Think of the following list as a history lesson. They dropped “ESPN NBA” from the title, launched on a new platform (XBOX 360) and never looked back. NBA 2K6 is where the NBA 2K franchise really took off. That game came out on November 10, 1999, as a Dreamcast exclusive. Diabolical? Yes.With NBA 2K17 dropping September 16 for pre-order customers, and on September 20 nationwide, I thought it’d be a fun history lesson in virtual basketball to take a look at the highest rated players in each NBA 2K game dating back to NBA 2K6.įirst and foremost, finding NBA 2K player ratings dating back to the original NBA 2K is nearly impossible. Apparently, the game was coded so that if you were playing as the Bulls against the Pistons and the clock was winding down, you’d have a hard time making a shot. However flawed the ratings may be, let’s just hope that there are no biased programmers on their staff like the classic NBA Jam. If that means the coding and in-game physics need to be a little wonky in order for the end result to be fun, so be it. These games aren’t meant to be precise statistical reflections of a player’s ability they’re meant to be played, to be fun, and for the players to more or less “feel” like themselves when they’re playing them. So what can we say about this years’ ratings? Pretty much the same for what we can say about ratings from every other year: take them with a grain of salt, because they’re not always accurate. I, for one, would like to see a more robust upper tier that doesn’t put one player miles ahead of all others. With these newer games, it kind of seems like you have 3 tiers: the majority of the NBA a handful of good NBA players and LeBron James.
Sure, there were players you’d try to snag who you knew would dominate (Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, and Shaq come to mind in 2001), but it also seemed that you could get that kind of player even if you had the misfortune of falling to 8 th or 9 th for your first pick in the draft. Maybe it’s because I haven’t followed the progression closely enough, but it seems that back in the early aughts (or whatever we’re deciding to call the 2000s) that the ratings made more sense. Compare that to the end of 2012, when James shot a near career-high 39% between 16 and 23 feet and 47% between 10 and 15 feet, and yet his rating for mid-range in 2K13 was just 90. For example, James shot just 34% from mid-range but got a 91 mid rating in 2007. James’ mid-range game got bizarre ratings that often didn’t reflect his abilities. Speaking of James, The Real NBA 2K Insider has an interesting article on LeBron’s progression as he came in through the league until 2009.
Is there anyone that actually thinks that the gulf between King James and Aldridge is EIGHT TIMES LARGER than that between Aldridge and Garnett? I don’t.
Maybe more baffling is that Aldridge is a full 15 points below LeBron James. That’s one point less than Andre Iguodala and just 2 points ahead of the shell of Kevin Garnett, but it’s also the same rating as Damian Lillard, which I don’t think is appropriate… yet.
No, it’s just that the changes don’t seem fair, and don’t seem to make for a funner game.Ĭase in point: LaMarcus Aldridge clocks in with an 84 rating for 2K14 ( Click here for a full list of player ratings). And I don’t mean that they’ve changed (you’d hope so) or even the methods by which they determine those ratings have changed (you’d expect as much).
The way their ratings have changed over the years, however, does seem a little weird.