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 fun details that could be found in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story.

Since their introduction in NBA 2K14 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, MyCAREER stories have been controversial. Some of them have been intrusive, poorly-written, or both. Others have been more enjoyable to play through, though many gamers still opt to skip the better ones. This ability to skip the story was first implemented in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER, but that wasn’t the only good addition that year. Indeed, some of the fun details in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story made it worth playing through at least once, if not twice. I personally played through it on both PC and PlayStation 4.

Unfortunately, NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story is no longer playable, as the server shutdown has left the game with the stripped-down offline version of the mode. As such, these fun details are now permanently lost. It may not be a big deal to everyone, but it’s a shame that the single player portion of MyCAREER is now so intertwined with the connected experience that it’s limited – or completely absent – following the servers being shut down. NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story had some fun details that could’ve potentially made it an enjoyable retro gaming experience, but I’m glad I was able to enjoy them when I could. Here are five of those details that stand out to me.

1. Throwback to NBA 2K8

Something that MyCAREER stories have gotten much better about over the years is adding an interactive element to cutscenes in between regular gameplay. At first, this mainly comprised of press conference and conversation choices, and sometimes a team scrimmage. NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story attempted to be more creative by breaking up cutscenes with various activities. Following an exhibition game between AI’s Chinese team and a squad of NBA stars that includes his college teammate Corey Harris, AI and Corey end up in an arcade. Here they find a fictional NBA 2K8 arcade machine, and reminisce about playing the game on console constantly back in college.

They choose to indulge their nostalgia, giving us an opportunity to do the same. We’re able to play a game between the 2008 Celtics and 2008 Rockets, since they’re among the retro teams in NBA 2K19. It isn’t just a regular exhibition game in the middle of MyCAREER though, as the presentation is actually altered to resemble NBA 2K8. Additionally, the right stick dribbling controls are disabled so that the mechanics are similarly retro. Considering it still would’ve been fun if that game had kept the default presentation, filters, and controls, the developers made it a more memorable moment by accounting for those details. It was a fun tribute to the history of the series.

2. Farmyard Basketball

Speaking of changing up the details with a fun scenario and giving us something to do in between cutscenes and regular gameplay, there’s the farmyard basketball game. While out driving, AI and his veteran mentor Paul Tatum notice a couple of kids playing one-on-one on their own court next to a barn. Deciding they’ll engage with the local fans and get a little extra practice in, the two Fort Wayne Mad Ants stop and offer to play two-on-two, which the kids readily accept. What follows is basically a Blacktop or Playground game on their makeshift farmyard court: AI and one kid vs Paul Tatum and the other, leading to slightly different cutscenes if you win or lose.

It may not sound particularly exciting on paper, but it’s one of those fun details that come with adding interactive scenes that aren’t just regular five-on-five gameplay. It’s not somewhere you can usually play either, outside of replaying the story or modding it into Blacktop on PC. It also has relevance to the story, as it involves AI building goodwill and ingratiating himself with the community, making it even more of a gut punch when he’s shunned following Marcus Young’s betrayal. This in turn makes NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story cutscenes feel relevant and less like padding, as they lead to activities that are actually related to basketball, and help you to level up.

3. Non-NBA Commentators

I’ll always appreciate the smaller details that are added for the sake of fun, realism, and immersion. Even though the experience would still be great without them, the developers bothered to go to the trouble anyway. In the early stages of NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story, AI is playing in China after going undrafted. Not only do these games have their own presentation, they also have their own commentators who are speaking entirely in Chinese. Is it kind of wasted on someone who doesn’t speak the language? Personally, I don’t think so. I’d suggest it enhances that part of the story by placing you in AI’s shoes as a foreigner trying to make the best of playing overseas.

Even when AI gets back to the United States, he has a long road to the NBA that ultimately takes him through the G League. The games you play for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants have their own commentary team, underscoring that you’re in the minor league. Future games have done the same thing with the college and G League chapters in their stories, but it started with NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER tale. It would’ve been easier to just have the regular commentary teams or even no commentary at all in those games, but the story was far more immersive thanks to going to those lengths with the presentation. And, if you do speak Chinese, I imagine that it’s a fun bonus!

4. Mini-Basketball at the Carnival

I’ve got a confession to make. Whenever I’ve unlocked the mini basketball game for my MyCOURT, the machines popped up for an event in The Neighborhood, or they’ve been permanently available in a location you can visit, I’ve been known to kill some time playing it. Maybe it’s because it’s a quick mini-game that tests your shot timing skills. Maybe it’s memories of playing it at the local arcade, and a couple of older boys teaching my cousin and I how to cheat it for more prize tickets! Whatever the case, to me it’s always been one of those fun details in MyCAREER, and I liked that they made it a part of the story in NBA 2K19. However, I’m sure it was rigged.

While attending a carnival as part of a Mad Ants Meet & Greet, AI goes for a wander and happens across Nikki Carter, a beat writer who becomes his love interest. A carnival barker persuades him to try to win a prize for Nikki, which turns into a contest between the two. In both of my playthroughs of NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story, I ended up missing at least one shot, allowing Nikki – who as it turns out, used to play in college – to win a pink stuffed elephant. If there’s actually a way to win in that scene, I assume the story still finds a way to make that happen. In any case, it’s another fun mini-game that breaks up the cutscenes with an interactive moment.

5. A Callback to a Moment You’ve Probably Forgotten

Your mileage may vary as to whether a decision that you made early on in a game finally having an effect at the very end is brilliant or frustrating. As with any trope, it really depends on the execution. It was often a cruel trick in Sierra’s adventure games of the 80s and 90s. Forget to pick up an item in an area you can’t go back to, and the game becomes unwinnable, which of course you may not discover until you’ve played it for several more hours. The callback in NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story isn’t nearly as harsh as there’s no way to get a game over, but it does mean that one of the final story-branching moments occurs due to a decision that you may have forgotten about.

During the aforementioned exhibition game between AI’s Chinese team and the NBA stars featuring Corey Harris, there’s a scene where you can choose how to put Harris on a poster. The slam sends Harris to the floor, whereupon AI must choose whether to help him up or gloat about the dunk. Helping him up demonstrates that AI is starting to mature, leading to Harris getting him signed by the Lakers to make his NBA debut in their season finale. If you don’t help him up, that game is with the Timberwolves instead. Either way, there’s a massive plot hole with AI remaining a rookie in the 2019 season, but it doesn’t change that it’s an effective callback to an early character choice.

Do you have any fond memories of NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story? Do you recall any of the ones that I mentioned? Let me know in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.