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Editor's Note: This article was originally published in response to the release of NBA 2K22 back in 2021, but we feel it is still relevant today with the release of NBA 2K26. Thus, we have decided to re-release this archived content. Enjoy. --- I've been playing NBA 2K for years now, my first being 2K6 on the original Xbox. At the time, I thought it was a revelation compared to NBA Live. The movement, the shooting, the presentation, everything felt better and more realistic.  Flashforward to the present, and I think it's true that most people view NBA 2K as a stagnant franchise. It has no competition in the industry, and its yearly releases are glorified roster updates with a few boondoggles taped on here and there to encourage folks to spend money on microtransactions.  That said, at its core, the 2K series still deliverers a good basketball experience. This is primarily true of its offline singleplayer modes, like MyNBA, or what is usually called "Franchise Mode...

Donovan Mitchell would be a consistent part of this would-be Cavaliers dynasty. What if I told you that the Cleveland Cavaliers would make it to five championship appearances in six years? And what if I told you that, with all that success, they'd only come away with one title to hang their proverbial hats on? This is the story of the fictional Cleveland Cavaliers in my most recent playthrough of NBA 2K23's MyNBA mode. A team with success nearly unmatched in the annals of NBA history. Multiple MVP caliber players on the same team, an all-star starting five lineup, and a dominant regular and postseason season run that makes LeBron's efforts from 2015-2018 look quaint in comparison.  From time to time, as some readers know, I like to write about the stories I uncover while playing videogames. One of my favorite story generators is the NBA 2K series, mainly because I like basketball, but also because its franchise mode lends itself to the creation of thoroughly random but alwa...

  This is an accurate representation of how good Lonzo was for me in NBA 2K19. Each year I buy the newest iteration of NBA 2K, probably against my better judgement. As most know, at this point it's pretty much just a cash-grab rushed out to take advantage of the hype surrounding the upcoming NBA season. Microtransactions have ruined most of its game modes, and each year more features seem to be taken out than they are put in. The sole reason I play NBA 2K is for its MyLeague mode, which allows you to run all aspects of an NBA team for multiple decades, if you so choose. And thankfully, MyLeague continues to be updated on a yearly basis, unlike other 2K game modes that have been allowed to wither and die. One of the things that I like to do is to construct unrealistic scenarios in MyLeague, and see how they play out over a few decades. The scenario this time was as follows: bend the rules to create a  super  superteam, and wait to see how long it took for the league to dev...

Goran Dragic, a key character in this tragic story. I was at the top of my game. I had led my ragtag team composed of Goran Dragic, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, and Blake Griffin to the NBA Finals. It was a tough road, with three seven game series, including the Finals. All this despite the face that, at the beginning of the year, we were pegged as a borderline playoff team at best, and a lottery squad at worst. What allowed us to make it so far? My "big three," so to speak, composed of Dragic, Thompson, and Griffin, played out of their freaking minds. All three were in the top ten in terms of playoff statistics for PER and Efficiency ratings, and the trio combined for over seventy points a game. They were nowhere near that amazing during the season. While Blake beasted down low, Dragic and Thompson rained down threes from outside, shooting at such a high percentage that I'm sure my competition thought I was playing with cheats. With these three firing on all cylinders...

  I'm a huge fan of 2K sports' NBA series. It's probably the game I play the most. Despite my better judgement, I've owned every version since 2K7 (except 2K14). What's so fun about it? Well, for me it's the association mode. If you have an imagination it can be quite the enjoyable experience. You think that the Heat are a super team? Their big three is nothing compared to some of the trios assembled in 2K's association mode. It's fun seeing squads composed of the likes of Chris Paul, John Wall, and Serge Ibaka, and trying to go against them with your ragtag group of terrible players...led by a 77 overall rated shooting guard no less! I like to make my own draft classes in the game. Usually I edit players in the upcoming draft so that there are at least 2-3 superstars to choose from. This keeps associations fresh and gives me something to live for in the case that I get stuck with a terrible team. By the way 2K, you need to fix your draft algorithms. The...