Newbie Needs Help: What Mods to Play Like "The Last Dance"?

[genoboy]

The last NBA video game i played was NBA Live 99. I quit following NBA after MJ retired from Bulls. After watching "The Last Dance" recently. I decided to pick up a NBA simulation video game to relive my childhood joy of following MJ and the Bulls entire journey from 1991 to 1998.

So i just bought NBA 2K20 on steam, still going through the tutorials. This is how i hope to customize the game:

1) Play using team Chicago Bulls, starting in year 1990-1991 season.
2) the entire NBA roster is that of season 1990-1991 season, not just my team Bulls
3) edit MJ playing attributes to the max, becos he is the GOAT so GOAT should have all his attributes at the highest to be realistic
4) as the seasons progress, there should be new players added according to the actual historical seasons, but not fictional new players, for eg, in season 1993-1994, Toni Kukoc will be added to Bulls
5) all other teams' roster to also follow the exact historical trades/swaps such that every season from 1990-1991 to 1997-1998 the rosters matches the actual history
6) this one is probably not possible, but if possible, every season to end with the Western conference Champ to match the actual history, for eg, season 1990-1991, West Champ to be LA Lakers, season 1991-1991, Portland Trailblazers, etc. So i can kick their respective asses with MJ again.
7) all players faces to be accurate for the 8 seasons, esp MJ
8) all players to wear the exact shoes that they are wearing for the 8 seasons, esp MJ
9) all players to wear the exact same jerseys that they are wearing for the 8 seasons
10) all teams to have the same teams logos for the 8 seasons
11) all team courts to have same aesthetics, including center court logo, advertising decals on the court boards etc
12) any other mods that might add realism to these 8 seasons that i wish to recreate
13) which mode should i play on? MyTeam, MyCareer or MyLeague? i am guessing MyLeague?

- i will never play online, so it does not matter if the mods will disable or screw up online play.

Please help stick your suggestion(s) or link(s) to any thread(s) or file(s) to any of my points above, thank you so much in advance in helping me relive the Bulls dynasty!

[Andrew]

Many of those things just aren't possible (or certainly not possible to do without taking several liberties regarding accuracy, or without a lot of manipulation on your part), or require a ton of mods that haven't been made for NBA 2K20 and would take months to create.

You'd probably be better off tracking down a copy of NBA 2K11 PC - only the disc version is available these days, through sources like eBay and Amazon - and playing through The Jordan Challenge. That's the best celebration of MJ's career in a video game to date, though it's not full season play. Failing that, if you could get your hands on NBA 2K12, NBA 2K13, or NBA 2K14 PC - again, they're no longer available on Steam so you'd have to track down the disc versions - you could play with the Ultimate Base Roster (2K12 or 2K14) or U R Basketball (2K13, 2K14) which include complete retro season mods for those years. Note that faces, shoes, logos, and the like would not dynamically change year-to-year - that's not something that can be modded in - but it would be possible to start an Association with the 1991 roster and play through eight seasons, using real Draft Classes for each year. Unless you're controlling all the teams though, there's no way to ensure results, trades, signings, and Draft selections are accurate through the years. As with dynamically changing artwork, that's beyond what mods can accomplish.

[genoboy]

Many of those things just aren't possible (or certainly not possible to do without taking several liberties regarding accuracy, or without a lot of manipulation on your part), or require a ton of mods that haven't been made for NBA 2K20 and would take months to create.

You'd probably be better off tracking down a copy of NBA 2K11 PC - only the disc version is available these days, through sources like eBay and Amazon - and playing through The Jordan Challenge. That's the best celebration of MJ's career in a video game to date, though it's not full season play. Failing that, if you could get your hands on NBA 2K12, NBA 2K13, or NBA 2K14 PC - again, they're no longer available on Steam so you'd have to track down the disc versions - you could play with the Ultimate Base Roster (2K12 or 2K14) or U R Basketball (2K13, 2K14) which include complete retro season mods for those years. Note that faces, shoes, logos, and the like would not dynamically change year-to-year - that's not something that can be modded in - but it would be possible to start an Association with the 1991 roster and play through eight seasons, using real Draft Classes for each year. Unless you're controlling all the teams though, there's no way to ensure results, trades, signings, and Draft selections are accurate through the years. As with dynamically changing artwork, that's beyond what mods can accomplish.

Thanks for taking time to reply! i realized what i hoped to achieve in op is likely impossible in its entirety in NBA 2K20.

that said, i seemed to find something promising from viewtopic.php?f=258&t=107928&start=575 . using this i should be able to create a MyLeague game with most of the teams from 1990-1991 season. But seems like i can only start the season on day 1 of 2019-2020. it's a good start

[Andrew]

Yeah, changing the starting year is something we've never been able to do. Retro mods are fantastic, but there are some limitations/inaccuracies. Generally speaking it doesn't stop them from being fun, though.

If you can track down a copy of NBA 2K11 though, The Jordan Challenge is fantastic. There's also a couple of retro season mods for it, though NBA 2K12 was when the modding explosion really happened for NBA 2K on PC.

[genoboy]

Yeah, changing the starting year is something we've never been able to do. Retro mods are fantastic, but there are some limitations/inaccuracies. Generally speaking it doesn't stop them from being fun, though.

If you can track down a copy of NBA 2K11 though, The Jordan Challenge is fantastic. There's also a couple of retro season mods for it, though NBA 2K12 was when the modding explosion really happened for NBA 2K on PC.

was watching some youtube on 2k11 Jordan Challenge. the graphics can't stand the test of time lol. Maybe 2K21 will bring a similar mode back for the MJ fans due to the popularity of The Last Dance? Here's to hoping.

[Andrew]

It's funny you say that as a lot of people do actually prefer NBA 2K11's aesthetic over more recent games. I personally feel that there is a significant improvement on the current generation (except perhaps lighting in some cases), but then I can also go back and play NBA 2K11, or even older games every now and again. It holds up a bit better than NBA Live 99, at any rate.

I'd love to see the return of historic challenge modes outside of MyTEAM, and perhaps The Last Dance (as well as Kobe Bryant's unfortunate passing) may encourage them to celebrate NBA history like that again. The newer games are very recurrent revenue-driven though, and there's a much bigger focus on MyCAREER/The Playground these days, so I'm not entirely confident it'll happen. It would be awesome to see, though.

[genoboy]

a kind soul pointed me to viewtopic.php?f=241&t=106204 CLASSIC SEASONS MOD v1.0 - 1993 SEASON, 1992 SEASON v3, 84-98 DRAFT CLASSES

exactly what i need! albeit it is for 2K19. just have to snatch this from steam

[Andrew]

It's another great retro mod. Again, a lot of the functionality you were asking about just isn't possible in any game - it would be awesome if it was, of course - but that mod is extremely well done and should be fun to play.