Tag Archives: Vince Carter

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 reflecting on the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies being in the NBA – and video games – for 30 years.

It’s funny how even though the Toronto Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies have been in the NBA for 30 years now, a part of me still thinks of them as “new” teams. After all, the Charlotte Bobcats came along in 2004. Of course, now that they’re the Hornets again and have reclaimed their history from 1988 to 2002, the New Orleans Pelicans have retroactively become the league’s newest team. Furthermore, 1996 was the year I became a hardcore hoop head. As such, the Raptors and Grizzlies were in the league when my interest in basketball really took off.

However, I was a casual fan before then, so I was aware that they were new. My first basketball video game – NBA Jam Tournament Edition – is set before they entered the league, and thus doesn’t include them. It wasn’t until I picked up NBA Live 96 that I played a game that featured the two expansion teams. As the youngest clubs during the early days of my fandom, they continued to feel new for years afterwards. All this is to say that it’s now been 30 years since the Raptors and Grizzlies were newcomers to the league and video games! 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 is a list of five inaccuracies regarding the All-Stars in various basketball video games.

Another All-Star Game will be upon us next week. I admit that I highly doubt I’ll be watching it. What was once a spectacular exhibition of the best players in the NBA competing in the ultimate pick-up game has turned into a boring display that we can’t even call basketball. From the lack of effort by a spoiled generation of players to ridiculous formats under the tournament-obsessed Adam Silver, the All-Star Game absolutely stinks now. It’s a damn shame, as its spits on the legacy of all the great players who paved the way for today’s “stars” to get paid $40 million to load-manage.

Whoops, I went full Grumpy Old Man there! It is tough not to grumble though, as the All-Star Game used to be something I really enjoyed. Sadly, over the past decade or so, it’s completely lost its appeal and competitive spirit. I still have fond memories of what the event used to be of course, and that also carries over to the virtual hardwood. Over the years, it’s been a blast to play with the All-Star teams in games, as well as the Rookie Challenge/Rising Stars squads when they’re available. As with many other aspects of basketball video game rosters though, the virtual All-Star teams have had some rather weird and interesting inaccuracies. Here are five that I’ve encountered!

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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 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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You may have noticed a few plays in the weekly NLSC Top 10 being credited to Team NLSC. They’re from co-op games that Dee and I have played over Parsec, which continues to be a lot of fun. Dee is always assembling highlights from those sessions, with our most recent games featuring NBA Live 18 and NBA 2K17.

The NBA Live 18 highlights are from our game against the Denver Nuggets using the Utah Jazz. As we recalled in Episode #556 of the NLSC Podcast, this was a revenge game after the first contest got away from us. We were definitely trying to put on a show with Donovan Mitchell, and it produced some spectacular moments that were immensely satisfying to pull off!

In a game that we’ll undoubtedly discuss on an upcoming show, we also fired up NBA 2K17 to play with Dee’s Ultimate Classic Teams Roster. This allowed us to flash back to the mid 2000s and take on Kobe Bryant’s post-Shaq, pre-Pau Lakers with a New Jersey Nets squad featuring Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson. Those Nets are a quintessential Video Game Team, with Vinsanity unsurprisingly providing many of the highlights.

Check out both highlight reels below! As always, be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and feel free 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 of course, talk about them on the NLSC Podcast!

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #554 of the NLSC Podcast!

What is it that keeps us hooked on the virtual hardwood? This week, we join the community in sharing the reasons why we play basketball video games, ranging from a love of the sport, to bonding experiences with family and friends, to joyful fantasy and escapism. Following on from last week, we and our listeners pick three stars from the 2000s to bring into the modern NBA in their prime. In response to the end of online support for NBA Live 18, we note how the offline version of The One succeeds where MyCAREER fails nowadays. We also share an interesting tidbit about Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, and answer a question about bad basketball video games in another edition of Andrew Asks.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:09:28 — 48.1MB)

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #550 of the NLSC Podcast!

Assuming that we could get anyone from NBA history into a mo-cap suit, who are the five players that we’d choose to perform motion capture for a basketball video game? This week, we join the community in naming our All-Time Mo-Cap Starting Fives! We also recap a most unusual session with NBA Live 2000 PC in which we took on the Indiana Pacers with the Detroit Pistons, and got utterly smoked by the sharpshooting duo of Reggie Miller and Chris Mullin. In addition to that, we’ve got an update to share about getting back on the court, recommendations for basketball shoes, and some reflections to share as both digital broadcasting milestones and a milestone birthday loom.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 58:23 — 40.5MB)

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 #548 of the NLSC Podcast!

Derrick Rose has officially retired from the NBA, and naturally, we have a few thoughts in the wake of his announcement, from fond memories to whether or not he should have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls. This also leads us to join the community in reminiscing about some other player retirements that had a profound affect on us, as well as undeserved reputations that players have had difficulty shaking. We also discuss some exciting upcoming modding projects that johnz1 has planned for the PlayStation 3 version of NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, and provide an update on the modes that both we and the community are currently spending the most time with in NBA 2K25.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:02:37 — 43.4MB)

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!

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 jams that you’d expect to see in a dunk contest that could be readily performed during gameplay in sim games.

Sim basketball games have always taken a more casual approach to realism when it comes to dunks. In the earliest NBA Live games, the flashiest dunks included 540 degree reverse jams, which could be pulled off by any player with a suitably high dunking rating. Even as dunks became more realistic over the years, players would still throw it down far more often than in real life. I’d argue that this is an acceptable break from reality, as it adds more excitement to the gameplay. A real game may only see a handful of dunks, but that’s not as fun on the virtual hardwood!

Nevertheless, while the ratio of dunks to layups and other inside shots may continue to take a more casual approach to realism, the jams themselves are ones that we’d expect to see during the course of an NBA game. With the introduction of animation packages, we’re well past the days where anyone with an above average rating could 360 and 540 in traffic. However, there are sim games that have allowed players to perform dunk contest jams during regular gameplay, and some of those releases are more recent than you might think. With that being said, here are five jams worthy of the dunk contest that we’ve been able to throw down in otherwise sim gameplay.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #537 of the NLSC Podcast!

The first details about NBA 2K25 have been revealed, and they’ve brought some extremely exciting news: the New Gen version is coming to PC! This week, we join the community in discussing this much-anticipated announcement, including what it will mean for a modding community that’s been aching for a PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X port. It’s not the only noteworthy news of course, as we already have the system requirements, confirmation of no crossplay on PC, and word of a new era coming in MyNBA which naturally has us speculating as to what it will be. We also react to the cover players and art, and touch on some other tidbits that we’ve noticed such as combined pre-orders on console, and purported Steam Deck optimisation.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:16:24 — 52.8MB)

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 predictions that were made while simulating through twenty seasons in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER.

From their earliest appearances, multi-season modes in basketball video games have provided us with the opportunity to simulate into the future, and in doing so, make some wild predictions. Although my cousin and I had a blast actually playing through a season in NBA Live 2000’s Franchise mode, we also had an interesting afternoon simulating through the full 25 years. What’s really wild to me looking back is that the once far off year of 2024 is now the present! In fact, that might just be tougher to get my head around than any of the fictional outcomes in that simulation.

Franchise modes have generally advertised their length, but career modes have been less forthcoming about their endpoint. As such, it was something that I was curious about when I ran some experiments in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER way back in March 2019 (seriously, where does the time go?). I discovered that there is indeed a forced game over after twenty seasons, as well as the answers to some other questions that I had. NBA 2K19 MyCAREER is now only available in a limited offline state, but I’ve kept records and screenshots of my time with it, including that 20-year simulation. To that end, it produced some wild predictions that I certainly have my doubts about!

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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 some famous jersey numbers that were worn by players who weren’t so famous, and the video games where you’ll find them.

There was a commemorative magazine published not long after the Chicago Bulls won their fifth NBA championship. As an avid fan, I read it cover to cover until it was no longer pristine. On top of recapping the championship season, the magazine delved into the history of the Bulls. I was fascinated to learn that although Michael Jordan became the last and most famous Bull to wear number 23, he was the seventh player in club history to don it. You have to remember that in 1997, such information wasn’t readily available and accessible in less than a minute!

That tidbit of Bulls and MJ trivia has stuck with me. The longer I’ve been a basketball fan, and the more players that I’ve seen come and go, the more I’ve seen other stars end up sharing their number with far less distinguished NBA alumni. Like so much other historical trivia, these examples frequently present themselves whenever I’m revisiting an old video game, and see players in the rosters that I haven’t thought about in years. While they may not have reached the same level of fame and success as the stars who donned those jerseys, there’s still that connection to their famous peers and their iconic numbers. 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 Atmosphere settings in NBA Live.

Following a decade of duds and dormancy, it’s easy to forget how innovative NBA Live was, even after NBA 2K became the premier brand in sim basketball gaming. With that being said, if you’re been playing basketball video games long enough to remember a time when NBA Live was still widely considered a viable, or indeed even a preferable choice, you’ll probably remember NBA Live 10 as a strong release. I’ve seen people nominate it as the best game in the series, and while I appreciate it a lot more following last year’s retro kick, I’d only go so far as to say it’s one of the best.

I do see why many of my fellow gamers give NBA Live 10 the nod, though. It did several things right after a few rough years for the series, and appeared to be steering it in a better direction. NBA Live 10 still holds up today, and boasts a few features that newer releases – including the latest NBA 2K games – actually lack. One example that I’ve yet to cover in-depth here in Wayback Wednesday is the game’s Atmosphere settings. They weren’t unique to NBA Live 10, but it could be argued that the first implementation of the concept was the best. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #477 of the NLSC Podcast!

When we connected on Parsec to play NBA Inside Drive 2003, we weren’t anticipating having one of the most exciting games we’ve ever experienced on the virtual hardwood. One epic comeback later, and it was definitely a contest to remember! To that point, we’re recapping our showdown between the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers for posterity, and to emphasise the fun that can be had when you don’t give up on a game after falling behind. We also compare it to some famous comeback victories in real NBA history, to which it bears some uncanny similarities. In this week’s mailbag, we join the community in discussing basketball video game series that would make a welcome return.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:02:12 — 43.1MB)

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!

On the most recent NLSC Podcast, Dee and I recapped our co-op session of NBA Inside Drive 2004, and shared our impressions of the game. The next episode will feature a discussion of NBA Inside Drive 2003, as our co-op game over Parsec turned into one of the most epic virtual hardwood contests that we’ve ever had!

Dee and I chose to play with the Toronto Raptors, and take on the Philadelphia 76ers. Desiring more of a challenge after quickly racing out to an early lead in our first attempt, we abandoned it in order to crank up the difficulty and start over. The CPU was now suitably ruthless, and although we kept pace through two and a half quarters, the 76ers pulled away and seemingly had the game in hand by the end of the period. This set the table for a furious fourth quarter Raptors rally, in which we had to overcome a 23-point deficit. Check out the highlights as we attempt the seemingly impossible!

Gameplay videos from a variety of basketball titles are frequently being uploaded to our YouTube channel these days, so please subscribe and check out what else is on tap! As I’ve mentioned before, Dee and I both have large collections of basketball video games at our disposal, so feel free to hit us up with suggestions of what else you’d like to see us play.

As we’ve been discussing on the NLSC Podcast, Dee4Three has been working his way through Domination in NBA 2K23 MyTEAM. He’s recently completed all of the Southeast challenges, and has put together a highlight reel of his triumphs.

With players like Shaquille O’Neal and Xavier McDaniel on his squad, you can expect a ton of rim-shaking dunks! Unsurprisingly, Michael Jordan, Dee Brown, and Vince Carter also provide plenty of high-flying highlights and crafty moves. Seattle SuperSonics fans will no doubt enjoy seeing that classic branding being put to good use, as Dee pays tribute to a team that a lot of people still miss dearly. Watch the reel below, or catch it over on YouTube!

We’ve been making regular uploads to our YouTube channel over the past year or so, with Dee spearheading that endeavour with highlight reels, Parsec tournaments, and of course, the Top 10 Plays of the Week. We want to do even more video content moving forward, so check out our channel and be sure to subscribe! In the meantime, have you been playing Domination in NBA 2K23 MyTEAM? How far along are you? Let us know in the comments, and join in the discussion here in the Forum!