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 events that are realistic, yet feel unrealistic when they happen to us in basketball video games.

To paraphrase a couple of iconic quotes from literary giants that I mentioned in this week’s Wayback Wednesday, truth is stranger than fiction, in no small part because fiction has to adhere to possibilities that real life doesn’t. We mock events in works of fiction that seem too convenient, yet history is filled with serendipity. In a similar vein, common effects in movies and TV shows that make them more dramatic and entertaining – the sound of a blade being drawn, a bullet ricocheting, and so on – skew our expectations of reality.

In short, we’re not always as accurate as we believe when it comes to gauging whether or not something is realistic. This is certainly true of sim basketball games like NBA 2K, and NBA Live back in its heyday. We wanted to see those games become more and more realistic, and the best releases have achieved commendable results in that regard. With that being said, I’ll be the first to put my hand up and admit that my views of what’s realistic and unrealistic in sim titles have sometimes been rigid or myopic. That’s not to say that realistic moments can’t be represented poorly on the virtual hardwood, but even when they’re done well, they can feel unrealistic to us.

1. Players Quietly Disappearing From The NBA

Seeing players retire is one of many realistic touches that make multi-season play in franchise and career modes so enjoyable. One way or another, we’re usually informed that a player has retired or is planning on calling it a day at the end of the year, which is also realistic. However, sometimes players just disappear from a franchise or career mode file without any retirement announcement. It usually happens with lower-rated players that have gone unsigned for more than a season. There’s a technical reason for this, as pruning those players from the database keeps the file size manageable. At the same time, it’s actually a realistic portrayal of how several players quietly disappear.

Not every player retires to great fanfare, or with a formal announcement that’s widely seen. Veteran journeymen often quietly depart the NBA when opportunities dry up. The future careers of young players who wash out of the league early often fly under the radar. Even all-time greats like George Gervin have had unceremonious exits from the NBA, concluding their careers overseas or in minor leagues without any kind of big announcement or grand farewell tour. And so, while it may not be ideal whenever players are pruned from the roster without any warning or acknowledgement – and it’s done for technical reasons besides – it replicates a phenomenon we do see in real life.

2. Unlikely Trades & Signings

Realistic player movement is something that many franchise and career mode gamers desire to see in their virtual NBA experience. As I’ve discussed before though, it isn’t easy to pin down what constitutes realism when it comes to trades and signings. The Luka Doncic trade is an obvious example to cite these days, as it’s a deal that NBA 2K25 didn’t consider fair or realistic, yet it indeed happened! The 76ers’ acquisition of Jaylen Brown has given us another example. Beyond that, historically speaking, a lot of big names have been traded in deals that were unexpected and/or lopsided. It would actually be unrealistic if we couldn’t make, nor ever saw, any shocking player moves.

Granted, there are some players who should very rarely be traded or sign elsewhere. We also want to see some kind of logic behind trades and signings, rather than players changing teams just for the sake of having player movement. Once again though, real life has shown that illogical deals are far from unrealistic! It’s a tough balancing act to reflect this in games, and so while some moves certainly stretch believability, we need that element of surprise and unlikelihood in addition to the more sensible trades and signings. It’s a case of the individual examples being unrealistic, but the overarching concept of unlikely trades and signings is something that’s undoubtedly true to life.

3. Questionable Award Winners

Now, I would argue that a majority of the award winners throughout NBA history were the right choice. They had a case at the very least, and deserved to be in the conversation. Sometimes the award races will be close, and factors such as voter fatigue and other narratives undeniably come into play. As such, there’ll always be debate among fans, pundits, and indeed the players themselves as to whether certain award winners were the most worthy of the honour. That’s not to suggest they were completely undeserving, but it’s fair to say that there have been some questionable award winners over the decades. In turn, it’s a realistic outcome in a video game.

With that being said, there’s questionable as in “you could make a strong argument for someone else”, and questionable as in “that makes absolutely no sense”! The former is usually the case when there’s debate in real life, whereas the latter generally points to a video game with flawed award selection logic. To that end, a bit of unpredictability and controversy can add a realistic touch to the end-of-season awards in franchise and career modes, but utterly bizarre selections aren’t desirable. Of course, just because it’s realistic to be snubbed for an award, it doesn’t make it sting any less when it happens! As in real life though, it can be motivation to get revenge and prove everyone wrong.

4. Role Players Lighting It Up

One of the keys to realistic gameplay is accurate shot and scoring distribution by the CPU. In the early days of sim basketball games, this wasn’t always guaranteed. The players you should be worried about barely got touches, while role players not only got to chuck up a ridiculous amount of shots, but also made them at an incredible clip. Thankfully, sim titles have definitely improved in this area. Additional attributes and tendencies allow the league’s top scorers to get the ball as often as they need to light you up. Role players are less likely to be unrealistically shoehorned into the go-to guy spot, but they can make you pay for leaving them open, and letting them get on a roll.

That’s how it should be! We see role players step up with big nights during the regular season and Playoffs alike. We’ve even seen some seemingly unlikely players go off for 50 points when the opportunity has presented itself, so it’s only realistic to have it happen on the virtual hardwood as well. Sure, the guy who’s averaged 10 ppg for his career and rarely scores more than that shouldn’t be a constant threat to light you up while his team’s primary scorer takes a back seat every single time you face them, nor should it be easy to turn him into Michael Jordan when you’re controlling him. Still, it’s not unrealistic for role players to luck into having career nights in video games.

5. Players Hitting Unlikely Shots (For Them Or In General)

By now, it should be obvious that expectations of predictability aren’t necessarily realistic. That doesn’t always gel with our knowledge of a player’s abilities, not to mention our expectations that we’ll be rewarded for making the correct input. To that point, unlikely and lucky shots feel unrealistic, even though they happen all the time in the real NBA. From a desperation heave to beat the shot clock, to an all-time great scorer proving the adage of “great defense, better offense”, players make tough shots. It’s something that’s difficult to represent in video games without it feeling unrealistic and often unfair as well, but it’s a part of basketball, so it does need to be reflected.

Put it this way: as unrealistic as it feels whenever the CPU steps to the free throw line with Shaquille O’Neal and calmly knocks down a pair of clutch foul shots, he could do that (albeit less often than he claimed). He even knocked down a three-pointer in his career! Context is important, of course. Much like role players always dominating the scoring, it feels unrealistic (and cheap) if the CPU can constantly make unlikely shots; especially if we’re missing open jumpers and blowing layups left and right due to some rather brutal comeback logic. Again, crazy shots and lucky buckets are part of the sport, so as long as we can fluke them as well, it’s a realistic and needed outcome.

What are some other realistic events on the virtual hardwood that nevertheless feel unrealistic when we encounter them? Have your say 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.