Tag Archives: Phoenix Suns

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 another historical NBA What If, specifically what if Charles Barkley was traded to the Lakers in 1992?

When I think of Charles Barkley, I generally picture him in the Phoenix Suns’ iconic sunburst uniforms of the 90s. After all, that’s where he was playing when I started taking a keener interest in basketball. Hoop heads who have been watching longer than I have may well picture him on the Philadelphia 76ers instead, and indeed that stint accounts for half of his career. With that being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if the MVP and NBA Finals appearance in 1993 has led to those fans likewise coming to associate Chuck with the Suns more than the 76ers (or the Houston Rockets).

Of course, had a proposed trade gone through in 1992, it seems a safe bet to say that we’d have never seen Sir Charles in a Suns or Rockets uniform. For a brief moment, Charles Barkley was set to join the Los Angeles Lakers, before the deal went up in smoke. As with any What If involving legendary players, it’s fascinating trying to imagine an alternate history and all of the possible ripple effects. It’s all speculation at the end of the day, but Charles Barkley going to the Lakers is undoubtedly a huge What If, in real life and on the virtual hardwood. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #590 of the NLSC Podcast!

While NBA 2K26 will be a hot topic over the next month and beyond, this week we turn our attention to a classic that’s in our rotation, namely NBA 2K9. Now that we’re ten games into our co-op NBA 2K9 Association with the Chicago Bulls, we provide a detailed recap of everything that’s happened so far, and discuss some possible roster moves. The fun we’ve been having with the game also moves us to reflect once again on what a strong release it was. We also invited the community to weigh in on which teams they’d most like to start an Association with in NBA 2K9, and reminisce about some of the 2009 season lineups that were fun in real life and on the virtual hardwood alike.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:12:04 — 49.8MB)

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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 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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It’s time for the next instalment of the NBA 2K14 Retro Series! This time we’re flashing back to the 2005 season, with a showdown between a young Chicago Bulls team, and the 7 Seconds Or Less Phoenix Suns. And yes, the fact that that’s a retro matchup is a reminder of how quickly time flies!

Needless to say, as a Chicago Bulls fan, my fondest memories of the team are from the championship years of the 90s. However, I also have a great appreciation for those Baby Bulls squads that were beginning to grow up, and it was particularly exciting to see the team become relevant again in 2005. Meanwhile, Steve Nash’s return to Phoenix that same season helped make them a team to watch for years to come. It’s possible to re-create the 2005 Bulls and Suns in NBA 2K14 – minus a couple of players, of course – so I knew it’d make for a fun matchup for the NBA 2K14 Retro Series. Watch how it went down!

Since we’re firmly in the DVD era by this point, I haven’t added any retro filters to these highlights. However, keep your eyes peeled for another classic commercial! There are more instalments coming in the Retro Series, including old school showdowns, so stay tuned. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more basketball gaming content, and feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play.

It’s time for another Fantasy Teams Showdown in NBA Live 10! Every so often, Dee4Three and I will jump into a game of NBA Live 10 using Parsec, and use the Fantasy Teams mode to create some fun matchups. These include makeshift retro squads, utilising the players who are available in the game’s rosters. This time, we had the 2006 New Jersey Nets (me) taking on the 2006 Phoenix Suns (Dee).

As always, the challenge is to find retro squads where we can fill all ten roster slots for a Fantasy Teams game. At the very least, we aim to have no less than seven or eight real players that were still available in NBA Live 10’s rosters. The 2006 Suns had ten players in the game, while the 2006 Nets still had nine. It produced a fun matchup filled with spectacular highlights, as Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Shawn Marion clashed with Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson. Dee has compiled a highlight reel, which you can check out below!

You can find more of our NBA Live 10 Fantasy Teams Showdowns over on the NLSC YouTube channel! Got any suggestions for matchups you’d like to see? Check out this list of retro teams that can feasibly be created in NBA Live 10, and let us know! If you have any other suggestions, we can give them a try, too. For more information on how to use Parsec to play basketball video games head-to-head, check out this video tutorial.

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at some famous NBA What Ifs, and portraying them in NBA Live 10.

What Ifs can be fun to ponder, whether they concern the NBA or video games. There are trades and signings that, if they’d happened, would’ve changed the course of NBA history. Likewise, we can point to game-changing moments in the history of the virtual hardwood. Indeed, NBA Live 10 is an example of such a turning point. If EA Sports had elected to continue building on the base it established rather than trying to reboot the series with the ill-fated NBA Elite 11, the basketball gaming landscape would undoubtedly be very different today.

As far as NBA What Ifs are concerned though, they’re something that we can play out in video games. It’s a great concept for a roster, and while that’s not what I’m doing today, I’ve decided to mix a couple of ideas together by reflecting on some of the biggest NBA What Ifs and portraying them using NBA Live 10; a game that has an air of What If about it. Obviously there are some other historical NBA What Ifs that I won’t be touching on here because the players aren’t in NBA Live 10, but feel free to discuss those in the comments as well. Let’s wonder what might have been as we 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! 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 about a mysterious screenshot that I found in my collection.

For a long time – far too long, in fact – I left my weekly articles until the last minute. Not just writing them, but coming up with the topic, too. Even after I devised lists of ideas for future articles, I didn’t always have anything prepared by the time Monday, Wednesday, and Friday rolled around. In recent years, I’ve made a point of building up a buffer of articles based on my list of topic ideas. It’s meant that I’ve always got something ready to go, and if I’ve set aside the time, I’m able to schedule features a week or two in advance.

This prep work has been important for time management, consistency, and quality. Even though I’ve been pleased with certain articles that were actually written at the last minute, I’m far more satisfied with features that I haven’t had to rush. Part of preparing articles in advance is ensuring that I have appropriate screenshots to use, which means taking the time to fire up the necessary games to capture them, and set up any specific scenarios as required. It’s usually obvious why I have a particular screenshot in my archives, but recently I discovered one that left me stumped. This mysterious screenshot was for an article idea that I’ve completely forgotten about.

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at the way Vince Carter was booed in NBA Live 10.

In last week’s Friday Five, I mentioned that in NBA Live 10, Vince Carter would be booed by the virtual Toronto crowd whenever he played there as an opponent. As I needed a screenshot of Vince in NBA Live 10 for the article, I fired up the game and my Elgato capture device, and got to work. After deciding to go the extra step and record some footage of the phenomenon, I grew curious. Is that detail still a thing if he gets traded to another team? What happens if he’s back in Toronto? It seemed like a good idea for a video feature, so let’s take a look back…way back…

I hope that satisfied your curiosity as it did mine! I enjoy making the occasional video for Wayback Wednesday and other weekly features, as well as providing updates on my modding projects, so it was nice to whip up another one this week. Be sure to subscribe to the NLSC’s YouTube channel for more videos moving forward!

The new All-Decade teams aren’t the only historical squads that have been added this year. Six new classic teams have been added to the roster in NBA 2K20: the 2003 Phoenix Suns, 2007 Washington Wizards, 2010 Portland Trail Blazers, 2014 San Antonio Spurs, 2014 Los Angeles Clippers, and 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers.

Funnily enough, the 2014 Spurs, 2003 Suns, 2007 Wizards, and 2014 Clippers are all teams that I’ve mentioned in my ongoing Friday Five series discussing retro squads I’d like to see added to the game. Assuming that none of the teams from NBA 2K19 have been removed, each of the new classic teams has at least one opponent from the same year in the game, as well as other squads from around the same era.

Check out screenshots of the six new additions below. What are your thoughts on the new classic teams in NBA 2K20? Are any of the squads ones that you were hoping to see and are looking forward to playing with? Who else would you like to see added in future games? Have your say in the comments section below, and join in the discussion taking place here in the NBA 2K20 section of the NLSC Forum!

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Ready for some new mods for NBA 2K17? Today’s file additions feature court updates for the Los Angeles Clippers, Detroit Pistons, and Phoenix Suns, and an updated scoreboard pack. Check them all out at the links below.

Manni Live
Los Angeles Clippers Staples Center HD
Detroit Pistons The Palace Arena HD

exrxixxx
NBA TV 5.1/TNT 1.0 Scoreboard Pack

Issy
Phoenix Suns Court

We have one new file addition for NBA Live 06 today, as magiciangirl06 has released a 2017 season court update for the Phoenix Suns. Download it at the link below.

magiciangirl06
2016/2017 Phoenix Suns Court

When NBA 2K17 was released, many gamers were disappointed to discover that Steve Nash was missing from the rosters of the 2003 Dallas Mavericks and 2005 Phoenix Suns. Since Nash’s inclusion in NBA 2K16 was still covered by the NBA Players Association license, it was speculated that his absence from NBA 2K17 was simply due to oversight, or an inability to work out a deal for his likeness rights before the rosters had to be finalised and approved by the NBA. It certainly wasn’t due to a lack of respect or knowledge on 2K’s part.

Fortunately, it seems that we won’t have to wait until next year to get the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player back in the game, as Steve Nash is included in the latest NBA 2K17 roster update. Nash appears on both the 2003 Mavericks and 2005 Suns, with appropriate ratings and bio data for each season. 2003 Nash is rated 86 Overall, while 2005 Nash is rated 93 Overall.

This isn’t the first time that 2K has managed to add a missing historical player through the official roster updates. Julius Erving was originally absent from NBA 2K14, but after coming to terms on a new deal, 2K were able to add him to the game. It remains to be seen whether any more missing historical players will be added in future updates, as there are still some noteworthy players absent from historical team rosters, including Rasheed Wallace.

As per Mike Wang over in the Operation Sports forums, the latest roster update also includes Adaptive Coaching Engine updates by Da_Czar and Scott O’Gallagher, and a decrease in injury frequency to lower body parts. Contract extensions have also been updated, along with some three-point tendencies and other player attributes.

See below for a couple of screenshots of Steve Nash on the 2003 Mavericks and 2005 Suns in NBA 2K17, and as always, feel free to have your say in the comments section!

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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.

The NBA 2K series has done some fantastic things with historical content, beginning with the Jordan Challenge in NBA 2K11. Since then, we’ve seen several noteworthy teams added to the game, including twelve new retro squads last year in NBA 2K16. As of writing, there’s been no word about any new retro teams being added in NBA 2K17, but the league expansion blog did briefly mention the presence of historical teams, so we can rest assured that most (if not all) of the existing retro teams will be in this year’s release.

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see which other historical teams will be added to NBA 2K. Needless to say, securing likeness rights for all the players – or at least the major ones – is always going to be a stumbling block that keeps certain squads out of the game. Of course, that doesn’t stop us from wanting, wishing, and wondering what if. Since I’ve previously talked about retro teams that are highly unlikely to make the cut (and for good reason), this week I’m listing five retro teams that I would actually like to see included in a future NBA 2K game.

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