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On average, Madden, The Show, NBA 2K, NHL and FIFA/EA FC fell from a metascore of 87.6 two years before they stopped having a major competitor to 81.8 the first year they ran unopposed, a figure that dips to 75.5 — a 14 percent decline — after 11 years without a rival. The downward pattern on the right side of the no-competition line in that chart is unmistakable and fairly unanimous. This is why it has become easy to wax nostalgic (as I have) about the days when there were as many as a half-dozen or more games released per sport per year, giving us bountiful choices to pick from. That’s one of the points made by Jabroni Baseball (a channel I enjoy) in this video investigating the death of baseball video games specifically.
The NBA Cup may be leaving Sin City. The league is openly considering the possibility of moving the championship game of its in-season tournament away from Las Vegas for next season, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN. That decision, which comes in the wake of the league announcing back in September that this would be the last season both the semifinals and championship game will be played at a neutral site, is a recognition that the neutral site approach has lacked the energy and enthusiasm, at least to this point, the league initially hoped it would.
Even though my kids outgrew games targeted at the elementary school set, I’m still a big proponent of premium games for children and their families. The market needs more of them, especially since so much awful, predatory free-to-play slop pitched as “kid friendly” dominates mobile platforms and Roblox. Outright Games launched NBA Bounce on Sept. 26 for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and Steam platforms. While it has colorful characters and lots of fun animations, such as how mascot players dunk, it also seeks to teach the basics of basketball while offering arcade game-like controls that are more intuitive than what you get with NBA 2K.
The NBA helped dish out some more gaming news this week, with Take-Two Interactive announcing the return of the 2K League. This is the esports effort focused on the NBA 2K series. 2K Sports and the NBA pulled the plug on the league in 2024, putting it on hiatus until bringing it back Monday. The revived league is starting with six teams: the Raptors, Celtics, Jazz, Grizzlies, Pistons and Wizards (we’ll get back to Washington later). Other NBA teams will field squads later on. Each squad consists of two content creators and an NBA player (such as the Raptors’ Gradey Dick and the Pistons’ Duncan Robinson), along with fans, competing in challenges and games. It’s going to add more social media elements to the standard esports formula, though it will still have matchups, tournaments and a championship, with teams earning points akin to a PGA Tour ranking. NBA Take-Two Media CEO Andrew Perlmutter showed me an example of a competition based off a TikTok trend with the loser, the Magic’s Wendell Carter Jr., calling an NBA teammate and offering them a compliment (I suggested it would be funnier with insults, but I doubt they’ll take me up on that consultation).
Oh No He Didn't: Donovan Mitchell on his 46-point outburst: "This kid pissed me off today. I was playing 2K. I told him too I was like wait just wait. And he just called me washed up, he called me a bunch of things but I love it. He saying he ain't seen a highlight from me in a minute and I just told him alright we'll see. This game was for that kid or grown man whoever that was so I appreciate you. I told him I'd give him a shoutout too" 🤣
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Per the new league description. “The 2KL breaks boundaries by inviting everyone to participate and will launch with six teams: Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards. Each team will be represented by a unique duo of creators and NBA players, including Zach 2K, BEARDABEAST, Kofie Yeboah, Gradey Dick, and Duncan Robinson.”
Kevin Durant on watching NBA games: I don't enjoy listening to the broadcast no more. Like that was a huge part of watching games like hearing the commentators and sh*t, hearing analysis of the game. I don't like it no more. I just watch it on mute now, with my music on in the back playing a video game. Q. You play video games? Durant: That's what I was doing before I came here. Q. What game do you play? Durant: NBA 2K.
Jorge Sierra: Ratings on NBA 2K are indeed getting better. We're back at late '00s levels.
So give us a bit of a behind the scenes look if you can. What's the rating system like? How do you guys go about putting together ratings? Ronnie 2K: Yeah, there's 30 some-odd mini ratings and mini attributes that get cooked into a formula, and it's based purely on performance on the court. In some cases, it's based on, like the young guys, right? We don't have a ton of sample information of them playing against other NBA people. So their's can kind of dramatically increase or decrease based on performance as you would expect and then the people that have been in the league for 10 or 15 years. It's a little bit more sticky, right? Like they're rating is kind of what you would expect. LeBron and Steph. I think they're both down one point from last year. People like Giannis and Jokic have stayed about the same. You would expect that, but like somebody like Cade Cunningham, whose in year three or four and missed a good chunk of the early parts in his career just jumped up six points. [Victor Wembanyama] hen we jumped up six points, so there's a lot of people that are going to grow.
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The the most controversial ratings list I've seen so far is the mid-range jumpers list. That one, a lot of people seemed to react to it with Nikola Jokic being number one, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander technically being ranked fifth and then Kawhi Leonard not being ranked anywhere in that top ten. Ronnie 2K: Yeah, let me talk about that. I think a lot of people see things in terms of volume or feel and both of those are wrong. What it really is based off of is per-36 or whatever metric that we have that's based on how often they're shooting it and how successful they are shooting it. I saw this example: I think if you look at the three-point list, it's actually even more relevant. You have Isaiah Joe, who's not even a starter on the Thunder, gets about 20 minutes and I think he's 5th on that list or something like that. You're like why and it's because his per-36 numbers are behind only Stephen Curry percentage-wise and in terms of volume, he shoots I think he makes like five every 36 minutes or something like that uh so yeah a lot of it's based on on per-36 as opposed to like pure volume.
After registering 1.2 blocks over 15.6 minutes in his rookie NBA season with the Sixers, Bona got a 91 rating on blocks in NBA2K26. “It’s amazing for me,” Bona commented. “I’ve only been in the NBA for one season, and to get a rating like this after my first year shows how hard I’ve worked. It also shows the trust my team has in me and the opportunity they’ve given me. They’ve given me the chance to do my best. I think this rating is a testament to my hard work for the team. Of course, it’s also a testament to the team’s confidence in me.”
Recently, Ronnie 2k revealed that Anunoby confronted him about his rating of 87 in the newest iteration of the game. “Last night, after dinner at the Wynn, OG comes up to me and talks my ear off for a half an hour… he was going in on ‘I'm an 87. I should be at least a 92.' I'm like wow, OK. But he had real thoughts, real feelings, real things to back up,” said Ronnie, per the Big Podcast with Shaq. “His argument was that we skew offensively more than defensively. I actually don't agree with that. I think we balance it really well.”
Shaquille O’Neal is tired of seeing Robert Griffin III post about Angel Reese. O’Neal called out Griffin, a former NFL quarterback turned media personality, saying on Bailey Jackson’s “Off the Record” podcast that if Griffin continues “messing with her,” he would punch Griffin in the face. O’Neal’s comments come after Griffin shared a racist edit of Reese’s “NBA 2K26” cover in an attempt to highlight and stop the racist treatment toward Reese. However, Griffin drew backlash for amplifying the image with his message on X on July 10, to his 2.2 million followers. “RGIII, tweet another monkey post about my girl Angel Reese, and I’m gonna punch you in your f—— face. OK? It’s enough. Like, I don’t usually do stuff like this, but just stop it, bro,” O’Neal said Tuesday. “You got your job, you got your podcast, leave my Angel Reese alone. I’m the one calling her and telling her not to respond.”