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 recalls five times that my franchise games and the real NBA imitated each other.

Last week, I recalled five times when real moves made their way into my games, thanks to trades and signings that were initiated by CPU-controlled teams. They were special because obviously, I had nothing to do with them. The AI just happened to make moves that placed players on teams that they’ve played for since those games were released. Conversely, when I don my virtual GM suit in a franchise mode and mimic trades and signings that occurred in real life, it isn’t nearly as remarkable. It’s a situation where we gamers have greater control and influence, after all.

However, it’s still fun to inject some realism into your franchise gaming by taking cues from real life transactions. Indeed, before I made a blockbuster deal to acquire Kevin Garnett in my memorable NBA Live 2004 Dynasty, I considered making the trade that brought Jalen Rose and Antonio Davis to the Chicago Bulls, even testing it out to see if the CPU would accept (as it happens, it did). There have also been times where real life has imitated what was once a fictional move in one of my franchise games, which has been entertaining to see. These five examples of times where my franchise games and real life imitated each other comprise both of those scenarios.

1. Mike Dunleavy Jr. to Chicago (NBA Live 06 Dynasty)

After winning a championship in the first year of my NBA Live 06 Chicago Bulls Dynasty, I headed into the 2006 offseason with some cap room to spend. In real life, the Bulls signed Ben Wallace; not one of my favourite GarPax decisions! I wasn’t about to repeat that mistake – I was set in the middle with Tyson Chandler, and an aging Shawn Kemp in the midst of a fictional comeback – and so Big Ben went to the Charlotte Bobcats. Instead, I signed Chris Wilcox and Mike Dunleavy Jr. I figured that Wilcox would shore up the frontcourt with some boards and garbage buckets off the bench, while Dunleavy Jr. would provide the team with another three-point threat.

Neither signing worked out quite as well as I had hoped, so I ultimately traded both players fairly early on in the 2007 season. It was disappointing that my offseason acquisitions were such a bust for me, but on the bright side, the Dunleavy Jr. signing ended up being a fun coincidence. The real Mike Dunleavy Jr. signed with the Bulls in 2013, though in contrast to my NBA Live 06 Dynasty, he wasn’t joining a team that was fresh off a championship! He also enjoyed a longer and more successful stint than he did for me on the virtual hardwood, playing three years in Chicago and putting up decent (if unspectacular) numbers during an era of so many Windy City What Ifs.

2. Mike James to Chicago (NBA Live 06 Dynasty)

One of my evergreen rules for enjoying a franchise mode game – and it’s a suggestion I’ll always offer to my fellow franchise enthusiasts – is to not completely overhaul the roster right away. Wheeling and dealing can be a lot of fun, but immediate, drastic, and especially constant changes to your roster, can easily strip it off its identity. As such, unless I have a very specific idea for a scenario, I prefer to keep a team’s real core intact for as long as possible. In that respect, if a player is still on the team in real life, I’ll be less likely to trade them away. If they’ve moved on since I started my game however, they’re prime candidates for the trading block, should I want to make a deal.

Because I kept returning to my NBA Live 06 Dynasty when I couldn’t get into a new game, more and more of my players were no longer Bulls in real life. That included Chris Duhon, and I decided that I wanted more firepower out of my backup point guard. This led to acquiring Mike James from the Toronto Raptors, and it turned out to be a very satisfying move. It also turned out to be another accurate prediction, as the real James eventually became a Bull during the abbreviated 2012 season, and then returned for a second stint in 2014. Contrary to Mike Dunleavy Jr. however, Mike James’ virtual Bulls stint was far more impactful than his 22-game real life tenure.

3. Jason Kidd to New York (NBA Live 2001 Franchise)

Let’s throw it way back to a move that wouldn’t pay off until over a decade later! As much as I tried to enjoy NBA Live 2001 PC when it was released, like many people in our community at the time, I did feel let down by it. Many years later, former NBA Live developer Rod Reddekopp provided some insights into the challenges that led to the game’s shortcomings. That’s definitely helped me to appreciate it more in recent years, and it does have its good points. To that end, I did try starting a few Franchise mode games back in 2001, hoping that one would hold my interest. In one of those games, I took control of the New York Knicks, and set about making some big trades.

The term “superteam” hadn’t been coined yet, at least in the context that we now use it. It certainly would apply to that squad though, as I sacrificed bench depth to bring in some All-Stars, including Chris Webber and Jason Kidd. The latter name is the one that’s significant here, as Kidd would eventually become a New York Knick. In fact, it’s where he ended his playing career, before taking his first head coaching gig with the recently relocated Brooklyn Nets. Kidd was also traded to the Nets in the 2001 offseason, so making that move in a short-lived NBA Live 2001 Franchise vaguely predicted his career path. It just took eleven years for the Knicks part to come true.

4. Carlos Boozer to Chicago (NBA Live 06 Dynasty)

Now we’re getting to a couple of moves that were inspired by real life. Once again, the offseason acquisitions of Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Chris Wilcox didn’t have the impact I was hoping for in my NBA Live 06 Dynasty. All things considered, Wilcox panned out better than Dunleavy Jr., but still didn’t feel like a proper fit. I’d also made a couple of other moves that just didn’t feel right, as I’d gotten the better of the trading logic and stacked my deep bench with too much promising talent. I didn’t want to lose interest in and abandon a Dynasty now in its second season, so I reshaped my roster accordingly. A few years had gone by in real life, and that provided some inspiration.

Following the ups and downs of the Baby Bulls era, Chicago made some bold moves in the 2010 offseason. They missed out on signing LeBron James – though as we’ve since learned, Miami was always the frontrunner there – but they did land an All-Star in Carlos Boozer. I decided that I’d follow suit, and engineered a trade to bring virtual Boozer to Chicago a few years sooner. With him as my new starting power forward and a more balanced roster overall, that second season went from a potential disaster to an absolute blast. The real Bulls didn’t enjoy quite as much success with Boozer, but hey, that’s usually how it goes with franchise games, with or without big moves!

5. Kyle Korver to Chicago (NBA Live 06 Dynasty)

Carlos Boozer wasn’t the only former Utah Jazz player to join the Bulls in the 2010 offseason. Chicago also signed sharpshooter Kyle Korver, who had led the league in three-point shooting the previous season, knocking down treys at a 53.6% clip. It’s a shame that the three-point revolution was still a few years away, and that coach Tom Thibodeau was so defensive-minded. When you look at what Korver would go on to accomplish with the Atlanta Hawks, not to mention how often the Bulls struggled to put the ball in the basket, you can’t help but think that Thibs didn’t use him to his full potential. I would’ve preferred they kept him over past-his-prime Richard Hamilton.

Thankfully, video games allow us to shape NBA history as we see fit! When I was able to mimic real life and acquire Carlos Boozer, I decided that I’d try to get Kyle Korver as well. I figured that he’d work out much better in the role that I originally envisioned for Mike Dunleavy Jr., especially as Korver’s ratings were good enough for the Shooter Freestyle Superstars moveset. I pulled off a trade to get him, and he ably lived up to those expectations, allowing me to knock down more threes than before. Franchise modes invite you to create your own reality with fictional trades and signings, but with Boozer and Korver, taking cues from real life was the right move.

Have any of your franchise mode moves later happened in real life? Do you try to incorporate real moves into your franchise gaming? 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.