Tag Archives: NBA Street Homecourt

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #629 of the NLSC Podcast!

Last week, Play By Play Studios held a closed beta for NBA The Run, their upcoming arcade streetball game set for release in June 2026. Derek had the opportunity to take part in the closed beta, and so this week, he’s sharing his detailed hands-on impressions of the game, breaking down the key positives and negatives while also making some recommendations for how it could improve. We also read out the community’s thoughts on what they’ve seen of NBA The Run so far. While there’s definitely excitement for the game, not everyone has been impressed by the latest gameplay footage. We also once again touch on the importance of not letting hype get in the way of constructive feedback.

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #604 of the NLSC Podcast!

Big news last week as Play by Play Studios announced that they have acquired the NBA license. As such, their planned 3v3 online PvP arcade basketball video game The Run: Got Next is now titled NBA The Run, and is slated for release some time in 2026. To that end, this week we’re joining the community in reacting to what we know so far about NBA The Run – including breaking down an illuminating and in-depth developer interview with Ballislife.com – as well as the latest teaser trailer. Although the game is aiming to be a worthy successor to the NBA Street series and we’d like to see it turn out well, we’d be lying if we said we didn’t have some concerns at this point in time.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:16:52 — 53.1MB)

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 some thoughts on video game retrospectives that are rather lacklustre.

Presently, I’m covering at least one game per month with an in-depth retrospective for Wayback Wednesday. I’d like to increase that number while also covering other retro-themed topics, but time is a factor when it comes to producing those features. I want to spend ample time with a game that I’m revisiting before I talk about it, especially if it’s one that I didn’t grow up playing and thus have less familiarity with. I also want to be as detailed as possible, not only covering all aspects of the gameplay, modes, and features, but also any relevant history and interesting trivia.

To that end, beyond getting my hands on the sticks, I’ll also do some research. That often leads me to contemporary reviews, and of course, some other retrospectives. I try to avoid reading other people’s opinions before I’ve formed my own, but it’s still fascinating to see what’s been said about a game. It allows me to discuss how it was originally received, and whether my views match the consensus. Sometimes my take is very different, and that’s completely fine! Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, though opinions carry more weight if they’re well-reasoned. With that in mind though, I’ve encountered some incredibly lacklustre basketball video game retrospectives.

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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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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 an in-depth look back at NBA Street Homecourt with a video retrospective.

Eighteen years ago tomorrow, the Xbox 360 version of NBA Street Homecourt was released, with the PlayStation 3 version dropping a couple of weeks later. Featuring authentic courts where NBA players honed their talents growing up, it marked a tonal shift in the series. As such, it’s easily the most divisive NBA Street game! However, while it may not have been a hit with everyone, it definitely has its strong points. I’ve always enjoyed it for what it is, and the fact that I caught an early glimpse of it at an NBA Live 07 community event undoubtedly contributes to my nostalgia for it! This video retrospective is a long time coming, so let’s take a look back…way back…

I hope that you enjoyed this deep dive into the final console release in the NBA Street series! What are your thoughts on NBA Street Homecourt? Is it an overlooked gem, a blunder, or somewhere in between? Have your say in the comments below! I’m keen to produce more video retrospectives for Wayback Wednesday throughout 2025, so be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel if you haven’t already. On top of retrospectives, essays, and podcast episodes, you’ll also find the weekly Top 10 Plays and plenty of gameplay reels. As always, feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play, or be covered in a future Wayback Wednesday.

As you’ve hopefully seen if you’re subscribed to our YouTube channel, Dee and I have uploaded several basketball gaming highlight reels recently. Between covering NBA 2K25 news and our other original content, I’ve neglected to share those uploads on the front page, so here’s a round-up of our latest work!

With my in-depth retrospective of 24/7 in this week’s Wayback Wednesday, it only made sense to share highlights from my playthroughs of the mode in NBA 2K6 and NBA 2K7. Both the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic and Legends Charity Tournament were fun ways to cap off a couple of modes that I was glad to finally delve into.

In my previous YouTube round-up bulletin, I shared Dee’s highlights from a game of NBA Superstars between the Celtics and Clippers. It wasn’t the only matchup that he played, as he also had a fun time showing out with Ja Morant and the Grizzlies, as you’ll see in this reel.

Dee and I have been making a point to connect on Parsec as often as possible as of late, and he’s compiled highlight reels from some extremely fun basketball gaming sessions. That includes a showdown of underdogs in NBA ShootOut 2004, and in a nod to the new Steph Era in NBA 2K25’s MyNBA Eras, a game between the Cavaliers and Warriors in NBA 2K17.

I’ve also uploaded highlights from a game of NBA Live 09 featuring the default placeholder Oklahoma City branding, and two games of NBA Street Homecourt: one between squads of WNBA stars, and one featuring the Coatesville All-Stars taking on the Baltimore All-Stars at Cloverdale.

Check out all of those basketball gaming highlight reels below! Don’t forget to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and as always, be sure to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play! We’ll do our best to get them into the rotation and share the highlights with you all.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #539 of the NLSC Podcast!

Several former EA developers are working on The Run: Got Next; a 3-on-3 basketball game that’s being described as a spiritual successor to NBA Street. This week, we join the community in sharing our thoughts on IGN’s early preview of the game, which suggests a direction that many basketball gamers who remember NBA Street fondly may not actually enjoy. To that end, we also discuss whether it sounds like the game is truly carrying on the legacy of the iconic series, especially after revisiting NBA Street Vol. 2 over Parsec. We also react to a New York Times article that called out the predatory practices in 2K Sports and EA Sports titles, an issue that we’re certainly passionate about.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:06:51 — 46.3MB)

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!

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 the bygone practice of creating ourselves in basketball video games, long before we had MyPLAYERs.

When we think about creating players in basketball video games these days, it’s usually to either add a missing player to the current or historical rosters, or to create our avatar for career mode play. It makes sense, of course. Even though we have official roster updates, community rosters are not outmoded. Indeed, they’re essential as far as adding retro players that can’t be licensed. Career modes have been popular since their introduction, and have only become a bigger part of basketball gaming with the advent of the connected online team play experiences.

Obviously, we’ve been creating rosters and career mode avatars for years now. Although not everyone chooses to give their MyPLAYERs their real name and face – either via a scan or a close-enough approximation with the in-game creation tools – many of us do or previously have created ourselves for use in MyCAREER. Most of my MyPLAYERs have been “me”, aside from the fictional scenario where I’m good enough to play in the NBA! However, long before MyCAREER and its connected modes, many of us created ourselves on the virtual hardwood. It may seem like a quaint notion nowadays, but it was fun thing to do before we had these deep modes.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #513 of the NLSC Podcast!

If we could bring back just one Triple-A release as an alternative to the NBA 2K series, what type of game would we choose: NBA sim, NBA arcade, street, or college basketball? This week we join the community in answering what is a very tough question! We also recap a session revisiting ESPN NBA 2Night, which despite some interesting features and great presentation, was not one of Konami’s better hoops titles. On the bright side, we played with an interesting New York Knicks team that was definitely in a transitional era. In this week’s mailbag, we’re talking about the players that got us into basketball, and our historical favourites on the virtual hardwood.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:37:13 — 67.1MB)

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!

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 PlayStation 3 version of NBA 07, the 2007 season entry in Sony’s first party NBA series.

With the lack of options in the basketball gaming space nowadays, I’m often wistful for a time when several NBA titles were on the market year after year. Of course, not every game was available to me. Some were North American exclusives, unavailable to those of us in PAL regions unless we had the hardware to play imported games. This included a majority of Sony’s NBA series, making it both a region and console exclusive. In hindsight, that was never going to realistically allow it to challenge the dominance of NBA Live and NBA 2K!

Developed by San Diego Studio – probably best known for MLB: The Show – the NBA series only saw one official worldwide release, namely NBA 08. Mind you, given that the PlayStation 3 was region-free, that didn’t have to be a barrier for anyone who was willing and able to import games! Since adding a PS3 to my collection, I’ve been able to pick up some games that I never had an opportunity to play when they were new, such as college basketball titles. This also includes a few games from the NBA series, and today, I’m profiling NBA 07 with an in-depth retrospective. 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 a countdown of my Top 25 favourite basketball video games, in celebration of another milestone here at the NLSC.

On Saturday, I celebrated my 22nd year of running the NLSC. It’s been a long ride with plenty of ups and downs, but I’m still very glad that I accepted the gig when Tim moved on to work at EA Sports, and that I stuck it out through some rough patches to enjoy the good times. To mark the occasion, I’ve decided to rank my Top 25 favourite basketball video games. This being my 22nd Anniversary as webmaster/admin of the NLSC, I was originally going to pick my Top 22 games. Top 25 has a better ring to it though, and it also serves as a belated 25th Anniversary celebration for the site itself!

Before we get to the countdown, let me emphasise once again that it is a Top 25 of my favourite basketball video games; not the Top 25 best hoops titles. That’s a different list, and if I were being more objective, there are games I’m listing here that wouldn’t make the cut. Because I haven’t spent as much time with certain NBA 2K, College Hoops, or NCAA Basketball/March Madness titles, I don’t have as much of an affinity for them, though that may well change in the future. I haven’t “forgotten” about those great basketball video games, but they haven’t become one of my personal favourites (as yet, anyway). With that being said, here are my Top 25 virtual hardwood classics!

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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 why NBA Jam and NBA Street need to return.

2023 marks the anniversary of two iconic basketball games. NBA Jam set arcades on fire in 1993, meaning we’ve reached its 30th Anniversary. Meanwhile, though it was the second game in the series, NBA Street Vol. 2 is often considered to be the best release from EA Sports BIG, and it’s now turning twenty years old. For those of us who played those games as kids, teenagers, or even young adults, this might come as an overwhelming milestone; particularly NBA Jam hitting the big three-oh. Not to sound like the Grumpy Elder Millennial that I am, but man, time sure flies!

However, let’s put aside any existential crises that may come with the realisation that there are now adults who weren’t even alive when these classics came out. After all, anniversaries provide an opportunity to celebrate and fondly reminisce. The numbers that bring me down here aren’t how long ago the original NBA Jam and NBA Street Vol. 2 were released, but how long it’s been since either series has seen a brand new game. For NBA Jam, that was On Fire Edition back in 2011. Putting aside the Korean exclusive NBA Street Online, there hasn’t been a new Street release since 2007. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that a return for both series would be extremely welcome.

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Despite my intentions to post regular bulletins for our uploads to the NLSC YouTube channel, I’ve regrettably fallen behind again in recent weeks. As such, it’s time for another round-up of the content that Dee and I have been posting!

In addition to regular features such as the NLSC Podcast and Top 10 Plays of the Week, Dee has continued to connect with the community to play a variety of games over Parsec. He and I have connected on several occasions to play NBA Live 96, NBA Live 99, NBA Live 2000, NBA Live 2005, and NCAA Basketball 10, in the process showcasing some work-in-progress and classic mods alike. Dee has also played games with Nate Stacho and JuicyShaqMeat, and shared highlights from his ongoing MyTEAM Domination campaign.

Having sorted out my recording software and settings on PC, and picked up a new Elgato HD60 for console recording, I’ve caught the video bug as well. I’ve posted highlights of the Street Legends in NBA Street Homecourt for Xbox 360, 1-on-1 games featuring Michael Jordan in NBA Live 2001 and NBA Live 2002, and a game between the 1989 Bulls and 1989 Pistons in NBA 2K14 that will take you back to the days of recording games on VHS.

Catch up on all of the recent NLSC YouTube uploads below! There’s plenty more fun on the way, so we invite you to subscribe, enable notifications, and of course, share our videos with your friends and followers if you’re digging what we’re doing on the virtual hardwood. We’re always open to suggestions for games you’d like to see us play, so feel free to hit us up.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #454 of the NLSC Podcast!

As promised last week, we revisited NBA Live 2005, and were reminded of what a great game it was (and still is)! NBA Live 2002, NBA 2K14, and NBA Street Homecourt have also been in the rotation as of late, and they’ve inspired some of our recent YouTube content. We also follow up on last week’s discussion of NBA 2K17 being the last truly great release in the 2K series with our thoughts on whether NBA 2K23 is a return to form, and thus the best game since then. In this week’s mailbag, we’re quizzing the community on the Top 5 players in the original NBA 2K. Not to go all clickbait, but at least one name will definitely surprise you!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:04:26 — 59.3MB)

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!

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.

Every week, the NLSC Top 10 Plays provides ten great examples of how there are so many ways to enjoy basketball video games, whether it’s the latest release or an old favourite. This week, you’ll find Kobe Bryant throwing it down in his namesake MyNBA Era, fantasy squads making moves in MyTEAM, Street Legends colliding with NBA stars, and an incredible showing in the slam dunk contest. Whatever the game, mode, or rosters, the result will always be an action-packed countdown of poster dunks, big defensive plays, and flashy moves.

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.