Tag Archives: NBA Live 2005

As you may know, Dee and I are consistently uploading highlights from our basketball gaming sessions to the NLSC YouTube channel, often featuring an assortment of NBA Live and NBA 2K titles. To that end, here’s an opportunity to catch up on what we’ve been playing recently!

Dee and his brother have been fixing up a Kobe Era roster for NBA 2K25, and as you’d expect, they’ve been testing out the teams as they complete them. This resulted in an excellent showdown between the 2003 Celtics and Knicks, which demonstrates what the game is capable of with proper ratings and tendencies for the historical players.

You may have heard us reflecting on our sessions with various NBA Live games in Episodes #566 and #568 of the NLSC Podcast. In case you haven’t caught those highlights yet, you can check out co-op games featuring the 76ers vs. Magic in NBA Live 2005, Bucks vs. Kings in NBA Live 16, and Nuggets vs. Magic in NBA Live 10. Also be sure to catch up on those podcasts if you haven’t tuned in yet!

My solo sessions included a game of NBA Live 95 for Super Nintendo, in which I took control of the young Orlando Magic against a Los Angeles Clippers team featuring a couple of out-of-place (and out-of-patience!) veterans. I’ve also posted a new entry in the NBA 2K14 Retro Series, which flashes back to the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz. As an aside, I’ve also finally gotten around to posting my video retrospective of NBA Street Homecourt.

Check out all of those NBA Live and NBA 2K highlights (and the NBA Street Homecourt retrospective) below, and make sure that you’re subscribed to the NLSC YouTube channel! As always, Dee and I are open to suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play, so feel free to hit us up. Stay tuned for more basketball gaming content, including video essays, highlight reels, and the weekly Top 10 Plays!

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As a keen retro gamer, it’s always exciting to receive a notification about new mod releases for games like NBA Live 2005! Modders27 has been diligently updating the game for a while now, and his latest release is a new face for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Check it out at the link below!

Modders27
Giannis Antetokounmpo Face

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 pondering a historical What If; namely, what if Karl Malone broke the all-time scoring record?

Welcome to what I hope will be a recurring Wayback Wednesday feature, in which I explore some intriguing NBA What Ifs, illustrated by basketball video games! For a hardcore basketball and history buff, diving into the league’s biggest What Ifs can be just as interesting as reflecting on real events, results, and records. What small change would have a huge impact on NBA history? Which important events that defined the legacies of teams and players are dependent on a particular decision or twist of fate? For want of a nail, what possible butterfly effects can we imagine?

Considering that I remain a huge fan of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, you might think that I’d be inclined to explore a hypothetical involving them. After all, for all of their success during the 90s, there are a couple of What Ifs there! I will get to them at some point as I do have my own opinions to share, but they’re popular NBA What Ifs that have been discussed many times before. As such, for my first What If, I’m imagining a timeline where Karl Malone breaks the all-time scoring record. It’s a once-feasible event that’s hardly discussed now, so 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.

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.

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 erroneous ratings that were based on reputation and narratives, rather than accurate analysis.

Creating roster updates for PC releases of NBA Live for so many years has made me critical of, but also sympathetic to, the producers who maintain official rosters. On one hand, I know the importance of accurately rating players and always strived to do my best in that regard, while also relying on the watchful eyes of the community to provide helpful feedback. To that end, I also understand how easy it is to overlook certain ratings when there are over 400 active players to keep track of. Mistakes will slip through, or a much-needed update will be forgotten.

With that being said, there are times when erroneous ratings aren’t actually a matter of oversight, but rather by design. There are a few reasons for this. As Dee has pointed out, a lack of care with copy and paste jobs, and myopic reliance on spreadsheets and formulas, has led to laughable ratings and tendencies. Other times, these erroneous ratings are reputation-based, as an unsubstantiated narrative about a player is accepted as common knowledge. However, it’s not always a bad thing, as a player’s skill may demand ratings that their stats may not, justifying some padding. These five examples represent the good, the bad, and the lazy, of erroneous reputation-based ratings!

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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 paying tribute to the iconic T-Meter.

While a solid basketball video game may be able to get away with advanced controls that are complex and even contrived, the basics must be well-designed and easy to use. If shooting is clunky, or jumping on defense is useless, or trying to pass to a teammate standing next to you is somehow a chore, then the game is not mechanically sound! To that point, while free throws aren’t something that will (or at least, should) happen on every possession, they are a part of the sport as the result of infractions, and thus a basic skill that needs to be properly represented in video games.

Of course, just as certain titles have botched other fundamental aspects of basketball, developers have devised some bewilderingly terrible ways of shooting free throws on the virtual hardwood. All too often, they were needlessly complicating what should be a straightforward mechanic in the name of creativity, challenge, or trying to represent a shooting motion. What those games should’ve done – and indeed, some did – was to copy what EA Sports were doing with the T-Meter. Dated as it may seem, it remains one of my favourite mechanics for free throws. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #566 of the NLSC Podcast!

The basketball world was shocked by the announcement that the Dallas Mavericks had traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. Naturally, we have a few thoughts on the deal, and what it means for both teams moving forward! Criminally underrated players from yesteryear are also on our minds as of late, so this week, we join the community in naming some of the ballers who deserve to be talked about more often. Finally, we recap an excellent co-op session with the PC version of NBA Live 2005, in which we took on the Philadelphia 76ers with the Orlando Magic. We also compare it to NBA Live 06, and other games in the NBA Live series.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:44:52 — 72.4MB)

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #565 of the NLSC Podcast!

How many hours per week are we currently spending on the virtual hardwood, and which modes are keeping us hooked? This week, we join the community in crunching the numbers, and sharing our preferred ways to play. Needless to say, we also make a point of encouraging everyone to stick to the activities and style of play that is the most fun for them! We also poll our fellow basketball gamers and hardcore hoop heads on their picks for the era in NBA history that was the deepest in terms of talent, as well as which one boasted the biggest array of stars. While it may sound contradictory, they aren’t necessarily one and the same in everyone’s eyes!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:09:20 — 48.0MB)

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #564 of the NLSC Podcast!

Which NBA players are the best of the best when it comes to dunking, shooting, shot blocking, stealing the ball, and going one-on-one, both in real life and on the virtual hardwood? This week, we join the community in sharing our picks in each of those categories. We also recap a fun session using a work-in-progress Kobe Era roster for NBA 2K25 PC, in which we took on the Seattle Supersonics with the Golden State Warriors. Naturally, we also reflect on those squads, and the massive trade that took place between them in 2003! Finally, we discuss some of the aspects of basketball that video games still struggle to implement correctly, or accurately portray.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:06:04 — 45.7MB)

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!

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 things that I should’ve done while making rosters for various games.

Although my modding output has dwindled to sporadic releases over the past decade or so, there was a time when I was extremely active. Current rosters were my bread and butter, and as I’ve recalled in a couple of Wayback Wednesday features, I also created 1996 season mods for NBA Live 2001 and NBA Live 2004. Burnout put an end to my days as a prolific roster modder around 2013, but I did genuinely enjoy the creative satisfaction of modding for many years before that. As such, the lure has always lingered, and I’ve never wanted to completely shut the door on a return.

Indeed, I have released a couple of rosters for NBA Live and NBA 2K games since then. However, I’ve also had a couple of ill-fated attempts at updating NBA 2K11 for the current season, an idea that sadly fell through despite my best intentions. When I reflect upon my burnout, stepping away from roster modding, and my attempts to get back into the hobby, I can identify the mistakes I made, and what I should’ve done instead. From philosophical and strategic approaches to technical procedures, there are definitely things I should’ve done differently, and will certainly strive to do so with any roster projects moving forward. Here are five of the most important ones.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #562 of the NLSC Podcast!

Now that 2025 is underway and NBA 2K25 has been out for a few months, what are our ultimate thoughts on this year’s game? This week, we join the community in giving NBA 2K25 a final score, and running down the various pros and cons across the board following ample time on the sticks. We also reflect on the unwritten house rules that we employ to make our multiplayer basketball gaming sessions fair and enjoyable, and ideally civil with minimal fights! Finally, we react to a bewildering story about a former top draft pick being utterly clueless when it comes to basketball history. Of course, given the player in question, we’re not entirely surprised!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:19:31 — 55.0MB)

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!

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.

Welcome to a brand new year for the NLSC Top 10 Plays! As you might expect, we’re picking up right where we left off, as the community has come through with the goods as usual. That means an assortment of rim-rattling poster dunks, flashy layups, nifty passes, and rejections that the late Dikembe Mutombo would be proud of! A total of six different games are featured in this week’s countdown, ranging from NBA Live 2000 right through to NBA 2K25. You know what the Top 10 is all about by now, 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.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #561 of the NLSC Podcast!

With the 2024 holiday season drawing to a close and a new year almost upon us, this week we’re joining the community in sharing the basketball and basketball gaming gifts that we gave and received for Christmas, as well as listing some of our resolutions for both real hoops and the virtual hardwood in 2025. We also recap a couple of co-op games with the PC versions of two titles released some twenty years apart: NBA Live 95 and NBA 2K15. In addition to reflecting on two very different but nevertheless enjoyable sessions, we discuss how great of a sim game NBA Live 95 was for its time, and the ruthless AI that makes NBA 2K15 suitably challenging.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 55:24 — 38.4MB)

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!

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.

It’s been an incredible year for the NLSC Top 10 Plays, and we’re certainly wrapping up 2024 with a bang! The countdown begins with a throwback to Grant Hill’s rookie season in NBA 2K13, and only gets more exciting with a signature Kobe Bryant dunk in NBA 2K25, an incredible buzzer beater from Vince Carter in NBA Live 2005, and an assortment of vicious dunks and jaw-dropping moves from a total of six different basketball video games. Thank you to everyone who submitted highlights these past twelve months! We’re looking forward to another spectacular year in 2025, but for one last time in 2024, 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 lineups that despite their fame, didn’t actually last long.

Just how good is your memory? I like to think that mine is pretty good when it comes to basketball and basketball video games, because those are things that I’m passionate about. However, I definitely don’t have infallible recall! Moreover, our perception of time can be a tricky thing. To that end, while I may remember players, teams, lineups, and other such roster trivia many years later, my recollection of their longevity (or lack thereof) can be skewed. After all, what may feel like a long time when we’re living it day-by-day can turn out to be a short period in the grand scheme of things!

Case in point: the lineups that I’m talking about today. It’s no surprise that they stick in my mind – and I’m sure the minds of many long-time basketball fans and gamers – because they were all memorable in their own way. However, their memorability can ironically make us forget how short-lived those lineups actually were; especially if they did have a significant impact on the league (and video games) while they lasted. Even if they weren’t particularly successful, or a Video Game Team, they may still benefit from an oddity, or simply media hype, that grants them more nostalgic fame – or infamy – than you’d expect. Here are five such lineups that come to mind for me.

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