Monday Tip-Off: The Jerseys I’ve Worn In MyCAREER
We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a retrospective of the teams’ jerseys that I’ve ended up wearing in my various games of MyCAREER.
Retrospectives are usually the domain of Wayback Wednesday, but this is a topic that feels more suitable to tipping off the week with. Kenny has previously reflected on some of his most memorable experiences in MyCAREER, which highlights how many different jerseys his MyPLAYERs have worn. Now that I’ve mostly moved on from the mode, I also find myself looking back at my favourite MyCAREER games, and my preferred approach. Suffice to say that I wasn’t as adventurous as Kenny as far as playing around with different builds, or taking my talents to different teams!
With that being said, I did end up wearing a few teams’ jerseys throughout my various MyCAREER games. I’m glad that I did. As is the case with my franchise gaming over the years, the temptation of playing with the Chicago Bulls and leading them back to the top has been too strong to pass up. However, just as I’ve enjoyed dabbling with using other teams in season and franchise modes, eschewing the Bulls’ jerseys for another uniform in MyCAREER has also been rewarding. While I like the ability to choose my destination, there’s authenticity in the Draft having uncertainty. Thanks to donning a variety of jerseys, I’ve made some great memories in MyCAREER games.
Denver Nuggets (NBA 2K13, NBA 2K17)
Although I’d played My Player in NBA 2K12 – more on that later – NBA 2K13 was the first time I really became engrossed with the single player career experience. I’d only begun a MyCAREER game in order to spend enough time with it to write a more comprehensive review, but I quickly developed an enthusiasm for the mode. It was a fresh experience, and after years of micromanaging as a franchise gamer, I actually liked having some control taken out of my hands. Being new to the mode, I didn’t perform particularly well in the Rookie Showcase game, and thus fell to the Denver Nuggets with the 20th pick. This set up a scenario I might not have chosen otherwise.
It’s impossible for me to not feel nostalgic about that first proper MyCAREER game with the Nuggets. It established many of my habits for future games, from creating a point guard (thanks to filling in at the position due to Ty Lawson’s injury), to what could be considered a borderline obsession with assists. It was a successful season, an underdog story of a rookie with low expectations emerging to lead their team to their first NBA Championship, and taking home the Finals MVP. Naturally, that success established it as one of my favourite basketball gaming experiences, and also gave me an appreciation for that Nuggets team. They turned out to be very fun to play for.
When I happened to be drafted by the Nuggets in my NBA 2K17 MyCAREER, it felt welcome and familiar. A couple of players from the 2013 squad were even still there! In a way, I already had a connection to the team, and even though it was a completely different “canon” to my previous game, there was added incentive to bring home the Larry O’Brien trophy once more. The addition of a well-written story and memorable character in Justice Young helped too, as did the “Orange Juice” dual player controls. Still, I believe that playing for the Nuggets once again really solidified my enjoyment and investment in that MyCAREER, as I had such positive memories with the team.
Chicago Bulls (NBA 2K17, NBA 2K18, NBA 2K19, NBA 2K20, NBA 2K21)
The Chicago Bulls are my favourite team, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’ve been my default choice in franchise modes. In iterations of MyCAREER that have provided more control over our destiny, they’re also one of my first choices. Again, I see the value in being able to choose where you end up in career modes, as well as ceding the choice to the Draft. I should also mention that I liked NBA Live’s approach in The One, wherein you can play for whoever drafted you, or have them trade you to your favourite team. Free agency is also fun, and I chose to sign with the Bulls (along with Justice Young) following my rookie year with the Nuggets in NBA 2K17.
Upon being given my choice of teams at the beginning of NBA 2K18’s tale, I couldn’t pass up the Bulls. Unfortunately I didn’t make it through the season due to my distaste for the game, but I liked the idea of my avatar being a Bull, so I repeated that choice in NBA 2K19. That was a far more successful endeavour, as I played two full seasons and finally sent a MyPLAYER to the Hall of Fame. Obviously, playing for the team that I’ve been a fan of in real life for as long as I’ve been a fan of basketball meant that I had a ready-made interest in leading them to some virtual championships. Even as an adult, it tapped into that childhood fantasy of playing for your favourite team.
Because I was hooked on MyCAREER despite feeling burned out on it, I once again donned the Bulls’ jerseys in NBA 2K20’s mode. I played another full season, maxing out my player and winning the championship. The familiarity made it a fun ride, and although choosing a different team might’ve freshened things up, the lure of playing for the Bulls was once again too strong; at least for my first player that year. I did also end up going to the Bulls in NBA 2K21 when I skipped the story on Current Gen and played through it on Next Gen, but only played a couple of NBA games. If I were still playing MyCAREER, my beloved Chicago Bulls would likely remain my first choice.
Philadelphia 76ers (NBA 2K12, NBA 2K14)
Over the past year, the Philadelphia 76ers became a significant and sentimental part of my history playing MyCAREER. They were the first team that I played for back in NBA 2K12, when the mode was still called My Player. I only played a handful of games for them, but I was intrigued enough to revisit (and get hooked on) the career modes in subsequent releases. It was perhaps only appropriate that when I finally played through MyCAREER in the PlayStation 4 version of NBA 2K14, it was with the Sixers. In a way it brought my journey wearing different jerseys in MyCAREER full circle, as my last deep run with the mode came with the first team that I joined.
That sense of bookending my experiences with MyCAREER wasn’t the only aspect that I enjoyed, of course. After years of enduring increasingly grindy journeys due to the prevalence of recurrent revenue mechanics, not to mention stories that were less and less concerned with the journey of making it as a rookie in the NBA, NBA 2K14’s mode was surprisingly captivating despite me feeling burned out on the experience. There were times that I considered asking for a trade – especially with a PlayStation Trophy being dangled in front of me for doing so – but I opted to stay, and won the championship. It helped retroactively make NBA 2K14 one of my favourite games!
I will say that while I had hours of fun and achieved closure when I finally played through NBA 2K14’s MyCAREER, those 76ers jerseys aren’t among my favourites that I’ve worn. I obviously love the Bulls’ branding, and the Nuggets also had great uniforms in NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K17 alike. The jerseys the 76ers had back in the 2014 season are fine in so much as they were traditional designs, but I find them to be among their plainer uniforms. It probably didn’t help that there was no way to select jerseys in NBA 2K14’s MyCAREER, which meant that I was never able to play with the red alternate in order to change things up. Nevertheless, I enjoyed by a 76er.
Sacramento Kings (NBA 2K20)
Something that prolonged my interest in MyCAREER despite growing increasingly burned out on the grind was creating a different build in NBA 2K20. After winning a championship with the Bulls as a point guard that could knock down threes and rack up assists, I used my stockpiled VC to create and level up a defensive big man build. This build was actually more fun to play with in The Rec. I wasn’t being frozen out by randoms who wouldn’t even let me bring the ball up and set them up to score, and I was able to contribute even when I wasn’t scoring or getting many touches. I wrote about that experience, and I’m still rather proud of the image I made for that article!
The NBA team I chose for that build was the Sacramento Kings. I opted for them for a couple of reasons. I used the Kings in NBA Live 2002’s Franchise mode, which was a memorable season in its own right, but especially nostalgic because it’s what I was playing during my final year of high school. As such, they were already a team that I had a connection with on the virtual hardwood. I also wanted to pick a team whose centre I could realistically replace without sending a big name to the bench once I’d earned the starting role. From memory, I ended up displacing Marvin Bagley to the power forward spot. Begley and Bagley, the young twin towers in Sacramento!
There wasn’t enough time for me to finish the first season, but as I’d already won a title with the Bulls using my point guard build, I wasn’t too interested in the NBA side of things with my big man. The NBA games were purely to grind for Badge XP and VC to make the build viable for jumping into The Rec. Nevertheless, it was a nice change of pace to choose a team other than the Bulls. It also underscored the theme of trying something new with a different build, as becoming a superstar playmaker in Chicago was a journey that I’d repeated several times. The added sentimentality of having played with the Kings way back in NBA Live 2002 was the icing on the cake.
Other Jerseys I’ve Worn in MyCAREER
So, those are the jerseys that I’ve worn in MyCAREER games that I played through to some semblance of completion, or were otherwise significant. However, in dabbling with MyCAREER in other games over the years, my avatar has worn a few other jerseys as well. Take the PC version of NBA 2K14, for example. I played a number of games for the Timberwolves, but something just didn’t feel right. I’d been enjoying my NBA 2K13 MyCAREER so much, and looking back, I don’t think I was quite ready to move on when NBA 2K14 was released. I still have that save file, and it’s useful for content creation and to have just in case, but I never fully got into it.
NBA 2K16 was the first year that I got into 2K Pro-Am, at Kenny’s suggestion. I spent more time playing Pro-Am than the NBA side of MyCAREER, but the team that drafted my MyPLAYER was the Phoenix Suns. I only played nine games with them as part of the “Livin’ Da Dream” storyline – eight in the regular season, one in the Playoffs – but they are nevertheless a team whose jersey I’ve worn. Similarly, I have a MyCAREER save in the PC version of NBA 2K17 in which I was drafted by the Utah Jazz. It’s a game I’ve maintained for content creation purposes, including messing around with some hacking, as I’ve previously discussed in Monday Tip-Off.
I’ve not spent a lot of time with NBA 2K15’s MyCAREER, as I have my quibbles with the story and the personality of our MyPLAYER in that game. I have played it a little though, and thanks to its tale of latching on as a 10-day contract signee, I’ve actually worn a few different jerseys in NBA 2K15’s MyCAREER. Those include the Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards, and Charlotte Hornets. In getting to the rare “Game Over” scenario in the mode, I’ve also worn several teams’ practice jerseys during intentionally sabotaged tryouts. Also, as part of NBA 2K19’s MyCAREER story, I’ve played a single game with the Lakers; one that somehow doesn’t count.
Would I still be as burned out on MyCAREER if I’d worn a larger variety of jerseys, and changed things up with my build? I’d say so. The familiarity of becoming a star point guard for the Bulls wasn’t the problem. I enjoy playing with/for my favourite team, and I had a blast as a point guard in NBA 2K14 for PS4. Ultimately, it’s the grind and expansion beyond the NBA experience with The Neighborhood and The City that has encouraged me to step away from MyCAREER. However, I don’t regret my time with the mode. It certainly helped that my avatar ended up wearing a few different uniforms, whether I chose the team, or the team chose my MyPLAYER.
The post Monday Tip-Off: The Jerseys I’ve Worn In MyCAREER appeared first on NLSC.