Tag Archives: NBA 2K8

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #628 of the NLSC Podcast!

While it’s certainly exciting to be on the cutting edge of gaming technology, we’re not always in a rush to upgrade our hardware and play the (supposedly) most advanced versions of basketball video games. This week, we’re taking a look at why many basketball gamers often opt to stick with last gen hoops titles – ourselves included – and some of the benefits of delaying a jump to the next generation. We also touch on next gen elitism and gatekeeping – in particular, the “you’re broke” crowd – and the community shares their experiences in sticking with last gen basketball video games. Suffice it to say that it’s been a more common practice over the years than some people may think!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:02:02 — 43.0MB)

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!

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 classic teams in the College Hoops series.

It’s well-known that EA Sports included a variety of classic teams in their college basketball video games, in no small part because they ended up being the catalyst for Ed O’Bannon’s lawsuit against the NCAA. Their infamy arguably overshadows the inclusion of classic teams in the College Hoops series, but 2K’s games did indeed feature a complement of historical squads as well. Considering my current preference for indulging my nostalgia and passion for basketball history, they’re an incentive to consider spending more time with the two College Hoops titles that I own!

Time will tell if those games will crack my rotation. As far as their NBA counterparts are concerned, I do enjoy NBA 2K7, but I’m not a fan of NBA 2K8. For now though, let’s talk about the historical content in the College Hoops games. As you may expect, there’s a generous selection of retro squads spanning decades of college basketball history, though the array of teams did change slightly every year. So, what were the classic teams in College Hoops like, and why didn’t they lead to the same controversy that befell EA’s NCAA titles? Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 provides five more corrections to errors in previous articles.

It’s been a while since I last issued some corrections to errors I’ve made in previous articles, so that must mean I’ve been completely accurate since then! Well, possibly not, though once again going back and correcting my mistakes a couple of times now has encouraged me to be more thorough with my research and fact-checking. I’d like to think that I’ve been successful in those efforts, though when you are your own editor and fact-checker, you’re definitely at risk of oversight! Whenever that happens, the best that you can do is to be transparent and provide the necessary corrections.

Obviously, that includes editing the original articles and adding the relevant footnotes, which I recently did for my NBA Jam 99 retrospective. However, I also believe that there’s value in spotlighting my mistakes like this. It feels even more transparent, as edits to the original articles can go unread. Additionally, it gives me the opportunity to dive back into those topics with the accuracy I wish I’d had the first time around, and share some interesting stories and trivia. I’d also prefer to be someone who can admit when they’re wrong and learn from their mistakes, rather than just double-down out of foolish pride. To that end, here are five more errors in my articles that I must correct!

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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 NBA 09: The Inside for PlayStation 3.

The 2008 season lineup of basketball video games is arguably one of the weakest in the history of the genre. Outside of College Hoops 2K8, its titles aren’t popular picks for all-time favourites, or widely considered to be among the best in their series. NBA Live 08 was significantly better than NBA Live 07, but that was a low bar to clear, with plenty of room left for improvement. NBA 2K8 was a strange misstep following NBA 2K7. NBA 08 was at least on par with NBA 07, but to that point, there was no major leap in quality.

Fortunately, the genre bounced back for the 2009 season, providing basketball gamers with a couple of solid titles, and one fantastic release. Was NBA 09: The Inside one of those games? Well, not to spoil the entire retrospective, but unfortunately it wasn’t. In fact, in the spirit of the season, I’d suggest that anyone who was unlucky enough to receive NBA 09: The Inside for Christmas in 2008 may as well have been gifted a lump of coal in their stocking! So, why the harsh words for San Diego Studio’s final NBA game on PlayStation 3? Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.

As previously noted, whether it’s real life or the virtual hardwood, it’s very tough to top a spectacular dunk on a countdown of basketball highlights. This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays provides a fantastic example of the exception though, with a truly incredible sequence that snatches victory from the jaws of defeat, buzzer beater and all! And don’t worry; there are plenty of dunks as well, plus a couple of other nifty plays. Seven different basketball video games are on display this week, from NBA 2K8 all the way through to NBA 2K26. 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.

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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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 whether or not I’m ever disappointed while retro basketball gaming.

Although I’m still interested in new releases, in recent years I’ve mostly been getting my virtual hardwood fix through old favourites. It’s a very old habit for me, but it’s also the result of dissatisfaction with the current generation of NBA 2K games, and ninth generation gaming as a whole. I’m obviously also producing content based on retro gaming, from retrospectives of classic and not-so-classic basketball video games to other deep dives into the history of the genre. Whether it’s for content creation or just recreation, older basketball games constantly enter my rotation.

There are some people who will scoff at that idea, in particular the “everything gets better, you’re just hung up on nostalgia” crowd. Obviously there are many examples of regression and bad design choices that disprove that assertion, but more to the point, it’s attempting to make an objective declaration that a very subjective personal preference is wrong. With that being said, basketball video games certainly weren’t universally better back in the day, and I won’t claim as such; even when it comes to my all-time favourites that hold up superbly. To that point, am I ever disappointed while retro basketball gaming? Well, it depends on what you mean by disappointed.

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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 the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 version of NBA 2K9.

I had to double-check that I hadn’t already covered NBA 2K9 in a previous Wayback Wednesday retrospective. It’s not that I won’t revisit games that I’ve already profiled if I have new thoughts to share, but if it is my second opinion, I want to acknowledge my previous take. As it happens, I specifically reflected on NBA 2K9 coming to PC, but it wasn’t a detailed retrospective. My only real commentary on the game itself was to say that it doesn’t hold up as well as its successors. Irrespective of how accurate or inaccurate that critique of NBA 2K9 is, it’s hardly an in-depth retrospective or review!

Since then, I’ve developed a greater appreciation for the games that came before NBA 2K13. NBA 2K6 and NBA 2K7 have even retroactively become a couple of my all-time favourite basketball games! However, as I’ve previously explained, I wasn’t as impressed with NBA 2K8. It felt like a misstep, a sentiment reflected in many of the contemporary reviews. In any case, I was due to revisit NBA 2K9 next, so it’s been in my rotation in anticipation of this retrospective. With that being said, does it hold up, and has it also become a retroactive favourite? Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #575 of the NLSC Podcast!

We recently played NBA 2K9 and NBA Live 09 over Parsec, with a view to starting a co-op season in one or both of them. In addition to recapping the fun we had during those sessions, this week we’re comparing and contrasting the 2009 season releases from EA Sports and Visual Concepts. We reflect on how they were both notable improvements over their immediate predecessors, discuss a couple of the teams that we’d potentially like to use in our season, and reminisce about the NBA of that era. The community also weighs in with their views on the comparison, and recalls some of the teams that they liked to use in NBA 2K9 and NBA Live 09.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 55:13 — 38.3MB)

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 #572 of the NLSC Podcast!

The seventh generation saw NBA 2K pull ahead of NBA Live – and for good reason – but which 2K titles stand out as the best releases during that run? This week, we join the community in ranking NBA 2K6 through NBA 2K13 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 – as well as the PC ports from NBA 2K9 onwards – discussing the key strengths and weaknesses of each game, while also sharing some of our personal memories and experiences with them. We also discuss some of the factors that make games stand out as classic and nostalgic releases, such as the season they’re set in, and the presence of fun teams to put on the virtual hardwood years and indeed decades later.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:01:30 — 42.6MB)

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!

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.

The NLSC Top 10 Plays is debuting some fresh pop outs this week, but the community absolutely bringing it with their highlights is certainly nothing new! To that end, expect to see the usual assortment of breathtaking alley-oops, rim-rattling poster dunks, slick passes, merciless blocks, and cold-blooded clutch plays. Seven different games are featured in the countdown this week, ranging from NBA Live 2005 through to NBA 2K25. As always, it’s just what you need to get hyped for a weekend on the virtual hardwood, so 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.

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.

The NLSC Top 10 Plays is tipping off February 2025 with a bang! We begin with a great two-way play ending in an and-one finish in the underrated NBA Live 18, and it only gets more spectacular from there! On top of the poster dunks that we always love to see, the countdown culminates with two cold-blooded clutch plays that’ll surely get you pumped to compete on the virtual hardwood this weekend. Five different games are featured this week, from NBA 2K8 through to NBA 2K25. 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.

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! 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, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.

It’s no surprise to see Vince Carter in this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays. As we discussed in Episode #564 of the NLSC Podcast, as one of the most exciting dunkers in league history, he’s always a blast to use on the virtual hardwood. However, with the Nets retiring his jersey this weekend, Carter’s multiple appearances in this week’s countdown are definitely timely! He wasn’t the only one putting on a show though, and even Vinsanity wasn’t enough to top another remarkable clutch play. Highlights from six different games are ready to pump you up for a weekend of basketball gaming, so 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.

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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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 basketball games of the 2008 season, and explaining why I believe it was the weakest lineup to date.

As much as I miss having multiple annual releases in the basketball gaming space – especially when we had at least three or four companies throwing their hat into the ring – it clearly wasn’t sustainable. The quality of those games was inconsistent across the board, and it didn’t help that some of them were console and regional exclusives. To that point, it’s no wonder that many series didn’t last nearly as long as NBA 2K, or even NBA Live. Still, it was great having so many choices that brought their own ideas to the table, and there were usually at least one or two fantastic games each year.

Nominating the best or strongest year in basketball gaming is tough; in fact, that’s a topic that Dee and I might have to tackle on the podcast, with the community’s input. If we’re talking about the worst or weakest season for basketball games though, I do have an answer that – while obviously subjective – I am confident in. After going back and reviewing NBA Live 08, NBA 2K8, and Sony’s NBA 08, I believe that 2008 is the frontrunner for the weakest season for basketball video games. I certainly wouldn’t expect everyone to agree, but I have my reasons. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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