The Friday Five: 5 Short-Lived Stints That Became Iconic

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Retired After The Roster Cut-Off Date

The roster cut-off date – aka the “accurate as of” date – is ultimately responsible for a lot of basketball video game trivia. Phantom stints, rare stints, unrepresented stints, player absences…it all comes down to the rosters being locked on a specific date as a game is being finalised for launch. A major trade or signing late in the offseason is all it takes to leave a game notably outdated, or indeed with a glaring inaccuracy, such as Michael Redd infamously returning to the Milwaukee Bucks after NBA Live 2003 PC went gold. Yes, I know I bring up that example a lot, but it’s a really fun one!

Needless to say, if a player abruptly retires after a game’s roster cut-off date, that also leads to a rather noticeable inaccuracy. When I discussed players who had remained active in games after their careers ended in real life, I noted that Larry Johnson was an example of such a player. While the other players I mentioned in that Five were still under contract and on the injured list when the games in question were released, LJ retired on October 10th 2001; after NBA Live 2002’s rosters had been set, and too late to be accounted for. Here are three other All-Stars, along with a couple of notable role players, who retired after the roster cut-off date and thus remained active in games.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Teammates Who Were Once Traded For Each Other

While it’s become far more common – and some would say, acceptable – for stars to change teams nowadays, it’s always been somewhat rare for players to spend their entire career with one club. Even if a player does stay put, they’ll end up playing with a host of different teammates throughout the years. Between the players that join the team they’re on and the teams that they may go on to join, old rivals will become teammates, former teammates will reunite, and superteams will form, giving us plenty of interesting lineups to talk about…and of course, play with in video games.

Needless to say, trades also break up duos and teammates who no doubt enjoyed playing with one another. We’ve even seen former college teammates get traded for each other during the Draft, as Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison were back in 1998. A trade where former teammates end up being swapped for one another gets you thinking, specifically whether the reverse has ever happened. In other words, have any players who were once traded for each other later become teammates? It has indeed happened, and since I explore such trivia through the lens of the virtual hardwood, here are five traded players turned teammates, and the games featuring those pairings.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Stints That Never Appeared in Games (Part 2)

Yes, it’s time to reflect on another five stints that never appeared in video games; at least in any official rosters! As someone who enjoys basketball and basketball video game trivia alike, topics like this are always fun to dive into. It’s also risky, though. While I do have an extensive collection and try my best to thoroughly research in order to ensure these claims are accurate, I’m not infallible. This was made painfully clear after a previous article, when an assumption led me to overlook NBA Ballers and its inclusion of Rasheed Wallace’s brief stopover with the Atlanta Hawks.

Of course, that was also a handy reminder to do my due diligence! I believe that this time around, I’ve covered all of my bases by checking every game that I own, and crosschecking release dates and any roster listings that I can find online in ones that I don’t. And so, with the help of David L, I’ve compiled this list of five more players with stints that never appeared in games, as well as some others that I’ll get to in future articles. I’ll also once again clarify that I’m referring to official appearances, i.e. in the default rosters or an official roster update, so community-made rosters don’t count. With that being said, let’s look at five players and their unrepresented stints!

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: My 5 Best Franchise Mode Decisions

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.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: My 5 Worst Franchise Mode Decisions

Since I’ve discussed five of the best decisions that I made with franchise modes over the years, it only makes sense to counter it with five of the worst! Even though I know the approach that’ll allow me to best enjoy franchise modes and also what tends to ruin them for me, I’m not immune to making mistakes. Knowing that a change of pace can be a way of keeping things fresh, you might be inclined to try an out-of-the-box idea that turns out to be a flop. Alternatively, a tried-and-true approach might actually be the wrong move on some occasions.

Fortunately, as I noted in my previous article, I haven’t really ruined any franchise games that I was heavily invested in, to the point where I couldn’t continue them. I’ve come close a couple of times, but I was able to correct course before doing any lasting damage. With that being said, there are other examples where poor decisions have set me up to fail in franchise games, creating scenarios that weren’t fun. Some of them were wild ideas, though overcaution can also have its drawbacks. For all of my fellow franchise enthusiasts, may these stories of my worst decisions and biggest blunders serve as cautionary tales the next time you’re getting ready to start a brand new game!

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Things That Should Carry Over in NBA 2K

Many years ago, I reflected on what I described as the New Game Blues. In short, when you’ve come to really enjoy a particular release in an annual basketball video game series, it can be tough to move on. The new game doesn’t feel as familiar and welcoming as the one you’ve been playing religiously for the past year. On top of that, all your progress is effectively gone, since it doesn’t carry over. Whether it’s a career mode game with a maxed-out avatar, an awesome squad in a card collecting mode, or a franchise mode game that’s five years in, it’s in the past now. Starting over is a pain!

Naturally, this has only gotten worse as the games have become greedier and pushier about microtransactions. That annual loss of progress is even harsher now that we’re confronted with the pressure to spend above and beyond the cost of purchasing the games in order to really enjoy them to the fullest. Also, as the online scene in NBA 2K has becoming increasingly toxic and elitist, being mistaken for a newcomer is just as miserable as actually being one. It’s a long shot given the greed that permeates the Triple-A gaming scene nowadays, but if these five things carried over year-to-year in NBA 2K, it would generate a ton of goodwill, and greatly improve the experience.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Things That Should Never Cost VC

When we talk about what basketball video games should and shouldn't do, it does pay to think about the business side of things. Granted, that shouldn't be our concern as consumers, but as far as feasibility or the likelihood of certain ideas, it's something we have to keep in mind. After all, "get rid of all microtransactions" would be a fantastic suggestion in my book, but it's just not going to happen! Sadly, including freemium mechanics in Triple-A games has proven to be too profitable for companies to not do so if they can get away with it, so it's not a realistic request or expectation.

With that being said, I'm ultimately always going to advocate for value for money, fairness to consumers, and a quality experience when it comes to basketball video games. Again, I'm going to tailor any suggestions based on what we know is highly unlikely or unrealistic, but I'm on the side of gamers, not the suits and billion dollar corporations. Unfortunately, there are too many people who excuse or even outright shill for recurrent revenue mechanics, which has emboldened NBA 2K to place more and more content behind VC paywalls. It's done nothing to enhance the experience for us, so to that end, here are five things that we should never have to spend VC on.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Phantom Stints That Didn’t Appear in Games

Through my series of Friday Fives documenting players who only appeared on certain teams in video games – up to 21 parts and counting! – I’ve listed a number of players whose phantom stints with teams were made tangible on the virtual hardwood. Let’s flip the topic though, and consider noteworthy phantom stints that didn’t appear in any video games. This might seem like a strange topic to explore, as obviously there are plenty of players with brief, on-paper tenures that didn’t last long enough to appear in games. However, most of them aren’t particularly exciting or interesting.

The ones that are worth talking about meet a few conditions. Naturally, they involve players who were stars or otherwise noteworthy. Also, while they ultimately didn’t get captured in any video games, the timing wasn’t too far off from it feasibly happening. Perhaps most importantly, if they had been captured in games, there’d be tremendous novelty not just in the strange sight, but also the lineups that we’d be able to play with. With those criteria in mind, I do have five examples that fit the bill. On top of being What Ifs that would’ve set up fun scenarios, they also demonstrate just how easily we can forget some of the details of major or otherwise very memorable NBA trades.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Misleading Basketball Game Intros

There's something special about the best basketball game intros. Sure, we often end up skipping them because we're keen to play, but most of us will watch them in their entirety the first time we fire up a game, and probably a few times after that as well. The combination of a great song and either real NBA footage or a highlight reel created in the game itself is a fantastic way to get us in the mood to play some virtual basketball. They underscored how the games were made for hardcore hoop heads, celebrating a beautiful sport and putting the NBA in our hands.

Cynically, I might suggest that that's why basketball game intros have been phased out over the years. As they've tried to appeal to a wider audience and lean into online modes starring user avatars, there's a large portion of the userbase that probably won't get hyped up by NBA highlights. Less cynically, the fact that intros do end up getting skipped is probably a factor as well. And of course, if we're being honest, basketball game intros can be misleading, even deceptive. Like a carefully curated preview or back-of-the-box promotional materials, intros can oversell a game with promises of quality and features it just can't deliver upon. Here are five examples of such intros.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Dunk Contest Jams 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.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Ideas That Were Abruptly Abandoned

As with other genres of video games, basketball titles have come a long way since their early predecessors, thanks to a combination of technological advancements and inspired innovations. Of course, not all ideas are good ones. In the best case scenario, an unsuccessful idea can be retooled into something that achieves the intended result. If there's no salvaging an idea, then it's better to simply scrap it, never to return. The willingness to pivot or outright abandon a concept that just isn't working has been to the benefit of developing better basketball video games.

Of course, an idea isn't necessarily a failure just because it was abruptly abandoned. Indeed, there have been several features, modes, and mechanics that were quickly nixed, despite their merit and popularity. It isn't always clear why a seemingly good idea was abruptly abandoned, but it can usually be chalked up to technical challenges, or the adoption of a supposedly superior solution. Mind you, even if there is a sensible explanation - or we can make an educated guess - it isn't any less frustrating when we lose something that we like. As we prepare to dive into NBA 2K25 and check out its new features, here are some memorable ideas from past games that didn't stick.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Overshadowed Games

As I've acknowledged in previous articles, "underrated" and "overshadowed" are relative and subjective terms, as are "overrated" and "overexposed" for that matter. They assume some level of consensus, and to that point, once we start talking about how something is underrated or overshadowed, it often ceases to be either. With that being said, when it comes to basketball video games, there are some that always seem to fly under the radar. Even if they were well-received at the time, they still don't get their due in hindsight, because another title from the same era is more acclaimed.

This can easily happen in the annual sim titles when they're at their peak. While there may be several strong releases during a series' golden age, we tend to focus on the ones that always land on lists of all-time great basketball video games. It can happen to arcade titles as well, even when the games were released a couple of years or more apart. I hesitate to declare all of them to be hidden gems as they were popular, and it might be swinging the narrative too far in the other direction. Nevertheless, in my opinion, these overshadowed games deserve some more love. I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for some retro basketball gaming inspiration!

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Comebacks That Would've Been Fun To Play With (Part 2)

Needless to say, a star player coming out of retirement is a big deal, no matter what the sport. There have been some significant comebacks in NBA history, with Michael Jordan's returns easily being the most famous (not to mention the most successful, thanks to the second threepeat). Of course, while nostalgia leads us to reflect on some of our favourite and most memorable events, curiosity also draws us to the "What Ifs". There's an undeniable appeal to pondering the trades and signings that could've been...and also, the comebacks that we might've seen!

A couple of years ago I reflected on five comebacks that, had they actually happened, would've resulted in some fun and interesting lineups to play with in video games. When Dee and I ended up discussing Darryl Dawkins' attempted comebacks during the 90s on the NLSC Podcast, it inspired me to revisit this topic. To that end, Dr. Dunk is the first example on this list, but there are four other noteworthy players whose returns would've been exciting to see in real life and on the virtual hardwood alike. Their names will certainly be quite familiar, but many fans may well have forgotten that these players attempted (or at least considered) a comeback or two.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Ways Roster Editing Was Lacking In 8th Gen NBA Live

For all the insistence that the only reason to prefer or still enjoy old games is blind or wilfully ignorant nostalgia, experience has taught me that the opposite is often true. Sure, I love revisiting old favourites that hold up well, and to a certain point, my nostalgia and affection for them does smooth over some rough edges. At the same time, I've discovered that some old favourites haven't aged as well as I thought upon revisiting them, while games I never played or indeed didn't care for when they were new have impressed me. It's a case-by-case matter, rather than an absolute either way.

To that end, going back and playing some eighth gen NBA Live titles with fresh eyes and no (or low) expectations has allowed me to enjoy them more, or at least notice some of their stronger points. Unfortunately, roster editing isn't one of them! Despite being a staple feature of basketball games and sim titles in general, roster editing was severely lacking in the NBA Live games released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It's a perfect example of how the series was lagging behind where it needed to be, as well as the vision for the series being out of step with what many long-time NBA Live fans wanted. Let's take a look at the biggest roster editing shortcomings in those releases.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Favourite Derrick Rose Plays

As we discussed earlier this week in Episode #548 of the NLSC Podcast, Derrick Rose has called it a career after 15 seasons in the NBA. D-Rose is - as I'm sure many of you are aware - one of my all-time favourite players, right up there with fellow Chicago Bulls alumni Michael Jordan and Ben Gordon. To that end, I'm sorry to see him retire, especially without more fanfare and indeed a farewell tour back with the Bulls. After all of his injuries and with family life ahead of him however, one has to respect him for being at peace with his career, and his decision to walk away.

Obviously, there are some wistful What Ifs when it comes to Derrick Rose. If not for that devastating knee injury in the 2012 Playoffs, I'm sure he would've been one of the top stars of the 2010s. Who knows what the Bulls might've achieved had he remained healthy, and if they'd acquired some more firepower to support him? While it does sting to think about, I'm also grateful that I was able to see him become an All-Star and MVP, and truly get excited about the Bulls' chances again as I did in 2011. He was a really fun player to watch - and play with in video games, too - so in honour of his retirement and his 36th birthday, here are five of my favourite Derrick Rose plays!

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Players We'd Overwrite in NBA Live 95 Rosters

When I chanced upon a copy of NBA Live 95 PC being sold at a local news agency of all places, I eagerly bought it. Our founders had already introduced me to modding NBA Live 96, so I was keen to tinker with NBA Live 95 as well. I'd soon find out that it wasn't nearly as easy! Without an in-game create-a-player function, all new players had to overwrite original ones. This meant carefully choosing the right players and text strings to replace. If you were fixing up the rosters for 1995 - as was the natural inclination - there were five players in particular that you were likely to overwrite.

Now, just to be clear, not every single roster for NBA Live 95 PC overwrote these five players with the replacements I'm specifying. Depending on the season the roster was for and the personal choice of the modder making it, sometimes a different player would be used instead. However, when it came to 1995 season updates for NBA Live 95 PC, these are the players that were overwritten most frequently, as they tended to be the ideal candidates to become the missing players we wanted to add. Indeed, when it comes to the first two players, I tend to think of them more for their usefulness to modding than their real life careers! Without any further ado, let's tip things off with...

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Offseasons That Were Exciting For Gamers

As another offseason draws to a close and a new season gets ready to tip off, we've got some new lineups to look forward to in the NBA this year. To that end, for those who play with current season rosters, the offseason always sets the table with some intriguing scenarios for the upcoming campaign. Whether you want to play with a team that just made a big trade or signing, or defeat them if they're a bitter rival of your favourite club, gamers are just as invested as seeing those stories play out on the virtual hardwood as in real life.

Some offseasons are wilder than others of course, leading to lineups that make the games set in the forthcoming season even more memorable. With that in mind, I've compiled a list of what I believe are five of the most exciting offseasons from the perspective of basketball fans and gamers alike. Before I get into them however, I'll give an honourable mention to the 2003 offseason, which saw Gary Payton and Karl Malone join Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant on the Lakers. It's an honourable mention because it feels like a played-out example, and other offseasons were arguably more exciting league-wide. With that being said, here are my five picks!

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Stars Who Played For The Lakers & Celtics

It is undoubtedly the most iconic rivalry in the history of the NBA. It even inspired the title of the very first game in the NBA Playoffs/NBA Live series! As of writing, the Lakers and the Celtics have combined for 35 of the 78 championships in league history, and have clashed in the Finals a record 12 times. The 2024 season saw the Celtics edge ahead of the Lakers with their 18th championship, and they also have a 9-3 edge in their twelve NBA Finals clashes. Boston also leads the all-time series, and is the only team with a lifetime winning record against LA.

Of course, despite the rivalry and all of the passionate responses it invites from Lakers and Celtics fans, the teams have often done deals. Furthermore, taking into account players that joined one or both teams via free agency, there's a long list of players who have donned both Celtics green and Lakers purple and gold. That's inevitable with the teams being around for decades, but it does get interesting when you look for stars and Hall of Famers who ended up playing for both of these storied franchises. To that end, there are five particularly noteworthy players that come to mind here. As we tip off a new season where all eyes are on both teams, let's take a look at who they are!

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Sensible Roster Choices in Classic Games

Generally speaking, roster accuracy is something that we want to see basketball video games strive for. Of course, in the days before official roster updates were common, it didn't take long for games to become outdated. A big trade or an abrupt retirement shortly after the roster cut-off date could leave games with glaring inaccuracies. Still, we wanted the games to do their best: all of the necessary players as of the roster cut-off date, the correct players starting, and so on. Even in arcade titles, we wanted to see up-to-date squads that featured the most sensible roster choices.

To that point however, sometimes the most sensible roster choices in classic games - both simulation and arcade - have meant foregoing accuracy. In these situations, a completely accurate roster or starting lineup wouldn't be as fun, because it would mean leaving out a player we want to take control of on the virtual hardwood. If a game lacked an inactive roster, was a sim or sim-arcade hybrid that didn't include full lineups, or otherwise called for a break from reality, it was the right choice to make. With that in mind, here are five classic games where the developers wisely made sensible roster choices, even when it technically meant getting something wrong.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: My 5 Principles Of Basketball Gaming

My family first got online in August 1997, which is when I discovered the NLSC. I originally ran my own site - the NBA Live Domain - from 1998 to the end of 2001, when I closed it and merged much of its content into the NLSC, which I'd taken over in August that year. In short, I've been involved with the online basketball gaming community in some capacity for more than 25 years now. I wouldn't still be around, creating as much content as I do, if I wasn't passionate about the genre. I'm not doing this for clout, fame, or money. It's a passion project, inspired by a beloved hobby.

I've obviously been enjoying that hobby even longer than I've been a part of this community. Many games have been released during that time, with several of them becoming my all-time favourites. Those outstanding games - as well as the titles that I haven't cared as much for - have shaped my preferences and expectations for future releases, as well as how I critique them. At this point, I know what I want basketball games to be like, what will make for a consistently enjoyable gaming experience, and what will spoil my fun on the virtual hardwood. I can sum up the way that I approach the hobby these days with what I'll call my five principles of basketball gaming.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Basketball Gaming Theories I Can’t (Conclusively) Prove

Video games have attracted countless theories, rumours, and hoaxes throughout the years. From speculation about secrets to gossip about gameplay mechanics, these stories have spawned myths, legends…and occasionally, actually been correct! Yes, games are often designed to essentially cheat in order to give us a challenge. Yes, sometimes that rumoured hidden content is there (or at least, there’s a remnant of it). And yes, it’s hardly a wild conspiracy theory to suggest that so many modern Triple-A titles are being designed to push gamers towards microtransactions.

Of course, there are the theories that aren’t true: the secret that’s a hoax, the misguided belief as to why something is a certain way, and so on. These are the things that we’re so sure of, or want to believe, but they’ve been proven false. And then, we have the video game theories that we can’t conclusively prove – yet, anyway – but they haven’t necessarily been disproven, and seem quite likely. I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories – philosophical razors tend to make short work of most of them – but I do have a few related to basketball gaming that I am inclined to believe. Well, maybe not conspiracies as such, but they are five basketball gaming theories that I put stock in.

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Comebacks That Would've Been Fun To Play With (Part 3)

As I've taken a few more trips around the sun, I've become increasingly bothered by the tendency for veterans to get pushed out of the league. Yes, young players who are the future need their opportunities, and it feels like we're seeing more All-Stars stick around beyond their fifteenth season, but over the years, quite a few veterans have seemingly been ushered out of the NBA while they were still productive. Other times of course, injuries unfortunately cut their careers short, robbing them of the chance to settle into a veteran mentor role while still having the opportunity to contribute.

Those are the times when we hope to see comebacks, if only so a former star can go out in style rather than fade away unceremoniously. We've seen that happen, but not every player who leaves the league too soon gets a chance to return and write a better final chapter. Not only is that a shame in real life, but it sadly puts the kibosh on what could be a fun scenario to play with in video games as well. I've already posted two previous articles discussing comebacks that would've been fun to see in video games, but some of the examples I'm sharing today - particularly the last one - are returns that I really wish had come to pass. Without any further ado, let's tip things off with...

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Stints That Never Appeared in Games (Part 3)

It's Part 3 in what is becoming an ongoing series recalling stints that never officially appeared in video games! I'm always wary of spending too long on certain topics, but since I ended up going to Part 21 in my series about players who only appeared on certain teams in games, a third article definitely isn't that crazy. Besides, as long as there are interesting examples to talk about and stories to revisit, I'd rather not leave them on the table. Considering that all five players this time around were All-Stars, they're undoubtedly too important not to discuss!

When it comes to stints that don't officially appear in any video games, it's usually because it was a very brief tenure, and generally the result of a midseason signing or trade. Alternatively, the move may have happened quite early in the year or even in the offseason, but missed the roster cut-off date for the game, and no official roster update ever accounted for it (in many cases because the game predates such updates becoming commonplace). This list contains examples of both, as well as a rather unique example that's...well, there's no question that it belongs on a list of stints with no official representation, but at the same time, it sort of was included. Let's begin!

[Andrew]

The Friday Five: 5 Short-Lived Stints That Became Iconic

Even when a player has had stints with multiple teams, there's usually one that stands out as their most famous or memorable. Interestingly, it isn't always the team that they spent the bulk of their career with. Sometimes, it's the short-lived stints that produce the most success or notoriety, so they're the ones that are best remembered and often talked about. Personal nostalgia also comes into play here. I'd suggest that we tend to associate players with the teams they played for when we first started watching and taking a keen interest in basketball, or at least very early on in our fandom.

To that point, our perception of time also changes as we age. A player having a three or four-year stint seemed like a long tenure back when I was a teenage hoop head, but now that I'm older, it's over in a blink! Looking back, I've realised that there are quite a few Hall of Fame players whose most iconic stints were actually rather short-lived. Despite that brevity however, those are the jerseys that we tend to picture them in. As such, it's interesting to reflect on how long those stints actually lasted, and why they became so iconic to the point of eclipsing longer tenures. With that in mind, here are five all-time greats, and their iconic short-lived stints that I tend to remember best.