It's Sunday. The NBA has been off since Wednesday night due to the COVID-19 situation here in...well, Earth, I guess. The truth of the situation is that there's not a particularly good outlook in the United States, and people are still being very stupid about going out and gathering in public.
But this is an NBA blog, so let's talk about the NBA.
The NBA decided to release a handful of PSAs on their twitter account over the past few days - Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Victor Oladipo, and Jayson Tatum thus far - encouraging people to take this virus seriously. It's a good move, even if this is all probably too little too late.
In an effort to stave off what could become a 6 month offseason, the NBA internet is getting silly very quickly. R/NBA on Reddit is already a mess of posts like "A quantitative analysis of attractiveness of every player on the LA Lakers." So I guess things are going great from a stir-crazy point of view.
For me, the answer is much simpler. Lots of people are turning to the NBA 2K series to drown their sorrows of lost basketball games. I'm not entirely different in principal, but I don't have NBA 2K20. Nor 2K19, 18, 17, or so on, so I can't play these games on an XBox 1 or a Playstation 4. I can't lace up the virtual sneakers and throw down some vicious dunks with Aaron Gordon, hit stepback threes with James Harden, or rack up triple doubles with Luka. I can't dominate a game with LeBron or block 8 shots with Anthony Davis. I can't alter an entire franchise's direction like Dame Lillard or give Julius Randle 25 FGA/game like the Knicks.
But there is still something I can do.
You see, I have NBA 2K. The original. For Sega Dreamcast.
Today, Sunday, the Houston Rockets were supposed to play in Portland against the Trailblazers. You might get all excited thinking about playing 2K20 and seeing Russ and Harden go after Lillard and CJ McCollum. You might really be figuring out the super-small-ball process with the Rockets or taking some liberties with how healthy Jusuf Nurkic is and controlling the paint with two monsters for Portland.
But me? I got a Portland roster that includes Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire (who is an absolute beast in this game), and of course, lifelong Trailblazer icon Scottie Pippen. That's not enough? OK, the Blazers also have Arvydas Sabonis in their starting 5.
On Houston's side you just can't really believe what they have to offer. One of the best players in the entire game is Steve Francis, which made sense at the time. But the Rockets' frontcourt was a pair of 15-year veterans named Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Look at that battle. Stevie Franchise vs. Damon "Mighty Mouse" Stoudamire at guards. For the record, both guys can hit 45% of their threes in this game. And then up front you have the aging monsters of Sabonis and Olajuwon duking it out while Barkley and 'Sheed shove each other around until one of them gets tired or ejected.
The graphics are obviously not great compared to what's available now, but this game still has it. You can't control every single movement that every player makes, and you can't do up-and-under moves or whatever else a real NBA player can do. But you can spark fast breaks, thrown down thunderous dunks, hit fadeaways, block shots, and clank free throws due to an unusual free throw mechanics system. I don't know what else you can ask for in a video game.
Now I just have to just create a new team and 12 new players so New Orleans can get in on the action
But this is an NBA blog, so let's talk about the NBA.
The NBA decided to release a handful of PSAs on their twitter account over the past few days - Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Victor Oladipo, and Jayson Tatum thus far - encouraging people to take this virus seriously. It's a good move, even if this is all probably too little too late.
In an effort to stave off what could become a 6 month offseason, the NBA internet is getting silly very quickly. R/NBA on Reddit is already a mess of posts like "A quantitative analysis of attractiveness of every player on the LA Lakers." So I guess things are going great from a stir-crazy point of view.
For me, the answer is much simpler. Lots of people are turning to the NBA 2K series to drown their sorrows of lost basketball games. I'm not entirely different in principal, but I don't have NBA 2K20. Nor 2K19, 18, 17, or so on, so I can't play these games on an XBox 1 or a Playstation 4. I can't lace up the virtual sneakers and throw down some vicious dunks with Aaron Gordon, hit stepback threes with James Harden, or rack up triple doubles with Luka. I can't dominate a game with LeBron or block 8 shots with Anthony Davis. I can't alter an entire franchise's direction like Dame Lillard or give Julius Randle 25 FGA/game like the Knicks.
But there is still something I can do.
You see, I have NBA 2K. The original. For Sega Dreamcast.
Today, Sunday, the Houston Rockets were supposed to play in Portland against the Trailblazers. You might get all excited thinking about playing 2K20 and seeing Russ and Harden go after Lillard and CJ McCollum. You might really be figuring out the super-small-ball process with the Rockets or taking some liberties with how healthy Jusuf Nurkic is and controlling the paint with two monsters for Portland.
But me? I got a Portland roster that includes Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire (who is an absolute beast in this game), and of course, lifelong Trailblazer icon Scottie Pippen. That's not enough? OK, the Blazers also have Arvydas Sabonis in their starting 5.
On Houston's side you just can't really believe what they have to offer. One of the best players in the entire game is Steve Francis, which made sense at the time. But the Rockets' frontcourt was a pair of 15-year veterans named Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Look at that battle. Stevie Franchise vs. Damon "Mighty Mouse" Stoudamire at guards. For the record, both guys can hit 45% of their threes in this game. And then up front you have the aging monsters of Sabonis and Olajuwon duking it out while Barkley and 'Sheed shove each other around until one of them gets tired or ejected.
The graphics are obviously not great compared to what's available now, but this game still has it. You can't control every single movement that every player makes, and you can't do up-and-under moves or whatever else a real NBA player can do. But you can spark fast breaks, thrown down thunderous dunks, hit fadeaways, block shots, and clank free throws due to an unusual free throw mechanics system. I don't know what else you can ask for in a video game.
Now I just have to just create a new team and 12 new players so New Orleans can get in on the action
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