve listed a number of players whose phantom stints with teams were made tangible on the virtual hardwood. Let’s flip the topic though, and consider noteworthy phantom stints that didn’t appear in any video games. This might seem like a strange topic to explore, as obviously there are plenty of players with brief, on-paper tenures that didn’t last long enough to appear in games. However, most of them aren’t particularly exciting or interesting.

The ones that are worth talking about meet a few conditions. Naturally, they involve players who were stars or otherwise noteworthy. Also, while they ultimately didn’t get captured in any video games, the timing wasn’t too far off from it feasibly happening. Perhaps most importantly, if they had been captured in games, there’d be tremendous novelty not just in the strange sight, but also the lineups that we’d be able to play with. With those criteria in mind, I do have five examples that fit the bill. On top of being What Ifs that would’ve set up fun scenarios, they also demonstrate just how easily we can forget some of the details of major or otherwise very memorable NBA trades.

Read More »

Following on from the insight into MyNBA and MyGM, the latest NBA 2K25 Courtside Report previews The W in this year’s game. For those who are unaware, The W is the WNBA equivalent of MyCAREER, and with NBA 2K25 New Gen coming to PC, it’ll be making its first appearance on the platform.

It’s easily the shortest Courtside Report to date, as fewer noteworthy additions and improvements have been made to The W in NBA 2K25 compared to MyCAREER, MyNBA, or for that matter, gameplay. However, points of interest include this year’s story, a focus on becoming the GOAT as in MyCAREER, press conferences, and deeper rewards.

As usual, I’ve summarised the key points below, but by all means check out the original Courtside Report for the full scoop and developers’ remarks. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, as well as join in the discussion here in the Forum!

Read More »

As Dee and I discussed in Episode #541 of the NLSC Podcast, last week we learned what’s new with MyCAREER and MyPLAYER in NBA 2K25. In this week’s NBA 2K25 Courtside Report, we’ve gained an insight into MyNBA and MyGM.

To that point, MyGM is returning in NBA 2K25. While this RPG-based take on franchise play has remained in the prior gen version of NBA 2K, it’s making its first appearance on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and will of course be in the PC port as well. It includes backstories, attributes, and Perks, basically replicating MyPLAYER Builds in GM form.

Confirming what many of us predicted, the new addition to MyNBA Eras is the Steph Era, tipping off with the 2016-17 campaign. All of the previous eras, and of course current season franchise play, are returning. MyNBA Eras has also received a few other enhancements in NBA 2K25, including streamlined staff management, and a new era-specific hub/information screen.

I’ve summarised the key points from the Courtside Report below, but by all means give it a read for the full scoop and additional developer commentary. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, as well as join in the discussion here in our NBA 2K25 Forum!

Read More »

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 comparing the SNES and Genesis versions of NBA Live 95.

Part of me – specifically, my most nostalgic inner child – desperately wants to pretend that the console war between Nintendo and Sega in the 90s wasn’t as petty as the dust-ups over PlayStation and Xbox over the past two decades. I’d like to say that platform warfare in the 90s was all in good fun whereas all the bickering over the 21st century consoles is Serious Business, but that’d be a lie. Sega’s marketing infamously boasted that “Genesis does what Nintendon’t“, while Nintendo hyped up “playing with power” and even welcomed fan art of Mario humiliating Sonic in its official magazines!

Putting aside my own inherent bias as a Nintendo kid and accepting that it may sound wishy-washy, from the perspective of gamers, I think we all benefitted and had a great time regardless of which big corporation we flew the flag for. Both the Genesis and Super Nintendo have classics in their libraries that are still fun to play to this day. It’s also interesting to compare and contrast the different versions of games that appeared on both consoles (and sometimes, they were completely different games!). The SNES and Genesis version of NBA Live 95 are largely the same, but there are some key differences between these 16-bit releases. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »