Tag Archives: Allen Iverson

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #615 of the NLSC Podcast!

On a recent episode of the No Fouls Given Podcast, Paul Pierce and Danny Green opined that Michael Jordan had a “limited bag”; a notion that The Truth’s former teammate Kevin Garnett vehemently disagreed with! We’re with KG when it comes to one of the most commonly used buzzwords in basketball discourse these days, and to that end, this week we join the community in discussing what we think having a bag means and looks like. Is it just dribbling moves and ballhandling flair, or does it comprise a player’s entire offensive arsenal? We also provide examples of the players past and present that we believe boast some of the deepest bags in basketball history.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 48:27 — 33.6MB)

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #611 of the NLSC Podcast!

What Ifs are always an intriguing topic in basketball discussions, especially when they involve comebacks that could’ve been, and comebacks that could potentially still occur. To that end, this week we’re reflecting on a handful of historical comeback rumours, as well as returns that were reportedly very close to happening. Either way, they’re What Ifs that we would’ve loved to have seen come to fruition! We also discuss whether there are any recently-retired players that could feasibly still have an impact if they were to make a return to the NBA today, and a novel comeback scenario involving a player who’s been out of the league for over a decade after retiring young.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 56:48 — 39.4MB)

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!

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.

It’s time to examine five more potential comebacks that aren’t just tantalising What If scenarios in real life, but would’ve been enjoyable on the virtual hardwood! Although some What Ifs are just interesting thought experiments, many of the most fascinating ones are those that were much closer to becoming a reality. Naturally, that includes comeback attempts that weren’t just wishful thinking or idle speculation. Additionally, after watching the NBA for many years – and getting a little older myself – I’ve grown more bothered by players being pushed out of the league seemingly before their time.

Mind you, other times it’s reasonable that teams didn’t have any interest, or it was just a fanciful thought by all parties involved. Between some players making unimpressive comebacks and others sticking around too long, there’s no shame in knowing when to call it a day, or deciding that you’re definitely done despite tempting offers to return. All the same, some of the comebacks that we’ve come close to seeing wouldn’t just grab headlines and draw eyeballs in real life – no matter if they were successful or not – but they’d also be a blast in video games. Whether they created stacked lineups or quirky teams built for gaming, these comebacks would’ve been awesome to play with.

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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 players who ended up being notable names in the free agents pool in video games.

In a previous article, I mentioned that a number of future Hall of Fame players and other notable names have appeared in the free agents pool in various titles. Needless to say, they stand out among the selection of veteran journeymen and other far less prominent players. It was undoubtedly weird to see those all-time greats, multi-time all-stars, and other notable mainstays in the league languishing in the free agents pool. Once again though, they facilitated countless roster projects. Of course, it also led to some strange sights when CPU teams picked them up in franchise modes!

Obviously, there are reasons that notable names have occasionally turned up in the free agents pool of video games, particularly towards the end of their careers. Also, because older games came out on different platforms at different times, there were differences in their rosters. As such, not all versions of a game featured the same notable names among their array of unsigned free agents. I can’t pass up a chance to discuss NBA history when there’s a connection to basketball gaming trivia, and there are definitely some interesting stories here. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #581 of the NLSC Podcast!

What are some of the most memorable plays that we’ve seen in all of our years watching basketball? This week, we join the community in reminiscing about a few of our all-time favourite highlights. Considering our favourite teams, players, and eras to watch, some of our choices might just surprise you! Of course, a couple of others certainly won’t be particularly shocking. We also discuss which game should be featured in the next NLSC Tournament that will be played over Parsec, hopefully in the near future. The community also has some suggestions in that regard, and suffice it to say, there are some very popular picks when it comes to sim and arcade titles alike.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 46:15 — 32.1MB)

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!

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 an attempt at crafting a Next Gen NBA’s Greatest mode in a future NBA 2K.

Although the original Jordan Challenge was the catalyst for a new era of historical content in NBA 2K, NBA’s Greatest was an innovative follow-up. Many of the classic teams that were added as part of NBA’s Greatest are still in the game today, setting a precedent for expanding the roster of retro squads to celebrate a variety of players. It wasn’t the first basketball game to feature throwback presentation – NBA Jam 2004 had utilised the concept almost a decade earlier – but NBA 2K12 did a spectacular job with it, ultimately paving the way for what we now have with MyNBA Eras.

As a game released in 2011, NBA’s Greatest celebrated fifteen of the most prominent players in league history to that point: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Julius Erving, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Oscar Robertson, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Scottie Pippen, and Isiah Thomas. Needless to say, those players still deserve to be celebrated today, but after all these years, there’s a new class of all-time greats that a future NBA 2K could build a Next Gen NBA’s Greatest around. With that in mind, here are fifteen players that should be celebrated in such a mode, as well as my picks for their games.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #554 of the NLSC Podcast!

What is it that keeps us hooked on the virtual hardwood? This week, we join the community in sharing the reasons why we play basketball video games, ranging from a love of the sport, to bonding experiences with family and friends, to joyful fantasy and escapism. Following on from last week, we and our listeners pick three stars from the 2000s to bring into the modern NBA in their prime. In response to the end of online support for NBA Live 18, we note how the offline version of The One succeeds where MyCAREER fails nowadays. We also share an interesting tidbit about Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, and answer a question about bad basketball video games in another edition of Andrew Asks.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:09:28 — 48.1MB)

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #550 of the NLSC Podcast!

Assuming that we could get anyone from NBA history into a mo-cap suit, who are the five players that we’d choose to perform motion capture for a basketball video game? This week, we join the community in naming our All-Time Mo-Cap Starting Fives! We also recap a most unusual session with NBA Live 2000 PC in which we took on the Indiana Pacers with the Detroit Pistons, and got utterly smoked by the sharpshooting duo of Reggie Miller and Chris Mullin. In addition to that, we’ve got an update to share about getting back on the court, recommendations for basketball shoes, and some reflections to share as both digital broadcasting milestones and a milestone birthday loom.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 58:23 — 40.5MB)

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!

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 teammates who were once traded for each other, and the video games that feature those stints.

While it’s become far more common – and some would say, acceptable – for stars to change teams nowadays, it’s always been somewhat rare for players to spend their entire career with one club. Even if a player does stay put, they’ll end up playing with a host of different teammates throughout the years. Between the players that join the team they’re on and the teams that they may go on to join, old rivals will become teammates, former teammates will reunite, and superteams will form, giving us plenty of interesting lineups to talk about…and of course, play with in video games.

Needless to say, trades also break up duos and teammates who no doubt enjoyed playing with one another. We’ve even seen former college teammates get traded for each other during the Draft, as Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison were back in 1998. A trade where former teammates end up being swapped for one another gets you thinking, specifically whether the reverse has ever happened. In other words, have any players who were once traded for each other later become teammates? It has indeed happened, and since I explore such trivia through the lens of the virtual hardwood, here are five traded players turned teammates, and the games featuring those pairings.

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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 investigating some alleged cheat codes for NBA Live 2002 that are listed on various websites.

Here’s a statement that will blow your mind: you can’t believe everything that you read on the internet. I’ll give you a moment to recover from the utter shock of that revelation! In all seriousness, it’s hardly a secret that the internet is as convenient a means of spreading misinformation as it is researching verifiable facts and figures. I’m not going to delve into the Big Issues here, because that’s beyond our scope as a site dedicated to basketball gaming, and I’m not looking to court controversy. Of course, there’s plenty of hoaxes and misinformation when it comes to video games.

All genres of games are subject to what TV Tropes creatively dubs an “Urban Legend of Zelda“. Indeed, the Zelda series itself has one of the all-time famous video game hoaxes, namely the claim that the Triforce was obtainable in Ocarina of Time. Hoops titles have their own urban legends, from claims of certain players being hidden in NBA Jam when they weren’t, to supposedly unlockable modes that in reality would be too big of a selling point to tuck away as an obscure secret. And of course, like other genres, there have been fake cheat codes. I’ve discovered some questionable codes for NBA Live 2002 that bear investigating, so let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 assorted cover player trivia.

I’m sure that it’s apparent from my various features, as well as comments I’ve made on the NLSC Podcast, that I really enjoy trivia about my passions. I love discovering new “fun facts” about my favourite hobbies and interests, and of course, discussing them in the content that I create. Of course, the downside of being passionate about trivia is that it’s easy to come off as a know-it-all, or a bore. Still, I imagine that if you’re here to consume content about basketball video games, you enjoy these facts as well! It’s always my aim to share something that hopefully not everyone will know.

So, cover player trivia. It seems only appropriate, since in the grand scheme of things, there aren’t too many aspects of basketball video games that are as trivial as the cover player! The face of the game doesn’t necessarily indicate its quality, and there have been some out-of-the-box choices on the front of the box throughout the years. It’s still a point of interest, of course. We admire creative cover art, and while it doesn’t (or shouldn’t) impact our enjoyment of a game, we also appreciate a worthy cover player. With so many basketball games and a multitude of players appearing on their covers, there’s some interesting trivia we can dive into as we tip off another week.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #477 of the NLSC Podcast!

When we connected on Parsec to play NBA Inside Drive 2003, we weren’t anticipating having one of the most exciting games we’ve ever experienced on the virtual hardwood. One epic comeback later, and it was definitely a contest to remember! To that point, we’re recapping our showdown between the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers for posterity, and to emphasise the fun that can be had when you don’t give up on a game after falling behind. We also compare it to some famous comeback victories in real NBA history, to which it bears some uncanny similarities. In this week’s mailbag, we join the community in discussing basketball video game series that would make a welcome return.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:02:12 — 43.1MB)

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!

On the most recent NLSC Podcast, Dee and I recapped our co-op session of NBA Inside Drive 2004, and shared our impressions of the game. The next episode will feature a discussion of NBA Inside Drive 2003, as our co-op game over Parsec turned into one of the most epic virtual hardwood contests that we’ve ever had!

Dee and I chose to play with the Toronto Raptors, and take on the Philadelphia 76ers. Desiring more of a challenge after quickly racing out to an early lead in our first attempt, we abandoned it in order to crank up the difficulty and start over. The CPU was now suitably ruthless, and although we kept pace through two and a half quarters, the 76ers pulled away and seemingly had the game in hand by the end of the period. This set the table for a furious fourth quarter Raptors rally, in which we had to overcome a 23-point deficit. Check out the highlights as we attempt the seemingly impossible!

Gameplay videos from a variety of basketball titles are frequently being uploaded to our YouTube channel these days, so please subscribe and check out what else is on tap! As I’ve mentioned before, Dee and I both have large collections of basketball video games at our disposal, so feel free to hit us up with suggestions of what else 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 some alternative retro teams that you can create in the PS4/X1 version of NBA 2K14.

While I was on my extended retro kick with NBA 2K14 for PS4, I played several games with the retro teams. There aren’t as many to choose from as in later games, and while inter-era games can be fun, I do like to re-create historical matchups. As such, after a while I tried my hand at creating some alternative retro teams. I’ve already discussed my fondness for minimalist modding, and given the content that’s available and the lack of Create-a-Player in NBA 2K14 PS4/X1, it was a stimulating challenge to see how many new retro squads could be assembled.

To that point, there are some obvious limitations when you don’t have the benefit of mods and external roster editing, to say nothing of having to destroy the lone custom roster save file. However, as long as you have a backup on hand – either via USB or cloud storage – you can mess around and add some new retro teams to NBA 2K14 PS4, and later restore a cleaner custom roster as necessary. If you’re keen to find out how you can change up your retro gaming, let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #430 of the NLSC Podcast!

During a session of NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, we made the exciting discovery that the servers appear to be reactivated! We’re hoping it isn’t temporary, and note a few other games we’d like to see receive online support again. A vague Tweet from EA has invited those of us hoping for NBA Live’s return to speculate once more. This leads us to discuss our concerns about influencers giving a new NBA Live game a fair chance, if and when it comes out. A clip from the archives prompts us to reflect on The Jordan Challenge in NBA 2K11, and the attention to detail that was paid to Michael Jordan’s return to video games. We also answer a question about whether games have become too realistic, and open up the mailbag to talk about our favourite highlights, real and virtual.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:27:30 — 60.5MB)

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!