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 my least favourite teammates from all of my MyCAREER games.

Since I’ve already reflected on my favourite MyCAREER teammates, it only makes sense to look back at my least favourite teammates! Fortunately, there haven’t been too many players that I just couldn’t stand teaming up with on the virtual hardwood. Furthermore, while I’d nominate those players as my least favourite teammates across all of my MyCAREER games, I can’t say that they’ve ruined the experience. At the same time, they’re the players who’ve been the most frustrating or the least enjoyable to play with, owing to their subpar performance whenever we’re on the court together.

Although for the most part it’s their on-court performance that ranks these players among my least favourite teammates, I will admit that I’m not fond of a couple of their real life counterparts either. Interestingly, a few of my least favourite teammates come from my all-time favourite MyCAREER games, including ones where I was on the Chicago Bulls. As I noted in my previous article though, none of my favourite Bulls squads are from the late 2010s, so it stands to reason that I don’t have a lot of affection for those players as MyCAREER teammates. Without any further ado, here are five players I haven’t been thrilled to call my teammates in MyCAREER games!

1. Royce White (NBA 2K14)

I’ve never been a fan of the real Royce White. While I appreciated the challenges he was facing and his willingness to advocate for mental health, he still rubbed me the wrong way with his handling of the situation in Houston. Since then, nothing that he’s done on or off the court has endeared him to me, either. All of that aside though, the virtual Royce White is easily one of my least favourite teammates due to generally being ineffective whenever he was on the floor. I ended up with him as a teammate due to the Rockets trading him to the 76ers in July 2013. Although Philadelphia cut him in October, he’s still on the team in the default rosters of NBA 2K14 for PS4.

To be fair, White was on the deep bench in the rotation, so he wasn’t getting a ton of minutes to prove his worth outside of extended garbage time. Because MyPLAYERs play their designated minutes even in a blowout however, that meant that I was on the court with him fairly regularly, even if it was just for a couple of minutes. On top of that, the coaching AI had the bright idea of forcing him to play small forward instead of his natural position of power forward, which didn’t help. Nevertheless, he barely ever made anything resembling a positive contribution, even when he was put in at the four. Unlike Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes, I wasn’t sorry to see him leave.

2. Michael Carter-Williams (NBA 2K14)

While I’ve undoubtedly embraced playing in the City of Brotherly Love in my NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, I was initially surprised that the Philadelphia 76ers drafted me. After all, they still selected Michael Carter-Williams – indeed, we were somehow both taken with the 11th pick in 2013 – giving them two rookie point guards. This led to an amusing cutscene as I was getting close to taking the starting spot from him, where my fellow rookie talked to me like a veteran who was ready to step aside to give a younger player a chance! In hindsight, perhaps MCW knew that he was going to get a shot at starting at point guard again, even if I was still on the team a few years later.

A decent potential attribute allowed Carter-Williams’ ratings to consistently improve even as he wasted away on the bench. He was abruptly inserted into the starting five again in 2017 though, moving me over to shooting guard. This was manageable, and with Carmelo Anthony out with injury, Terry Hanson slid over to small forward. With MCW going down for the year, Hanson remained a starter even when Melo returned. Once everyone was healthy though, Hanson was benched; a role he remains in to this day. I’ve since tried to get MCW traded, but his name didn’t show up during the GM meeting. I don’t mind him as a player, but I do hate what he’s done to our rotation!

3. Kris Dunn (NBA 2K18 & NBA 2K19)

I’m actually glad to see the real Kris Dunn find his place in the NBA these past couple of years. As a former fifth overall pick, he’s still kind of a bust in a Draft that was full of them, but he had a couple of decent years and has seemingly found his niche with the Clippers. Of course, early on in his career he was the starting point guard for some rather terrible Bulls teams that I definitely don’t have any affection for. Ironically, I still chose to play for those Bulls in MyCAREER, and since I was a point guard, Kris Dunn was the player I replaced in the starting five. There were times when we were on the floor at the same time though, and I enjoyed it as much as playing with MCW.

I will say that replacing Dunn in the starting lineup didn’t feel as egregious as getting the nod in some of my other MyCAREER games. Dunn’s numbers were as solid as they were during his actual first two seasons in Chicago, but once I’d levelled up and earned significant minutes I was easily outperforming him, so it was a realistic move. With all due respect to him, my avatar wasn’t relegating a star to the bench, which can often happen in MyCAREER. If nothing else, we didn’t exactly create any magic as a duo, since he was either on the bench or we were awkwardly sharing the ball as a dual point guard backcourt. Again though, I’m glad to see the real Kris Dunn succeeding.

4. Bobby Portis (NBA 2K18 & NBA 2K19)

Another Bulls player from the late 2010s squads that I didn’t enjoy playing with in my MyCAREER games is Bobby Portis. I soured on the real Portis following the incident with Nikola Mirotic – though it seems the rest of the Bulls backed Bobby there – so I wasn’t that keen on having him on the team in MyCAREER either. More importantly though, his virtual counterpart largely underperformed during my brief career in NBA 2K18, and continued that form in NBA 2K19. Obviously liking or disliking a player in real life does have some bearing on video games, but some players that I’m not a big fan of are nevertheless enjoyable to control, or to team up with in career modes.

Portis admittedly had his moments in those MyCAREER games, and in real life has certainly gone on to be a great teammate and an NBA Champion in Milwaukee. Like Kris Dunn though, he represents a particularly dreary chapter in Bulls history, being a member of teams that weren’t just unsuccessful, but unenjoyable to watch. Despite the success I had in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER, in hindsight the Bulls weren’t a great team to choose. If not for being a long-time and loyal fan, and the ability for a maxed-out MyPLAYER to work miracles, I wouldn’t even consider them! It’s no surprise that for as much as I enjoyed that MyCAREER, it had some of my least favourite teammates.

5. Marcin Gortat (NBA 2K19)

That brings me to another player from my NBA 2K19 MyCAREER, albeit one who never played for the real Bulls: Martin Gortat. I don’t recall ever having any strong opinions about The Polish Hammer in real life. He was a solid traditional big man who could give you a double-double (or near enough), though his NBA career ended somewhat unceremoniously when the Clippers released him midway through the 2019 campaign. Virtual Gortat stuck around in my NBA 2K19 MyCAREER though, and I was surprised to see the Bulls pick him up. I didn’t mind though, especially as it felt like the kind of veteran signing that shores up the depth for a team looking to repeat.

Unfortunately, Gortat didn’t impress once the season began. Sure, he got buckets at the rim and was good on the boards, but he also had an odd tendency to step out of bounds and bobble passes. It also didn’t feel right that he wore #13, which previously belonged to two of my all-time favourite Bulls: Luc Longley and Joakim Noah. In fact, he actually took #13 from Noah – who we’d reacquired during my rookie season – and forced him to wear #40 instead! All things considered, Gortat wasn’t my worst teammate in terms of skill or performance, and I definitely didn’t dislike him in real life either, but those puzzling and frustrating turnovers do stand out in my memory.

Honourable Mention: Ty Lawson (NBA 2K13)

I’ll also give an honourable (or in this case, dishonourable) mention to Ty Lawson, one of my Nuggets teammates in my NBA 2K13 MyCAREER. The reason he’s only an honourable mention is because I have mixed feelings about playing with him. On one hand, his injury during my rookie season gave me an opportunity to start at point guard despite creating a shooting guard. This led to a very fun season in which I came to love running the point, and developed my love of racking up huge assist numbers. I also always liked the real Ty Lawson, and was sorry to see his NBA career peter out as it did; especially after he turned into quite the dime-dropper in the mid 2010s.

However, while he was a major factor in me getting a great opportunity and shaping my preferences during my first real foray into MyCAREER, we didn’t have a lot of great moments on the court together. Moreover, when he returned to action the next season, he became our starting point guard once again, pushing me over to shooting guard and making it harder to run the offense. In other words, the same issue that I’ve had with MCW in NBA 2K14, only that situation lasted longer and survived multiple attempts to get him traded, whereas my NBA 2K13 MyCAREER has been on ice. As such, Lawson has been less of a thorn in my side, but he’s been similarly frustrating.

MyCAREER gamers, who are some of your least favourite teammates? Have you tried to get them traded, and did you succeed? Or, did it encourage you to demand a trade or leave via free agency instead? 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: 5 Least Favourite MyCAREER Teammates appeared first on NLSC.