Tag Archives: Assists

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 saluting former NBA player Gary Grant, who celebrated his 61st birthday yesterday.

One telltale sign of a long-time hardcore NBA fan is the ability to recall some of the most obscure players from decades ago. Obviously it’s easy to remember the all-time greats that younger fans who weren’t even born yet have still heard of, and many of the other prominent players from yesteryear also stick in our minds. However, when you grow up obsessed with hoops – watching games, playing video games, collecting trading cards, reading magazines – you also remember the journeymen, deep bench reserves, and that one player who had a six-game stint with your favourite team!

That brings me to Gary Grant. Although I remember dozens of players from the 90s, I’m not inclined to profile all of them in Wayback Wednesday. To that end, Grant is definitely a special case! In addition to popping up in games I watched and becoming a very familiar face in packs of trading cards, he’s also been involved in some of my fondest basketball gaming memories. He also stuck around for more than a decade, which is no minor feat. It’s time to give Gary Grant his due on the real and virtual hardwood alike, 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 reflections on how I’m just as passionate about getting rebounds on the virtual hardwood as I am racking up assists.

I’ve spoken at length about my love of tallying assists in video games. It all began with MyCAREER in NBA 2K13, where my player – a shooting guard – was thrust into the role of starting point guard when Ty Lawson went down for the year with an injury. One of the dynamic goals challenged me to break Fat Lever’s team record for assists in a single game, and that was that. In future games, my MyPLAYER was a point guard, built to get dimes. This carried over into playing online with NLSC THRILLHO, as I relished setting up the guys to score.

However, assists aren’t the only statistical column that I enjoy filling up in basketball video games. I also really relish getting rebounds! There’s something so satisfying about snaring a board, whether I’m controlling all five players or I’m locked to my career mode avatar. Indeed, on the couple of occasions that I’ve created a big man instead of a playmaking point guard, I’ve switched my focus from dropping dimes to cleaning the glass. Mind you, given how averaging a triple-double in MyCAREER becomes a habit when you have the strategy down pat, my point guards grab a lot of boards as well. Whichever game and however I’m playing, I truly do love rebounds.

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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 habits that I can’t break when I play MyCAREER.

Without a doubt, I’m a creature of habit. If I’m comfortable and there’s no need to switch things up, I’m not going to change for change’s sake. I have my go-to orders at my favourite fast food restaurants, as well as my preferred dishes if I’m eating at a more upscale establishment. I enjoy having a routine, and while I am open to new interests and experiences, I also know what I like, and what I can reliably stick with. This carries over into my gaming, basketball or otherwise. I’ve established preferences and habits that work for me in the games that I regularly play.

Needless to say, once I developed a taste for MyCAREER, I soon developed habits that are now extremely difficult to break. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as those habits have allowed me to enjoy MyCAREER in a number of games; as well they should, seeing as how they’re formed by my preferences and the experiences I want out of the virtual hardwood! However, some of those habits come from how I play other genres of video games. Being a creature of habit can also have its drawbacks, eschewing change and variety in favour of the familiar. With that being said, here are five MyCAREER habits that I can’t – or at least, very seldom – manage to break.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with the story how I came to love assists, and why I still enjoy dropping dimes on the virtual hardwood.

Even though they’re frequently a point of contention, statistics are an important aspect of basketball. Fans love citing them, and many of the sport’s biggest stars have been enthusiastic about accumulating them. Traditionally, it’s been about putting up points. Scoring is what gets attention, and ultimately, racking up more points than the other team is how you win games. Players have also sought other statistical feats, such as triple-doubles. With stats being such an inextricable part of hoops, it’s only natural that our enthusiasm for numbers carries over to video games as well.

It’s fun to achieve eye-popping numbers on the virtual hardwood, but over the years, it’s also become a necessity. After all, big games are what earn us the most VC and XP in MyCAREER and its connected modes. As such, they’re an unavoidable part of the grind in career and online team play. It’s a logical approach, though unfortunately it does contribute to toxicity by encouraging a Player One mindset. However, there is a stat that’s usually (but not always) racked up with less selfishness: assists. Having played MyCAREER and its connected modes in several different games now, I’ve grown extremely fond of accumulating assists in both online and offline play.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a recap of my experiences playing MyCAREER in NBA 2K20 with a MyPLAYER that’s a centre rather than a point guard. As a side note, please be forewarned that I use the Australian spelling of “centre” throughout this article.

My time playing MyCAREER regularly in NBA 2K20 has come to an end. After I ended up being drawn back into the mode, I finished a full season with my traditional point guard build, winning the championship and setting an assortment of records. The MyPLAYER build I chose has also proven to be suitable for online play, and while the online experience is as hit-and-miss as ever in NBA 2K20, when it has been good, I’ve really enjoyed playing my usual role. After starting the second season by averaging a quadruple-double, I’m going to try simming my way to the Hall of Fame.

That’s not the only experiment I’m running in MyCAREER, though. Although I do want to put the mode aside, I have created a second player. I’ve enjoyed being a point guard since being thrust into the role back in NBA 2K13, and have learned the meta-gaming idiosyncrasies for my preferred build at that position. It’s helped me rack up assists, which I’ve come to really enjoy doing. However, when I was playing in my local junior league many years ago, I was a centre that loved to rebound and block shots. I decided to create a MyPLAYER that reflected my actual playing style and position, in order to see what MyCAREER is like as the man in the middle.

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