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 five predictions that were made while simulating through twenty seasons in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER.
From their earliest appearances, multi-season modes in basketball video games have provided us with the opportunity to simulate into the future, and in doing so, make some wild predictions. Although my cousin and I had a blast actually playing through a season in NBA Live 2000’s Franchise mode, we also had an interesting afternoon simulating through the full 25 years. What’s really wild to me looking back is that the once far off year of 2024 is now the present! In fact, that might just be tougher to get my head around than any of the fictional outcomes in that simulation.
Franchise modes have generally advertised their length, but career modes have been less forthcoming about their endpoint. As such, it was something that I was curious about when I ran some experiments in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER way back in March 2019 (seriously, where does the time go?). I discovered that there is indeed a forced game over after twenty seasons, as well as the answers to some other questions that I had. NBA 2K19 MyCAREER is now only available in a limited offline state, but I’ve kept records and screenshots of my time with it, including that 20-year simulation. To that end, it produced some wild predictions that I certainly have my doubts about!
There was tremendous hype surrounding Lonzo Ball as he prepared to enter the NBA, thanks in no small part to the controversial antics of his father LaVar. I’ll freely admit that it soured me on Lonzo, which was unfair because from all accounts he’s a humble young man with a good attitude. He’s also shown flashes of brilliance at the pro level, even improving his shooting (especially at the foul line) from rather woeful to “don’t get careless and leave him open all the time, he can make that shot”. While I’m still not a huge fan of Lonzo Ball, I’m no longer unfairly and myopically judging him based on his father’s class clown act. He’s also in Chicago now, so I do support him!
Unfortunately, it’s been a long time since he’s suited up for the Bulls, and part of me wonders if he ever will again. It’s certainly a different path to the one that NBA 2K19 MyCAREER envisioned for him. Come 2027 in my simulation, Ball was still with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he began his career. He also played in all 82 games, a feat he’s yet to come close to in real life. The real surprise was him winning the MVP with averages of 12.2 ppg, 12.1 apg, and 5.1 rpg. Those are wild predictions, not only due to Lonzo’s injury woes, but also the pumped-up numbers of the NBA in the 2020s. I hope Lonzo can bounce back and one day return, but I don’t see an MVP in his future.
2032 is eight years away, so who knows what the NBA will look like by then. I mean, did anyone back in 2015 predict that the Denver Nuggets would be the champions in 2023? A couple of people making wild predictions, possibly, but it wasn’t exactly a widely-held view. With that in mind, I’m not going to sit here and say that there’s absolutely no chance that Trae Young will lead the Atlanta Hawks to the NBA Finals – and their first championship since 1958 – in 2032. They did make the Playoffs three straight years with Young as their star, and if the NBA continues to have the same level of parity and unpredictability, it does seem like anything could be possible.
I’ll say this much: Trae Young as the Finals MVP in 2032 is probably more likely than Lonzo Ball winning any MVP award in 2027! Still, I’m inclined to call this a wild prediction, because Atlanta hasn’t been a prime free agent destination. They’ve had some memorable single season runs and plenty of postseason appearances, but they’ve never been able to establish themselves as true perennial contenders. As for Young, I do think that he’s talented and certainly adept at putting up stats, but I’m not convinced that he’s a true franchise player. If nothing else, with the way that stars move around these days, there’s a good chance that he isn’t even a Hawk come 2032.
Speaking of the 2032 season and a player that ended his career as a teammate of Trae Young in Atlanta, my simulation through NBA 2K19 MyCAREER threw out a wild prediction concerning Vince Carter. While the Hawks will apparently be soaring to the Larry O’Brien trophy, it won’t be from the #1 seed. The Indiana Pacers will be the top team in the league that year – at least if we’re to put faith in this simulation – going 56-26 as they’re guided from the sidelines by Mr. Half-Man, Half-Amazing himself. You might think that this prediction is pure Vinsanity, but as the above screenshot shows, Coach Carter will be named the Coach of the Year for the job that he’s done.
On the surface, this is hardly an unthinkable scenario. There have obviously been countless former NBA players who joined the coaching ranks, including All-Stars. If nothing else, Vince Carter has plenty of NBA experience playing in multiple eras, and a demeanour that could make him a fine coach. The issue is interest in taking such a job, and for the moment, it would appear that Carter is far keener on being an analyst. Once again though, 2032 is still eight years away. Maybe after some more time in the booth, Carter will want to get closer to the action again, and give coaching a try. If he does, perhaps the Pacers’ brass should keep this virtual gig in mind down the road.
Will Russell Westbrook still be playing in 2034? It’s possible, though given that he’s already accepted a bench role and will be 36 this November, my guess is that he’ll have retired. Then again, with players sticking around longer and the less physical style of play in today’s NBA, who knows? For what it’s worth though, NBA 2K19 MyCAREER has pegged Russ to retire by that point, and join Vince Carter on the sidelines. Indeed, the simulation expects Brodie to have similar success, as he took home Coach of the Year honours two years after Vinsanity did. Westbrook earned the award after guiding the Houston Rockets to a 53-29 record, second-best in the West.
This prediction is also a fun one because it coincidentally hinted at Westbrook’s future as a player. Russ was still with the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2019 season, in which NBA 2K19 is obviously set. Come the 2019 offseason however, Westbrook was traded to Houston, ultimately playing just one season for the Rockets. I do have my doubts that Russ will end up coaching Houston in 2034, but I have to hand it to the sim engine for accurately predicting some connection to the team following the 2019 campaign. And of course, wild as these predictions may be, I do love that former NBA players end up becoming coaches in NBA 2K’s career and franchise modes.
One of the reasons that I love generated rookies is the names that they end up with. It’s clear that the developers have some fun here, as there’s always a chance that a real name will be generated (and I’d be surprised if there wasn’t code that tips the odds in favour of it). In NBA 2K14, I’ve seen a fictional Brendan Haywood show up – the year after the real one retired, appropriately enough – as well as a Ramon Ramos, not to be confused with the former Seton Hall star. NBA Live 2005 can produce a Tupac Shakur, and I’ve seen a Bill Cosby generated in NBA Live 2001 (a far less enjoyable coincidence nowadays). And then, NBA 2K19 MyCAREER delivered Kevin Love Jr.
Now, “Junior” is what makes this player a particularly wild prediction. You may have noticed from the above screenshot that Junior bears little resemblance to the Kevin Love that we know (or for that matter, his wife Kate Bock). Furthermore, he’s too old to be their son, who was born during the 2023 NBA Finals. Logically, this can only mean that NBA 2K19 MyCAREER has predicted that a Kevin Love Jr., with no relation to that Kevin (or his father Stan, or Uncle Mike, or any of The Beach Boys), will arrive in the NBA at some point. I’ll admit that this awkward coincidence does make me wonder if it’d be a good idea for games to avoid generating such names.
Of course, even just using a familiar surname can carry unfortunate implications!
What’s your reaction to these wild predictions that came from simulating through twenty years in NBA 2K19 MyCAREER? What are some of the weird results and player names that you’ve encountered during your own simulations? Have your say 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 Wild Predictions from a NBA 2K19 MyCAREER Sim appeared first on NLSC.
