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 is a list of the five best decisions I made with my Franchise mode games.

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.

1. Trading for Kevin Garnett (NBA Live 2004)

I generally prefer to begin a franchise with real rosters – default or updated, depending on the game and what’s available at the time – but after that, I’m open to allowing a fictional reality to unfold. I’ve found that it’s wise not to wheel and deal too much too soon, but if the roster doesn’t feel right or you’re struggling out of the gate, it might be a sign that you need to consider your options. Playing with the Chicago Bulls in NBA Live 2004 was unsurprisingly challenging at first, as they lacked a superstar. About a quarter of the way into the season, I began mulling trade possibilities to freshen things up, knowing that I could get the Raptors to accept a real trade from the 2004 season.

Mimicking what the real Bulls had done was certainly an option, and likely would’ve made the season an even more challenging journey. However, I discovered that the Timberwolves would accept a deal of Jalen Rose, Roger Mason Jr., and Marcus Fizer for Kevin Garnett. I briefly considered the complete lack of realism in that scenario, and then pulled the trigger on it. Unsurprisingly, that turned out to be a great decision! We went on a tremendous run with KG leading the way, and the fact that I managed to get the CPU to accept such a lopsided trade offer only adds to my fond memories of that NBA Live 2004 Dynasty game. A realistic starting point needn’t stifle the fun!

2. Playing a Shorter Season (NBA Live 2000)

As a sim head, I’m a stickler for playing full length seasons on 12 minute quarters. It satisfies that nerdy obsession with replicating the NBA, but it naturally means that finishing one season – let alone playing a second, third, or beyond – takes a while. On one occasion though, I was able to forego my sim head tendencies and play through an abbreviated campaign. That season came in NBA Live 2000 PC, which saw the introduction of Franchise mode. My cousin and I began a Franchise with the Portland Trail Blazers, and opted for a 28-game season with single elimination in the Playoffs. We still played on 12 minute quarters, but finished the season in one school holidays.

It was one of the best decisions we ever made! We’d started seasons in a number of games over the years and played them enthusiastically, but again, we could only play during the school holidays; in other words, when he came to stay for two weeks every ten weeks or so (and a little longer during the summer holidays, when we had five or six weeks off school). Our reluctance to simulate any games left so many seasons unfinished, and while we still had too much fun to truly have any regrets, we did want to play at least one season all the way through. Winning that title and celebrating it with some midnight popcorn is one of my favourite basketball gaming memories.

3. Bringing Shawn Kemp Back (NBA Live 06)

So, when it comes to self-imposed rules and preferences, there are always exceptions. Yes, I usually prefer to start a new franchise game with official rosters or a realistic unofficial update, and allow a fictional reality to develop. With that being said, one of my all-time favourite franchise games – my Chicago Bulls Dynasty in NBA Live 06 – blatantly broke that rule, and was way more fun because of it. That is to say, I did technically begin the game with authentic rosters, but I set up a fictional scenario that allowed me to make an immediate and notable change. Having added Shawn Kemp to the Legends Pool in my roster update, I activated him, and made him a free agent.

This allowed me to sign him to a two-year contract after beginning my Dynasty. I did reduce his ratings to reflect his age and decline in athleticism, so I wasn’t picking up a prime Reignman. Adding him as a free agent and having to negotiate a deal rather than simply placing him on the team to begin with was also a way of easing into the alternate reality, and making it a task to accomplish. I chose Kemp because he’s one of my all-time favourite players, but there was also talk of him attempting a comeback around that time, so it wasn’t unthinkable. I loved having him on the team – even if he wasn’t the Reignman of old – so it was definitely worth breaking my rule in that game.

4. Rectifying Some Lopsided Trades (NBA Live 06)

There are some common mistakes – some ruinous decisions – that will quickly suck all the fun out of a franchise game. As I mentioned before, making too many trades too soon is a prime example. It’s even worse if all those trades end up stacking your team with too much talent, while leaving other teams around the league too weak. This isn’t a universal truth, of course. Depending on how you play franchise mode, shrewd deals that give you an absolutely loaded roster to dominate the league and put up stats with can also be a really fun approach! If you’re aiming for a more realistic experience and more balance throughout the league however, that’s not an ideal scenario to end up in.

Such was the case in the second year of my Bulls Dynasty in NBA Live 06. It may not have appeared that way at first glance because some of the players I acquired were still quite modestly-rated, but they included promising young talents such as Danny Granger and Trevor Ariza. It became a chore trying to find adequate minutes for those players, and I didn’t like that I’d stolen them from their teams. I even pilfered a rookie from the Knicks – the fifth overall pick – because I wanted to chase the Rookie of the Year award! I corrected course by making some deals that redistributed talent and left my rotation far more manageable, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

5. Picking the Sacramento Kings (NBA Live 2002)

Even though I didn’t finish the first season in my NBA Live 2002 Sacramento Kings Franchise, it’s still one of my most memorable basketball gaming experiences. NBA Live 2002 was the game that I was playing in my final year of high school, and to that end, it was an enjoyable escape from schoolwork, teenage drama, and the uncertainty of looming adulthood. Considering that Michael Jordan had returned and was actually finally in NBA Live, you might think that I’d prefer to use the Washington Wizards. However, the Kings were an exciting squad, and a cool team. There’s a reason that they’d eventually join the selection of classic teams in NBA 2K many years later.

I’m sure I could’ve had fun with the Wizards. Alternatively, I could’ve taken control of the Chicago Bulls and swung a few deals to get Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen; it’s not easy, but it’s doable! All things considered though, I believe that I made the right decision by choosing the Kings. It was a ready-made roster that was fun to use and strong enough to contend with the toughest opponents, to the point where I didn’t feel compelled to make any trades. I did try out a few different starting lineups as I’ve always enjoyed doing that in franchise games, but those Kings are a blast as-is. I do wish I’d finished the season (and kept the save file), but at least I found some closure.

What are some of the best decisions that you’ve made when playing franchise modes in NBA Live, NBA 2K, or other sim titles? 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.

The post The Friday Five: My 5 Best Franchise Mode Decisions appeared first on NLSC.