Anyone who has played MyCareer in the NBA 2K games in the time since the introduction of a storyline complete with characters and cutscenes will be able to tell you that the general backbone of the narrative hasn’t changed all that much from year-to-year. Sure, they might bring in Spike Lee to handle direction or slightly alter the background of your player, but that hardly creates a ton of variety in the beats your story will inevitably hit. No matter if your name happens to be Pres or Frequency Vibrations or the trusty acronym “MP” (get it, short for MyPlayer), you’re likely to have to worry about getting over the same old hurdles of being drafted, cracking the starting lineup, and dancing around trade rumors. While you do that, you’ll probably find yourself surrounded by some combination of trusted friends (or annoying ones like B-Fresh in NBA 2K19), savvy agents, and wise pros eager to offer advice. Before too long, you’re bound to get the nagging feeling that you’ve seen this movie before. The same is true for the NBA 2K23 MyCareer story.
Shaking Up The NBA 2K23 MyCareer Story
The MyCareer storyline doesn’t have to be as stale and redundant as it is in NBA 2K23 though. Against the same backdrop of finding your way as an NBA player, there are all sorts of stories that can be told to keep you invested and wanting to see how it’s actually going to end for you player. The trouble is that the people behind the mode continue to view it through the lens of a tired sports movie when there are all sorts of other genres they could explore while keeping basketball in focus. Here are just a few ideas for some ways that MyCareer in NBA 2K can break out of the box they remain stuck within and embark on discovering some inventive new narratives.
The Mystery
As a grizzled veteran who’s been around the league and was convinced you’ve seen it all by this point, it still throws you for a loop when the team’s 77-year-old owner is found dead in his office. What’s more? There’s reason to believe there may have been some foul play involved (pun fully intended). As you play your games with the team and the season progresses, you begin to pick up on some clues that are easier to attain because of the tight relationship you’ve developed over the years with the team’s staff. The problem is that the evidence is pointing you in a number of different directions and everyone is a suspect.
Is it the coach who got wind that the owner had it in for him? The owner’s daughter who’s been angling to take control of the team to build a new arena and maximize profits? Or the new GM who’s butted heads with the owner since the moment he arrived in town? It will be up to you to become an amateur gumshoe who unravels lies, finds hidden clues, and avoids red herrings as you build to eventually making an accusation that can either be right or wrong based on everything you’ve learned. To help you solve the case, you’ll be joined by Reggie, a trusted teammate who’s been with the team as long as you have, and Doug, an overeager towel boy with a keen eye for details and observation.
The Action Movie
A basketball-crazed madman is terrorizing the city, and for some reason that won’t become clear until the end, he has targeted you as the person who has to prevent his sinister plans from coming to fruition. Borrowing a page from thrillers like Speed and Die Hard With A Vengeance, you’ll be forced to play the madman’s deranged game by completing certain tasks (and maybe solving a few riddles) if you don’t want him to make good on his threats. Because the madman is obsessed with hoops, he’ll require you to achieve certain objectives in your NBA games and on courts throughout The City (maybe even with a time limit occasionally to make things even more tense).
If you’re not able to do as he demands, you might find that one of your favorite spots in The City has been torched or vandalized in some way. As the story progresses, the madman will need to raise the stakes by making things more personal. This means putting your family members and friends in the crosshairs, including the wise-cracking sidekick every action hero needs who’s been helping you in thwarting schemes along the way.
The Teen Movie
Remember the movie Rookie of the Year where a kid falls on his arm in a magical way that suddenly allows him to throw fastballs with major league velocity? Well, this would be the basketball equivalent of that. You’d think that maybe the model for this kind of story would instead be the Lil’ Bow Wow classic Like Mike, but there’s no way 2K would ever have someone’s basketball abilities stem from a pair of shoes when that might mean they can’t sell people shoes in the game.
Instead, let’s put a superhero twist on this and say that some freshman in high school was exposed to radiation in a chemistry experiment gone wrong that, instead of harming him, somehow allows him to shoot threes like he’s Steph Curry. He becomes a national phenomenon when he signs with an NBA team and then is forced to navigate the pitfalls of fame while playing alongside or against many of his idols. To help guide him on his path, he has Judy, a single mother who’s overwhelmed with her son’s sudden success, and Cory, a close friend from school who’s way too eager and excited to take advantage of his friend’s notoriety.
The Fish-Out-Of-Water Comedy
These days, NBA scouts will scour the globe in search of the next undiscovered phenom and this can lead them to some unexpected places. That’s how they end up finding you in the incredibly small and entirely fictional country of Erzotria. You picked up the game of basketball surprisingly quickly through watching online and have dominated every game you’ve ever played, but now that the scouts have come calling you’ll be asked to leave the only home you’ve ever known for the first time.
Moving to The City is a drastic change and experiencing the modern amenities and lurking temptations of urban life will be overwhelming and frequently hilarious. Just as with Coming to America, there’s a lot of humor to mine from someone being thrown into a culture that he doesn’t understand so much of the time. To keep you grounded as you establish yourself in the NBA and become a household name, you’ll have your father by your side who will struggle a little more with adjusting to life than you because of being set in his ways at an older age.
The Romance
If you’re a fan of Love & Basketball, then you’re bound to be into this story of two professional basketball players trying to make it as a couple while managing their NBA and WNBA careers. You’ll be immersed in the romantic lives of Tre and Tia, who met while playing ball at the same college and have supported each other in the journey to becoming pros. It will be hard to devote the same kind of time to each other now though with the two playing in different cities and trying to adjust to a whole new high-profile lifestyle.
There are bound to be some fights, temptations, and distractions at every turn that threaten to derail their chance of living happily ever after. Will these two crazy kids make it in the end or will their newly hectic lives leave them heading in different direction? In a neat twist, you’ll be able to play out this story as either the man or woman in the scenario and experience the other side of phone calls and drama that will help you to better see both sides of this hard-court love story.
The Sci-Fi Flick
There’s always been something a little off about your college rival. Ever since you first met and clashed on the court, you’ve noticed how his demeanor and the way he talks can come across as, well, a little less than human. As you progress in your own NBA career, you’ll also have quests that begin to uncover the strange truth about how your rival has managed to avoid any of the usual rookie growing pains by tearing up the league night after night.
Who’s the eccentric doctor who is always seen by your rival’s side in photos and videos? Why does your rival’s blood appear to be black when he gets cut during a game? Is he a robot? An alien? A demon sent from below? With the help of a notorious conspiracy theorist from The City who might not be quite as crazy as everyone thinks she is, it’s up to you to figure out the answer to all of these questions when you’re not busy proving your own worth to your team.
The Musical
Executive produced by Jay-Z, every word of dialogue is either sung or rapped throughout the entire story. Considering how the MyPlayer story so often includes a thread that involves music, this would be fully embracing that aspect of the narrative. With your player loving music as much as basketball, he sees the world as being perpetually filled with song and that’s reflected in every scene as characters belt out hooks and spit rhymes. It’s a bold angle that could either be amazing if executed properly or, more likely, become the worst NBA 2K game in the history of the series if the beats and tunes aren’t on point.
Bottom Line
Look, if the stories in these games are going to be afterthoughts anyway, why not truly find the meme within? These stories are avenues we go down not because we’re usually engaged in what’s going to happen, but rather we do it because we just want to play basketball. Plus, we already see Jake from State Farm and the hilarious cash grabs that litter this mode, so embrace it. As long as we can skip cutscenes and still do what we need to do on the court to get the VC we crave, go ham with the story in NBA 2K24 and beyond.
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Published: Oct 7, 2022 12:25 pm