Tag Archives: Portland Trail Blazers

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 saluting former NBA player Gary Grant, who celebrated his 61st birthday yesterday.

One telltale sign of a long-time hardcore NBA fan is the ability to recall some of the most obscure players from decades ago. Obviously it’s easy to remember the all-time greats that younger fans who weren’t even born yet have still heard of, and many of the other prominent players from yesteryear also stick in our minds. However, when you grow up obsessed with hoops – watching games, playing video games, collecting trading cards, reading magazines – you also remember the journeymen, deep bench reserves, and that one player who had a six-game stint with your favourite team!

That brings me to Gary Grant. Although I remember dozens of players from the 90s, I’m not inclined to profile all of them in Wayback Wednesday. To that end, Grant is definitely a special case! In addition to popping up in games I watched and becoming a very familiar face in packs of trading cards, he’s also been involved in some of my fondest basketball gaming memories. He also stuck around for more than a decade, which is no minor feat. It’s time to give Gary Grant his due on the real and virtual hardwood alike, so let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 Scottie Pippen ending his career with a weird second run with the Bulls in 2003-2004.

While Scottie Pippen is technically still one of my all-time favourite players, I’ll admit that I’ve soured on him since he went off the deep end. Indeed, I stopped following him on social media when he started going after Michael Jordan – who has always given him credit – with some utterly ridiculous takes. As much as I can sympathise with him taking exception to certain parts of The Last Dance documentary, I’d suggest that his unhinged behaviour ironically proved that it wasn’t entirely inaccurate in its portrayal of his mercurial temperament.

Nevertheless, he is undoubtedly an all-time great, traditionally a favourite of mine, and a memorable stand-in for His Airness in so many basketball video games back in the 90s. Even though he departed the team in the wake of the second threepeat, Pip’s importance to the champion Bulls and prominence in so many highlight packages means that we hoop heads will always associate him with Chicago. However, it’s easy to forget that Scottie Pippen actually ended his career with a weird second run with the Bulls. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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The latest jersey pack from Pep is available in today’s NBA 2K14 mod releases, as he’s updated the Portland Trail Blazers’ uniforms for the 2025 season. Pick it up at the link below!

Pep
NBA Nike Portland Trail Blazers 2025 Uniforms

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.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #571 of the NLSC Podcast!

What are some of the biggest What Ifs in the history of the NBA? This week, we join the community in reflecting on what might have been, from the tragedy of Len Bias to the various injuries, trades, and Draft picks that shaped the fortunes of teams and players alike. This includes some of the NBA Finals matchups and results that could’ve come to pass if not for a couple of plays going another way, or indeed, a certain all-time great retiring in 1993! We also discuss a couple of other interesting notes about the 1986 Draft, and some of the international players who could’ve had a better run in the NBA if the opportunity was there for them when they were in their prime.

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!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 59:57 — 41.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

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 another list of five teammates who were once traded for each other, and the video games that feature those stints.

When I posted my previous Friday Five recalling five teammates who had once been traded for each other, I mentioned that there was an example that I cut after being reminded of a pairing that I definitely couldn’t leave out the first time around. Since I hate to waste any writing and research, I kept that example aside, with the intention of revisiting the topic. It actually didn’t take too long to find four more examples of players who became teammates after being traded for one another, and as such, the time has come to follow up with a new instalment.

As I’ve often said, I love roster trivia like this! It’s fascinating to trawl through NBA history to find interesting trades, unique lineups, and other unusual events, including phantom stints, and familiar faces in strange places and back in familiar places alike. I look at them through the lens of the virtual hardwood, not only because it’s the focus of our content here at the NLSC, but also because as I like to say, basketball video games are interactive almanacs. I had to search beyond the obvious games to find virtual representation of a couple of these pairings, but that’s all part of the fun! And so, let’s tip things off with the pair of players that were cut from the previous article.

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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 is a list of the five best decisions I made with my Franchise mode games.

Career and card collecting modes may be the most popular experiences in basketball video games nowadays, but there was a time when franchise play was king. I’ll admit that I’ve drifted away from franchise modes over the years, but they do represent some of my fondest basketball gaming memories. I’m always open to returning to my roots as a franchise gamer, if I can ever decide on a game and find a scenario that appeals to me. Of course, while I have unfortunately lost many of my franchise saves, I still have one from NBA Live 06 PC that I’m always open to picking up once more.

Having spent countless hours with various franchise modes in a number of games, I’ve made my share of good decisions and bad moves alike. There are some ways that you can almost instantly ruin a franchise game to the point where you don’t want to play it anymore, but fortunately I haven’t bungled too many games that I was heavily invested in. That’s a topic for another time, but for this week’s Five, I want to talk about some of my best decisions in franchise modes. These are the choices and moves that made the experience even better, and subsequently kept me hooked. A couple of them even went against my usual rules, proving that it’s wise to keep an open mind.

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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 alternate venues that appeared in the Season modes of early NBA Live games.

Whenever I revisit old games, whether it’s to produce a Wayback Wednesday feature or just for my own enjoyment, it’s always a delight to discover – or recall – a detail that I didn’t expect to see. After all, it’s easy enough to forget how long certain features have been around, or the lengths that games went to for authenticity even before the deep modes we now have were feasible. They’re great examples of how those classic titles were the products of developers pushing technology to the limit, while trying to make the best possible basketball game for enthusiastic hoop heads.

As far as the early NBA Live games are concerned, those details demonstrate why EA Sports’ series became the brand leader in the genre, and that being an authentic sim was absolutely the goal. There are numerous examples of this, many of which I’ve discussed in previous retrospectives, but a cool one that flies under the radar is the use of alternate venues in the Season modes of early NBA Live games. It wasn’t necessary to reflect this aspect of the NBA season on the virtual hardwood – especially as it’s easy to miss – so it’s awesome that the games did. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 “Jail Blazers” era of the Portland Trail Blazers, and their presence in basketball video games.

When my cousin and I were looking to move on from our 1995 Season in NBA Live 95 PC and dive into the all new Franchise mode in NBA Live 2000, we obviously had to choose a team to play with cooperatively. In the interest of neutrality, we opted not to use either of our favourite teams (the Chicago Bulls and Seattle SuperSonics). After discussing it on the phone – this was the year 2000, after all – we ultimately went with the Portland Trail Blazers, and agreed on a few trades. I set everything up ready for his arrival in the school holidays, and we won the title playing a 28-game season.

It’s one of my favourite memories, both of basketball gaming and hanging out with my cousin as a teenager, but why the Portland Trail Blazers? Neither of us had an attachment to the club, and there were other teams that could’ve been just a fun. Well, while the off-court incidents that branded those early 2000s Trail Blazers the “Jail Blazers” may have caused a number of legal headaches and chemistry problems in real life, on the virtual hardwood, they had some deep rosters that were enjoyable to play with, as well as reshape with trades. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to another edition of The Sunday Substitute! This is an occasional end-of-week feature where I share my experiences in basketball gaming, as well as give my two cents on certain issues within the space. Today I resume with Part 2 of The MyPLAYER Transaction Report.

The MyPLAYER Transaction Report is a series where I chronicle my career campaigns in basketball video games. Whether it’s one game or a thousand games, every stop along the way counts. So far, I’ve played for 28 teams…try and guess the last two I haven’t played for!

This second part is arguably the golden era of this series. It includes some of my greatest moments in career stories and my first foray into an alternate build. NBA Live also debuts in this edition, with NBA Live 16 and 18 providing career modes that could have been a great foundation for the series moving forward.

Let’s start by continuing with a build I mention in Part 1.

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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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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 difficulty of running with the Chicago Bulls in video games of the early 2000s.

Dusting off old favourites and other interesting hoops titles from yesteryear makes me feel old myself, but that doesn’t compare to the knowledge that my favourite team, the Chicago Bulls, are twenty-one years removed from their most recent championship. It was an incredible time to be a Bulls fan in the 90s, though it has made the subsequent ups and downs quite frustrating to endure at times. It’s been difficult watching them miss out on top free agents, lose their own promising players through free agency or questionable trades, and endure misfortune such as Derrick Rose’s multiple injuries.

Of course, the virtual hardwood is a place where frustrated NBA fans can turn around the fortunes of their favourite team, and I’ve created some fun memories running with the virtual Bulls over the years. In the aftermath of The Last Dance, I’ve overachieved with the Baby Bulls in my memorable NBA Live 2004 and NBA Live 06 Dynasties. More recently, I’ve taken them to back-to-back championships in MyCAREER. In the early 2000s however, it was rough playing with them in video games, as I’m sure my fellow long-time gamers and Bulls fans can attest. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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We have some more file additions for a classic today, as JuicyShaqMeat (formerly experiment626) has released four new retro team add-ons for NBA 2K11 PC. The latest teams are the Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers, and Los Angeles Lakers, all from the 2000 season. To use them in any roster, download the add-ons at the links below!

JuicyShaqMeat
1999-2000 Indiana Pacers
1999-2000 Toronto Raptors
1999-2000 Portland Trail Blazers
1999-2000 Los Angeles Lakers

Here are the latest file additions for NBA 2K17 PC! Today’s new and updated files include 2017 season court updates for the Portland Trail Blazers and Cleveland Cavaliers, retro courts for the Charlotte Hornets, Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics, and Atlanta Hawks, and an updated San Antonio Spurs jersey pack. Download them all at the links below!

Manni Live
Portland Trail Blazers Moda Center HD Court V2

Dee4Three
96-97 Charlotte Hornets Court
96-97 Houston Rockets Court
07-08 Boston Celtics Finals Court
96-97 Atlanta Hawks Court

MJ23LB
Cleveland Cavaliers Quicken Loans Arena

pinoy21
San Antonio Spurs Jersey (Updated to v2.5)