Wayback Wednesday: Revisiting NBA Live 19
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m revisiting NBA Live 19 with an updated retrospective, in light of the game re-entering my rotation last year.
Last year, in response to a post mentioning NBA Live 18 on the NLSC’s socials, I received a response asserting that NBA Live 19 was “ten times better”. As someone who never really warmed up to the game, that was certainly an intriguing claim! I was sceptical, but I wasn’t about to stubbornly dismiss it out of hand. After all, a second look at NBA Live 18 made me realise that I enjoyed it even more than I remembered. Furthermore, a dedicated contingent of gamers continued to play NBA Live 19 for many years after its release, suggesting that there was a fun experience on offer.
And so, I decided to give NBA Live 19 another try. Considering that it became my basketball game of choice from August last year right through to its server shutdown back in January, it’s safe to say that I have a far more positive view of it now! There are still aspects that I don’t like, or believe could and should have been better, but at the very least I’ve developed more of an appreciation for it. Is it ten times better than NBA Live 18? Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s a respectable release that should’ve been a stepping stone to an even better game. Let’s take a look back…way back…
In terms of controls, mechanics, and overall feel, NBA Live 19 is certainly similar to NBA Live 18. For me, that was undoubtedly a positive, having greatly enjoyed NBA Live 18 after getting hooked on it again in 2024. It helped me to approach NBA Live 19 with a fresh eyes and an open mind, and perhaps most importantly, proficiency with the motion system and advanced controls. The last two NBA Live releases did a good job of mimicking the combined dribbling and shooting controls of NBA 2K’s Pro Stick. It allows for seamless transitions from dribbling moves into floaters, step backs, and so on, without needing to move from the right stick to the shoot button.
Nevertheless, shooting is one of my biggest complaints with NBA Live 19. While we have ample control over the type of shots we attempt, the release timing and defensive mechanics make shooting more challenging that it should be, especially with excellent shooters like Steph Curry. The first problem is that shot making is heavily reliant on Green Releases. It’s not quite Green-or-Miss, but it’s not as forgiving as the timing in NBA Live 18, despite having the same long wind-up to the perfect release point. If a defender gets close enough, they’ll take away your opportunity for a Green Release. You can still make shots with perfect timing, though the chances should be higher.
The problem stems from a tuning update in the last official patch that was intended to balance online user vs. user gameplay. The problem is that CPU opponents are far more effective at sticking to their man and closing out on shooters than most users, so you need to remain really wide open to stand a chance at making shots against the AI. All too often, you’ll begin a jumpshot with a Green Release on the meter, only for the CPU to dash in and cause the Green window to disappear before you’re even close to the ideal release point. Between the lengthy timing, harsh penalty for early and late releases, and shot challenging mechanics, jumpshots aren’t nearly viable enough.
It wasn’t long before I was reminded of this frustration after picking up NBA Live 19 again. However, I was determined to give the game a chance, and try to adjust to the tougher shooting mechanics. I will say that the more that I’ve played the game, the more my timing has improved. My sessions in Ultimate Team, The Streets World Tour, and Play Now through late 2025 and early 2026, have produced more Green Releases and perfectly-timed contested shots than before. To that point, I’ll admit that it’s not quite as bad as I previously thought. It’s still a weakness though, and I greatly prefer NBA Live 18’s shooting mechanics, as they were better for user vs. CPU play.
Indeed, not unlike recent NBA 2K games, too many of the tuning updates over the course of NBA Live 19’s lifecycle were focused on the online scene. Defenders will recover a little too quickly from having their ankles broken, which combined with AI reaction times makes crossing up your man less effective. User steals were nerfed, resulting in too many “press steal to foul” moments in NBA gameplay. The CPU’s ability to play the passing lanes can also become unfair, given the legacy issue of passes not being fast and crisp enough. NBA Live 19 isn’t unplayable against the CPU, but the gameplay tuning is largely optimised for the online team play modes.
As you might expect, that lack of balance means that there’s a good amount of fake difficulty when squaring off with the CPU. You can alter its shots, but its timing will be better than yours, so expect it to drill contested jumpers. It’s not above waltzing into the paint to finish in traffic, while you blow easy layups at the other end. Average defenders are too adept at forcing great ball handlers to pick up their dribble, as well as stumble and lose the ball. Quicker recovery times, psychic abilities in the passing lanes, bailout foul calls, cheap and-ones, and “press steal to foul”, tilt the game in the CPU’s favour. You really have to play a perfect game when you raise the difficulty!
With that being said, I have noticed more authenticity in the NBA gameplay than I recalled from my sessions several years ago. The CPU will take advantages of lapses in defense, being unafraid to bomb away from three-point range if you leave it open. It could stand to take a few more threes – NBA Live 19’s AI doesn’t quite capture the “three-point revolution” that was taking place in the mid to late 2010s – but the CPU teams do shoot from the perimeter more often than I remembered. The AI will also take advantage of an open lane, use crossovers and step backs to send you sprawling to the deck, and also defend intelligently with some smart rotations and double teams.
Although the CPU does tend to get away with fouls that you’ll almost always be whistled for, you can get to the line if you pound the ball inside or catch your man with an up-fake on a jumper. In fact, if you’re using a player that can perform throw-in dunks, then you’ll likely find yourself at the line for an and-one opportunity fairly frequently! To that point, throw-in dunks occur a little too often to the point where they’re not as special as they should be, but they do look great. There are a few really nice dunk and layup animations in NBA Live 19, and while there could’ve been more – including a wider variety of basic moves – you can produce some fun highlights.
Once again, NBA Live 19 is similar to NBA Live 18 in that regard. When something looks good, it tends to look really good. When something looks bad, it’s really rough and feels like it’s a generation behind! The action often looks great when the ball is in a player’s hands, but when a pass is thrown or a shot is put up, there’s still some of the same awkward, inorganic look and feel that plagued previous eighth gen NBA Live releases. The speed of the ball as it flies through the air and the way that it bounces off the rim isn’t anywhere near as lifelike as in NBA 2K19. There’s stiffness to the action that carries over into player movement, and moments that feel very canned.
At the same time, it’s probably the most fluid of the eighth gen NBA Live games; at least on par with NBA Live 18, if not slightly better. I’m not a fan of the automatic rebounds, but aside from the occasional CPU cheese when crashing the boards, you can effectively clean the glass. As in NBA Live 18, the blocks are canned so you can feel them coming, but they remain satisfying whether it’s a controlled stop, a huge swat, or an aggressive two-handed grab block. “Press steal to foul” is a problem, but you can still deftly pick pockets and start fast breaks that end with emphatic slams. Euro steps, shimmy shots, step backs, flashy dishes, and alley-oops are fun to pull off.
To that end, despite still being rougher than it should be in terms of animations and mechanics, and suffering from some balance issues, NBA Live 19 can be enjoyable on the sticks. Again, I’m not inclined to agree that it’s “ten times better” than NBA Live 18, but it’s definitely comparable, and I understand why some people like it more. The tuning and balance makes some of the Ultimate Team challenges that involve big comebacks virtually impossible and there are other frustrating moments of unfairness, but I’ve definitely warmed up to NBA Live 19’s gameplay. It needed more polish to move the needle, but I can see why it cultivated such a dedicated following.
My other long-standing criticism of NBA Live 19 is that it focused too much on The Streets rather than traditional NBA gameplay. I still stand by that criticism; indeed, the aforementioned tuning issues are the result of prioritising the streetball-oriented modes like LIVE Run and the LIVE Events over Franchise, The League, and Ultimate Team. On top of that, unlike NBA 2K’s approach of separate animation slots for Park and regular gameplay, streetball dribbling packages can also be used in The League in NBA Live 19. Sure, it’s cool to be able to unlock The Professor’s dribbling moves for use in The Streets, but they’re inauthentic – and rule-breaking – for NBA gameplay!
This means the different styles of basketball blend together somewhat, which gives NBA Live 19 an inconsistent identity. At times it seems it’s not sure whether it wants to be NBA Live or NBA Street, and without fully committing to either direction, it falls short of the best games in both series. It’s not as ruinous to the gameplay as I’ve previously asserted, but I’d still suggest that it contributed to the game not being as successful as it needed to be. The focus on The Streets does make its campaign a lot of fun to play through though, and the NBA gameplay remains solid, even if it’s not as authentic as I’d like. It was a questionable direction, but the real issue is execution.
Speaking of questionable directions and decisions, there is one undeniable downgrade in NBA Live 19: the commentary. Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy were replaced by Ed Cohen and Jay Williams, and the decline in quality is horrendous. Instead of the then-lead NBA on ESPN broadcast team with all of their personality, we have two of the blandest announcers in the history of the virtual hardwood! Furthermore, I’m not a fan of the real Jay Williams’ terrible basketball takes, and sadly he was given free rein to sprinkle them into NBA Live 19’s commentary. It might’ve been easier to get them to record new lines throughout the season, but it just wasn’t worth the drop in quality.
Fortunately, the rest of the NBA on ESPN presentation remains authentic and well-produced. I also like the vibe of the presentation in The Streets. In addition to the TV-style replays, there are cuts to Instagram-like livestreams by fans who are hoping to capture a viral moment. Along with the lack of commentary, it’s a great atmospheric touch that makes The Streets World Tour feel different to regular NBA gameplay. I somewhat prefer the brighter lighting in NBA Live 18, but generally speaking, NBA Live 19 still has a good aesthetic. Some of the player models could’ve been bulkier, but there are some outstanding likenesses, including very impressive Legends faces.
That attention to detail also carries over to the environments, particularly all of the courts and venues that are featured in The Streets World Tour. Expanding The Streets to encompass famous streetball and pro-am venues from around the globe in addition to the United States was a good move, and definitely demonstrates how the mode was a priority. The story is less dramatic this time around: no falling out with your college teammate, but rather just messages with a mentor that offers you advice and provides rewards in the form of boosts to Career Hype and in-game currency to purchase gear. Beginning at Cherashore and concluding at Rucker Park, it’s a fun campaign to play.
Compared to NBA Live 18, the objectives for each tournament game and bonus game are more suitable regardless of your position or build. You can strengthen your squad by winning tournaments to unlock new teammates, and LIVE Events also offered the chance to earn exclusive players. This included Stretch Monroe – the face of the NBA Street series – who became a fixture of my squad as I played through the World Tour. Progression is quite swift, so it’s possible to significantly level up your player via The Streets before hitting the NBA hardwood. There were no paid upgrades, though I do suspect that if NBA Live 19 had been a bigger hit, EA would’ve gone down that road!
I’ve come to appreciate the Icon Path in The One. Rather than archetypes, pie charts, and other systems that invite min-maxing in NBA 2K, The One’s builds are based on iconic players at your chosen position. Essentially, you model your style of play after some of the greats of the game, which determines the ratings that you can upgrade and the special abilities that you can earn. Rather than saving up your in-game currency to purchase increasingly expensive upgrades, levelling up earns Skill Points that are used to progress to the next step in the Icon Path. Along that path, there are some branching options for boosts and abilities, based on attributes of the real player you’re emulating.
Traits – The One’s equivalent of MyCAREER’s Badges – also return, and are earned and upgraded by performing in-game tasks. There are three slots for Traits, and you can change your loadout as desired. Similarly, you can switch between Icon Paths for your position; my playmaking point guard can follow in the footsteps of both Jason Kidd and Chris Paul, with Kidd’s Icon Path providing better rebounding while CP3’s offers the ability to upgrade three-point shooting. There are other unique rewards on each path, from gear to animations to skill boosts. As your ratings get higher, you’ll need to spend two or three Skill Points rather than just one to unlock the next upgrade.
It’s a more simplified approach than MyCAREER’s various upgrade systems, without nearly as much meta-gaming. That makes it a good alternative to NBA 2K’s approach, and one that strives for more balance in the online arena. Of course, while that avoids the issue of broken builds and aims for realistic archetypes, it does miss out on the fun of the viable hybrid styles that NBA 2K19 offered. There are advantages to the way upgrades have worked in MyCAREER, but The One’s Icon Path progression system is undoubtedly fairer and much swifter. There was merit in taking a different approach, and it would’ve been interesting to see how NBA Live 20 built upon the Icon Paths.
Another key addition in NBA Live 19 was our One Court. Rather than providing us with a standard practice gym, we were able to create our own facility. There were a handful of basic options and decals out of the gate, with team branding and other artwork that could be unlocked by playing through The One and LIVE Events. This proved to be a great community initiative as EA Sports made a point of spotlighting some of the best court designs. I was humbled that my re-creation of NBA Live 10’s Hangar was featured in Week 3! Indeed, it was one of the last times that the NLSC was acknowledged by EA Sports before we and others received the cold shoulder.
Our One Court also played host to Court Battles, an asynchronous online mode in which you take on other users’ AI-controlled squads. The goal is to take over other people’s courts by defeating the squad they’ve assembled, while putting together a team that will ably defend your court when challenged by other users. Aiding in the defense of your court are selectable rules, such as dunks being the only baskets that count, three-pointers counting for four points, and so on. By adding better players to your squad, and unlocking and selecting different sets of custom rules, you stood a better chance of both taking over other people’s courts and defending your own.
Icon Paths for player progression, Court and Career Hype for unlocking rewards, and Court Battles, were all great additions to NBA Live 19. Unfortunately, they came at the expense of the NBA career mode and traditional Franchise experience, both of which are barebones compared to MyCAREER and MyLEAGUE in NBA 2K. They remain playable, and sometimes a streamlined experience can be more fun, but NBA Live 19’s Franchise mode in particular was disappointing, lacking the depth found in Dynasty back in the sixth and seventh generation NBA Lives. It’s another example of how focusing on The Streets and other new ideas adversely affected NBA gameplay.
Ultimate Team also didn’t receive enough attention. NBA Live 19 made an excellent move in getting rid of contracts – though there are still special limited use cards – but the main campaign mode was uninspired. Whereas MyTEAM was offering different modes of play, Ultimate Team’s Challenges consisted of repetitive series of games. They all appeared in an increasingly long row in the menu, which was cumbersome to navigate due to loading times. There were some creative Challenges and fresh content throughout the 2019 season, with fun cards to collect. They could be grindy though, and again, lengthy load times made some of the abbreviated games feel ridiculous.
Nevertheless, Ultimate Team was my mode of choice during my NBA Live 19 kick, for the same reason I preferred it in NBA Live 18: it’s the only way to play with the contingent of NBA Legends! Sure, some of those Legends can also be collected for your squad in Court Battles and The Streets World Tour, but they’re controlled by the CPU in the latter. NBA Live 19 Ultimate Team boasted a large assortment of Legends – enough that the game could’ve viably included All-Decade teams for Play Now, in fact – with multiple versions of those Legends representing different stages of their careers. This meant that there were some cheaper versions of Legends on the Market.
I actually like that approach, as it allowed me to pick up a number of all-time greats without having to grind for coins or spend money on packs. However, some of the pre-peak and post-peak versions of Legends were underpowered, and even the prime versions had issues with inaccuracies. Early on, several Legends weren’t able to dunk, and far too many of them are underrated in mid-range and three-point shooting. The dunk packages were thankfully fixed for the most part, but between the inaccurate ratings and the game’s harsh shooting mechanics, too many Legends who had a great touch can’t knock down jumpers consistently. Frankly, it was rather disrespectful!
Additionally, there was a general lack of collectable content. Whereas MyTEAM includes a host of retro jerseys and logos, Ultimate Team only provided the current team branding for us to collect. Moreover, instead of a full collection as in MyTEAM, Ultimate Team included an inventory with a limit of 1000 items. On one hand, there’s less FOMO to that approach, but on the other hand, there are no rewards for being a completionist, and you may end up having to discard items for new ones. I won’t say that absolutely no effort was put into the mode, but like Franchise and The League, it suffered from taking a backseat to The Streets World Tour and its connected modes.
Still, the novelty of playing with Legends and some of the more interesting challenges were just enough to keep me hooked on Ultimate Team until the servers went offline. The fact that I was able to consistently add affordable versions of the Legends to my squad also encouraged me to change up my lineup more than I usually do in the card collecting modes. I had a blast switching between 80s and 90s squads, the occasional 60s and 70s lineup, and teams that encompassed the breadth of NBA history. It would have been nice to be able to save lineups and quickly switch between them, but again, functionality like that sadly didn’t make the cut since the mode was a lower priority.
Thankfully, the roster editing that was added to NBA Live 18 post-release is in NBA Live 19 by default. Unfortunately, it took a few steps backwards. For some unknown reason, players can only be released to and signed from the Free Agents, or assigned to a new team, as the trade function was removed. This makes roster editing a much longer process than it should be! There were no improvements to Create-a-Player, and in fact there’s a nasty bug that will wipe created player appearances and reset other attributes. It was bewilderingly sloppy, and the failure to fix these issues is yet another example of important staples not receiving the attention they needed and deserved.
On the bright side, patches did bring some welcome improvements and additions. The ability to shoot around on your One Court was added in one of the earliest patches. New signature animations were also added, which included some of the Legends. Some of the gameplay tuning updates were definitely beneficial, the final tweak to shooting not withstanding. There were regular roster updates, new player likenesses, and live service content keeping Ultimate Team and LIVE Events fresh. As noted, there were also commentary updates, though that would’ve been far more exciting if we still had Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy instead of Ed Cohen and Jay Williams.
Despite some key flaws and undesirable design choices, NBA Live 19 was one of the better eighth gen NBA Live games. I realise that’s damning it with faint praise, but it is respectably solid on the sticks with some good ideas. Even with a few missteps, like NBA Live 18, it absolutely had potential. Giving it a second chance, it does feel as though EA might’ve been on the cusp of taking a big step forward with the series; at least from a technical standpoint. The heavy focus on The Streets to the detriment of staple modes and features was concerning though, and the NBA gameplay could’ve and should’ve been more authentic. NBA Live 19 does have a bit of an identity crisis.
It’s why I can’t agree that it was a massive improvement over NBA Live 18 in every way. With some of the downgrades, bugs, and botched tuning updates, I wouldn’t say that it’s “ten times better” than its predecessor. However, they are more comparable in quality than I believed before revisiting NBA Live 19 last year. It may be slightly more responsive and fluid on the sticks. There’s still a lot of NBA Live 18 in it, which certainly appeals to me. There are some cool new animations, and I really enjoyed trying to pull off highlight plays in both The Streets World Tour and Ultimate Team. Icon Paths, Court Battles, and shedding Ultimate Team contracts were all great ideas.
All in all, NBA Live 19 is a better game than I’ve previously given it credit for. Even though I still believe that some of the final tuning updates were misguided, they’re not quite as disastrous as they seemed at the time. They take some adjusting and they’re skewed too much towards user vs. user gameplay, but I no longer feel that the game is completely unplayable against the CPU. It’s unfortunate that the Legends were once again exclusive to Ultimate Team and are no longer available, but The Streets World Tour remains playable offline. I’d probably still give the edge to NBA Live 18 overall, but NBA Live 19 is definitely close, and certainly has a deeper streetball experience.
Notably, a final official roster update for NBA Live 19 added 2019 offseason moves to the game, which includes Kevin Durant signing with the Brooklyn Nets and Kawhi Leonard joining the Los Angeles Clippers. At the time, quite a few gamers correctly predicted that this meant NBA Live 20 was in jeopardy, and indeed, EA eventually announced their plans to skip the 2020 season. Despite promises of exciting progress and a pledge to return, the series has remained dormant. With the shutdown of the NBA Live 19 servers, it feels as though the door has finally been closed on EA’s long-running hoops title. I wish I could remain optimistic, but my hopes have dwindled.
For now at least, NBA Live 19 is the last game in the NBA Live series. It certainly could’ve gone out on a worse note. The series did manage to improve after its shaky return with NBA Live 14, and NBA Live 19 is way better than utter disasters such as NBA Live 07 or NBA Elite 11. All the same, there’s a reason that NBA Live 19 failed to move the needle, further contributing to the series’ downfall. It didn’t see enough improvement in key areas, from animations and the motion system to authenticity and mode depth. Conceptually, it’s not entirely sure if it wants to be NBA Live or NBA Street. NBA 2K19 also ultimately outclassed it in just about every way imaginable.
And yet, there’s a charm to NBA Live 19 that I’m glad I discovered before support for the game ended. I was still able to have some fun with it despite the clunky moments. I admire some of the creative ideas they were going for, even if I question the overall direction. Although it lags behind NBA 2K19 in terms of its authenticity, the NBA gameplay was better than I remembered, with the CPU demonstrating both strategic play and court awareness. I’ve been able to make some savvy plays at both ends of the floor, and produce highlights that genuinely pumped me up. While I don’t think it’s an ideal situation, I’ve softened slightly on streetball moves popping up in The League.
It’s apparent why so many gamers continued to play LIVE Run, Ultimate Team, and Court Battles while NBA Live 19’s servers remained online. That gesture from EA allowed the fun to keep going for a dedicated group of gamers, and left the door open for me to give it a second chance. I stand by my criticisms of the game’s flaws and direction, but I’ve come to enjoy it and appreciate some of the more creative concepts. At the very least, it’s up there with NBA Live 18 for me. Even without the Legends, I expect that I’ll still fire up NBA Live 19 every so often. That was once an unthinkable notion, but as the clock ticked down, NBA Live 19 finally won me over at the buzzer.
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