Can we please stop bothering the people responsible for your digital entertainment? First, She-Hulk doesn’t look right, then Game of Thrones had a glitch, and now the annual gripe fest that is NBA players bemoaning their ratings in NBA 2K games has returned. Please, enough with the outrage. These people have families and more important things to worry about than the accuracy of make-believe.
Klay Thompson, who finished last season with the same 3-point percentage as Kevin Love, was unhappy his rating from deep isn’t a 99.
Never mind that anyone, even a person who works for 2K Games, could tell that Thompson wasn’t himself last year. The algorithm developers use to age players in franchise mode starts ticking down during year 10, so stop being insulted by getting old.
Kevin Durant is only happy when he’s bitching about something, and this week’s target was Ronnie 2K. While I’m sure Ronnie welcomes this kind of public attention — I’m not sure if he’s famous because of the video game, or if the video game is famous because of him — the general public, as a whole, couldn’t give a shit that Durant isn’t a 99.
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I feel stupid having to explain this, but Durant is in his 15th season, and he’s far from a Cal Ripken-level of durability. Did KD even look at what categories dropped his overall rating? His injury rating might be dragging it down.
Javale McGee was also upset with developers, only it had nothing to do with his on-court ratings.
Well, actually… that’s a legitimate grievance. My guess as to what happened is that the developers scanned his face during one of the many times he looked at the refs in disbelief that they whistled him for mauling a guy. You have nothing to blame but your never-ending reach-in fouls, Javale.
Thompson and Durant want credit for past performances, and that kind of thought process is why Kobe Bryant was still torching people in online matchups during the years he was washed. How is 2K Games going to make money off of the search for the Dark Matter cards when everyone is a 99? I’ve played against a team of all 99s, and it was miserable.
I have a solution: If they all want to be perfect, there’s a feature called “Create a player” that allows you to do just that. How do you think 19-time NBA champion, and 10-time league MVP Sean Beckwith exists? I made him, and gave him Ray Allen’s jumper mixed with Vince Carter’s bounce.
They can even scan their faces and upload them onto their avatars. It’s not perfect, and if you have facial hair, you can’t remove it, but it’s an upgrade from the perma-disdain rendered on McGee’s face. And I don’t feel bad that the real tattoos aren’t available. I’ve seen enough NBA players’ ink to know where the inspiration for 2K’s slate of designs came from. Welcome to the limitations of the game, and the joys of microtransactions.
Also, Durant and Thompson’s shooting motions are already a selectable option, so they wouldn’t have to customize their own (but they could if they wanted to). Another great perk for creating a player is Durant could put himself on the roster of his choice without having to turn the AI down in franchise mode to trade himself to Phoenix. Bootleg KD might have to face NBA 2K-authenticated KD in the Finals, but as long as human KD saves before the simulation dictates his opponent, he can just restart the game until the computer spits out his preferred matchup.
That’s the nice thing about video games. They’re fake and are created with the intention of letting people live out their fantasies digitally. If Durant wants a reality where he doesn’t age, and Kyrie Irving can play home games and defense, that only exists on PS5.
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