NLSC Your source for basketball video games.

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.

We have a rare treat in this instalment of the NLSC Top 10 Plays, as a highlight from NBA Elite 11 took the top spot! It’s the only cancelled game featured here, but there are also a couple of often-overlooked titles on display. Indeed, the countdown tips off with a two-way play from Total NBA ’96 (aka the first NBA ShootOut), and you’ll also see an awesome jam from the session of ESPN NBA 2Night that Dee and I played; one that surprisingly wasn’t waved off with a charging call! That’s just scratching the surface of another exciting Top 10 filled with great moves and spectacular dunks. 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 reasons why I have no intention of putting a stop to my retro basketball gaming habits.

One of the best things that I’ve done to enhance my enjoyment of basketball gaming in recent years is to avoid the annual grind in MyCAREER, freeing up time to play some old favourites. Dee has obviously been a great influence in that regard, as we’ve connected to play a variety of classics over Parsec. It’s reminded me of how I used to enjoy going back to older games or sticking with one for more than a year, especially when I was disappointed with the latest release. Of course, my enthusiasm for retro basketball gaming has now made it tougher to spend time with newer games.

I have no regrets, though. I still gave NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24 ample opportunity to impress, knowing that they might not, and that I had other options if they didn’t. To dust off a very old but nevertheless wise saying, I’ve learned to not put all of my eggs in one basket. I don’t feel defeated or robbed of a good time if the latest NBA 2K isn’t entirely to my liking. Beyond my interest in other genres, I have a huge collection of basketball games to fall back on if I’m itching to hit the virtual hardwood. While I do obviously have an interest in the future of basketball gaming, I’m finding plenty of reasons to return to old favourites, as well as seek out some new ones. Here are five!

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Looyh continues to do excellent work with his tools for NBA 2K24 and NBA 2K23, without which the community wouldn’t be able to mod those games! His latest tools include an audio converter and updated roster editor for NBA 2K24, as well as a new version of the NBA 2K23 roster editor. You can pick them all up at the links below!

Looyh
NBA2K Audio Converter
NBA2K24 Tools | Roster Editor (Updated to v1.0.2)
NBA2K Tools Roster Editor For 2K23 (Updated to vV1.1.2)

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 NBA in the Zone, developed and released by Konami.

The sim-arcade hybrid genre of basketball video games is one that I’ve really come to appreciate in recent years. I didn’t play many of them growing up, as I preferred NBA Live for its more realistic approach to the sim style, and NBA Jam for its definitive arcade experience. While I ultimately still prefer games that are firmly sim or arcade in their style of play, sim-arcade hybrid titles undoubtedly have their place. The best ones strike a fun balance between a realistic depiction of basketball, and exaggerating the action for looser, up-tempo gameplay that takes a few liberties with accuracy.

Because they occupy a middle ground between simulation and arcade games, there are a handful of games that could be considered sim-arcade hybrids. And 1 Streetball is definitely in the conversation, mixing 5-on-5 gameplay with some power-ups and slightly exaggerated dunks. NBA Live 2003’s wackier elements arguably make it a candidate, though it’s still mostly sim at its core. When I think of prime examples of sim-arcade hybrid games though, Konami’s hoops titles are what come to mind, and that includes NBA in the Zone. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #513 of the NLSC Podcast!

If we could bring back just one Triple-A release as an alternative to the NBA 2K series, what type of game would we choose: NBA sim, NBA arcade, street, or college basketball? This week we join the community in answering what is a very tough question! We also recap a session revisiting ESPN NBA 2Night, which despite some interesting features and great presentation, was not one of Konami’s better hoops titles. On the bright side, we played with an interesting New York Knicks team that was definitely in a transitional era. In this week’s mailbag, we’re talking about the players that got us into basketball, and our historical favourites on the virtual hardwood.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:37:13 — 67.1MB)

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!

I’ve enjoyed making the NBA 2K14 Retro Series a more regular feature on our YouTube channel so far this year. However, I’ll actually have to play some more of those games as I’m now at the end of the footage that I captured prior to my old desktop crashing late last year! I’m presenting a fun showdown in the meantime though, as Julius Erving and the 1985 Philadelphia 76ers clash with Sidney Moncrief and the 1985 Milwaukee Bucks.

The 1985 76ers are one of NBA 2K’s oddball classic teams; not because they aren’t a good squad to include and a sensible one for Dr. J’s NBA’s Greatest challenge, but because in real life, they featured a rookie Charles Barkley. You won’t find Sir Charles on the team in the game of course, and since the PlayStation 4 version of NBA 2K14 doesn’t support modding (or even Create-a-Player), he’s conspicuously absent in this re-creation. Nevertheless, The Doctor is in vintage form, Sidney Moncrief is at the top of his game for the Bucks, and the game produced some great 80s NBA action. Check it out!

I’m not sure which showdown and era will be featured next, but the NBA 2K14 Retro Series is a lot of fun to produce, so there’ll be more to come! Until then, please subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more basketball gaming content, and feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play.

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 a fear of losing and having a bad time in NBA 2K’s connected modes has poisoned the online scene.

It’s been a familiar sight since the introduction of The Neighborhood in NBA 2K18. Plenty of MyPLAYERs running around or just standing there idly, while others wait at the Got Next spots, hoping in vain to get the numbers to play a game. Meanwhile, in The Rec, MyPLAYERs enter the locker room, only to quickly exit before a game can begin. Naturally, you stand a much better chance of getting a game if you’re with friends, but the hub world concept is intended to encourage gamers to socialise and form impromptu squads for pick-up games. It hasn’t quite worked out that way!

To put it bluntly, there’s a fear of losing in MyCAREER’s connected modes. No one enjoys losing of course, but when the fear of taking an L is so great that you’d rather not even play, that’s a big problem! At the same time, there are legitimate concerns about the quality of the online experience. It isn’t just about not wanting to lose, but also having no desire to team up with selfish players and trolls who are going to make it incredibly difficult to win. Between some people taking things so seriously that they don’t want to risk a loss, and others not wanting to jump into a game knowing that it’s going to be a bad time, the online scene in NBA 2K remains shockingly substandard.

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It’s always great to see new mod releases for NBA Live 2005, especially with the ongoing efforts to update the game for the 2024 season! To that end, today’s new mods include a handful of player faces, a custom practice court, and a scoreboard colour update. Pick them up at the links below!

suleyman48
Alperen Sengun Face
Ja Morant Face
Victor Wembanyama Face

(Ice) mrjea99
2024 Practice Court
2024 Scoreboard Colors

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 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 you might expect, this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays contains a couple of highlights from the late, great Kobe Bryant. The Black Mamba isn’t the only one putting on a show on the virtual hardwood though, as Michael Jordan and even a created Scottie Pippen in NBA Live 19 provide a dazzling aerial display. There’s also an NBA Live 2000 highlight featuring one of the last roster updates for the game from the mid 2010s, and plenty of other spectacular moves from eight different games. 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.

I think many of us still find it tough to wrap our heads around it – and the passage of time doesn’t make it any easier – but it’s been four years since we lost Kobe Bryant in a tragic helicopter crash. Since then, there have been many tributes to the Mamba including NBA 2K covers, and of course his enshrinement into the Hall of Fame. Basketball gamers are actively keeping his memory alive by playing with him on the virtual hardwood, and to that end, I replayed Kobe Bryant’s last game against the Utah Jazz in NBA Live 16.

Since I was playing on six minute quarters, replicating his feat of 60 points was always going to be difficult. While I did fall short of that number, I kept feeding the Mamba the ball, and pulled off some very satisfying highlights in the process. NBA Live 16 is a game that I’ve come to appreciate more upon revisiting it in recent months, and it’s always fun getting buckets with Kobe. I’m sure that many basketball fans will be taking control of Kobe today and this weekend, and this is my tribute to one of the greatest to grace the hardwood, both real and virtual.

Feel free to share your memories of Kobe, and if you post any highlights on social media, be sure to tag us. Beyond that, we’re constantly uploading basketball gaming content to the NLSC YouTube channel, so please subscribe, and hit us up with suggestions of any games that you’d like to see us play. Rest in Peace, Mamba.

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 Part 20 in an ongoing series looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in video games.

At long last, we’ve reached the end of this second run of Friday Five articles looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in games, for one reason or another! The series was actually intended to finish much earlier – at least for the short term – but thanks to the help of David L, I ended up with numerous examples that were just too interesting not to discuss. As I didn’t want to scrap the articles I’d already written and the fun stories they included, this second series of articles has ultimately spanned an entire year, becoming a fun recurring topic for the last Friday of each month.

All good things must come to an end though, so this is it for now; famous last words, I know! There are definitely more examples, but I’ve basically covered the biggest names and most interesting stories; a total of one hundred players, as of Part 20! It’s time to move on to some other topics, but we are ending this second run of articles about players who only appeared on certain teams in video games on an interesting note. All five examples this time around are from NBA Live 2000 PC, with one of the players also boasting a second phantom stint in the original NBA 2K. So, let’s take a look at five more phantom stints that have been captured on the virtual hardwood!

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As I’ve previously noted, one of my basketball gaming goals for 2024 is to dip into my collection every week, and play a game that I haven’t spent much time with before. Last week’s title was NBA 08 for PlayStation 3, and I’ve posted the highlights from a Seattle SuperSonics vs. Charlotte Bobcats game on our YouTube channel.

Obviously a contemporary of NBA Live 08 and NBA 2K8, as I mentioned on Twitter/X, NBA 08 was probably the third best sim title of the 2008 season. It’s lacking some of the polish of 2K and EA’s games, though the looseness on the sticks does make it surprisingly fun at times. Naturally, I had to use the Seattle SuperSonics – then in their final season in the Pacific Northwest – and take on the Charlotte Bobcats. It’s tough to go past two technically defunct teams (or at least, ones with branding that’s no longer being used) when revisiting old games! Fittingly, Kevin Calabro is on the call as I put up 56 points with rookie Kevin Durant. Check it out!

As you can probably guess, these NBA 08 highlights are a precursor to me covering the game for Wayback Wednesday in the not too distant future. Stay tuned for that, and in the meantime, be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more basketball gaming content! As always, feel free to hit Dee and I up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play.

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 transitional rosters of the 1999 lockout season, as captured in NBA Live 99 PC.

It’s been 25 years since a lockout led to NBA games being cancelled for the first time, with the threat of an entire season being lost. I’ll admit that I wasn’t paying attention to the looming labour crisis as a teenage Chicago Bulls fan in 1998. I was focused on following the action, hoping that Michael Jordan would win another scoring title and the Bulls would end the year as champions once more. The rumours that concerned me were that it would be The Last Dance, which it obviously was. Furthermore, the magazines I was reading weren’t really covering it, and NBA Action definitely wasn’t!

Fortunately, the season was saved when ultimatums were issued – though, it wouldn’t be the last labour dispute – and the 1999 lockout ended on January 20th, 1999. On top of shortening the 1999 campaign to 50 games, it also meant that video games such as NBA Live had to launch with final 1998 season rosters. Fortunately for PC gamers, EA Sports released an official patch that not only fixed a few bugs, but updated the game for the new season. As such, NBA Live 99 PC in its updated state does preserve the rosters from a weird, yet memorable season. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #512 of the NLSC Podcast!

It’s Wishlist season once again, so this week, we join the community in listing our top three gameplay wishes for NBA 2K25! Not surprisingly, many of us have similar thoughts on what we want to see out of this year’s game. Following our recent sessions with them, we also discuss NBA ShootOut (aka Total NBA ’96) and Sony’s NBA 08, and compare them to their contemporaries. We’ve also got an injury update to share, and spend some time reflecting on past-their-prime players still having something left in the tank in real life, as well as being fun to play with in video games; especially when they’re familiar faces in unfamiliar places.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:41:02 — 69.7MB)

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 time for the next instalment of the NBA 2K14 Retro Series! This time we’re flashing back to the 2005 season, with a showdown between a young Chicago Bulls team, and the 7 Seconds Or Less Phoenix Suns. And yes, the fact that that’s a retro matchup is a reminder of how quickly time flies!

Needless to say, as a Chicago Bulls fan, my fondest memories of the team are from the championship years of the 90s. However, I also have a great appreciation for those Baby Bulls squads that were beginning to grow up, and it was particularly exciting to see the team become relevant again in 2005. Meanwhile, Steve Nash’s return to Phoenix that same season helped make them a team to watch for years to come. It’s possible to re-create the 2005 Bulls and Suns in NBA 2K14 – minus a couple of players, of course – so I knew it’d make for a fun matchup for the NBA 2K14 Retro Series. Watch how it went down!

Since we’re firmly in the DVD era by this point, I haven’t added any retro filters to these highlights. However, keep your eyes peeled for another classic commercial! There are more instalments coming in the Retro Series, including old school showdowns, so stay tuned. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more basketball gaming content, and feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play.