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The Friday Five: 5 Times Basketball Games Had Fictional Content

The Friday Five: 5 Times Basketball Games Had Fictional Content

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 times that basketball games featured fictional content.

Authenticity is the name of the game when it comes to sim basketball titles. There are acceptable breaks from reality, of course. MyTEAM allows us to construct lineups that span multiple eras, with everyone in their prime and ignoring that some players have passed away. It’s a fantasy mode, after all. We can also choose to have classic teams from different eras square off, play with teams featuring all of the best players in club history, or even have a team face itself. Even in a sim game, there’s fun to be had doing things that can’t be done in real life.

Fictional content is something else altogether. It’s usually the mark of an arcade game, such as the Stickmen and other bonus teams in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, or the inclusion of Mortal Kombat characters in the arcade version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition. Most of the fictional content in sim titles comes from our own modding and roster customisation. With that being said, there are some times when fictional content appeared in sim basketball games, beyond the obvious examples of Roster Players filling in for unlicensed names. From placeholders and bonus content to questionable design choices, here are five times that sim basketball games had fictional elements.

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The Friday Five: 5 Fun Details In NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER Story

The Friday Five: 5 Fun Details In NBA 2K19's MyCAREER Story

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 fun details that could be found in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story.

Since their introduction in NBA 2K14 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, MyCAREER stories have been controversial. Some of them have been intrusive, poorly-written, or both. Others have been more enjoyable to play through, though many gamers still opt to skip the better ones. This ability to skip the story was first implemented in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER, but that wasn’t the only good addition that year. Indeed, some of the fun details in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story made it worth playing through at least once, if not twice. I personally played through it on both PC and PlayStation 4.

Unfortunately, NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story is no longer playable, as the server shutdown has left the game with the stripped-down offline version of the mode. As such, these fun details are now permanently lost. It may not be a big deal to everyone, but it’s a shame that the single player portion of MyCAREER is now so intertwined with the connected experience that it’s limited – or completely absent – following the servers being shut down. NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story had some fun details that could’ve potentially made it an enjoyable retro gaming experience, but I’m glad I was able to enjoy them when I could. Here are five of those details that stand out to me.

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The Friday Five: 5 Side Characters That Should’ve Been MyPLAYERs

The Friday Five

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five suggests five side characters in MyCAREER stories that arguably should’ve been the player character instead.

So, I’ve looked at the best antagonists and protagonists in MyCAREER stories, but those tales have also featured a number of interesting side characters (and B-Fresh). It may be an overused idea at times, but whenever you have a cast of good supporting characters that have interesting stories of their own, you can’t help but wonder about spinoff ideas. Alternatively, you may feel that they should’ve been the main character all along. There are certainly some examples in the various MyCAREER stories, and so I’ll be exploring those possibilities today.

Of course, it should be noted that oftentimes side characters are in those roles for a reason, and promoting them to the lead or one of the main characters exposes why they weren’t in the spotlight in the first place. The same traits that made them such enjoyable side characters can make them unsuitable protagonists. It may be that they work better in small doses, or aspects that made them funny as a side character are grating when they’re the lead. Conversely, a lack of flaws may make them too boring in the role of protagonist. With that being said, I do believe there’s merit in these side characters being cast in the role of MyPLAYER avatar, albeit with a few changes.

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Monday Tip-Off: Who Is Anderson Murray?

Monday Tip-Off: Who Is Anderson Murray?

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 some reflections on Anderson Murray.

Who is Anderson Murray? That is the title of today’s article, and it’s also a question that you’ll see popping up on Reddit and Operation Sports if you Google the name. The Anderson Murray in question is a player that appears in NBA 2K20, albeit only in MyCAREER. I feel confident in saying that thanks to basketball gamers, he’s ended up playing for every team in the league. Don’t look for him in the record books next to Chucky Brown, Joe Smith, and Jim Jackson, however. Don’t search for him over on Basketball Reference, either. You won’t find him listed there.

No doubt there are actually people in the world called Anderson Murray, but none of them are currently playing in the NBA. And yet, there he is on the roster of every team. It seems that everyone has a different story when it comes to Murray. For some NBA 2K20 gamers, he’s an annoyance; a player that’s guaranteed to turn in subpar performances and someone they can’t wait to be rid of. For other gamers, however, he’s a reliable teammate who’s frequently helpful in padding assist numbers. His number and jersey may vary, but there’s one constant. Gamers wonder who Anderson Murray is, and just what he’s doing appearing as our teammate in MyCAREER.

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The Friday Five: 5 Unanswered Questions in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER

The Friday Five

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five lists five questions that remain unanswered in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER, and considers some possible explanations.

Having completed a season for the ages in Year 2 of my NBA 2K19 MyCAREER, I’m ready to move on from the mode in NBA 2K20. Since writing that Monday Tip-Off article, I have played a few games in Year 3 to see what the roster is like. It’s been interesting, but the possibility of a threepeat hasn’t been enough of an incentive to play many more games, or even try simulating most of the season. As the NBA 2K20 demo and full game loom on the horizon, I feel done with NBA 2K19 as a whole, let alone a mode where I’ve finally achieved a sense of closure.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t reflect on my experiences with MyCAREER, and the concepts that it’s explored this generation. For example, I admittedly have a love-hate relationship with the story-driven approach. I believe it has its problems, but it’s also been creative and at times thought-provoking. It’s invited various theories, and even suggests the possibility of its own cinematic universe. Before I close the book on MyCAREER, I’d like to discuss some unexplained aspects of the story in NBA 2K19. Note that these unanswered questions didn’t ruin the experience in my opinion, so this is just me having some fun with plot holes and other oddities.

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