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And so, we’ve come to the end of another year here at the NLSC! I’d like to thank everyone for supporting the NLSC throughout 2023, from the modders and frequent Forum users to everyone who checks out our original content, and of course our Patrons on Patreon for helping us to keep the lights on. We’ve been around since 1996 when our founders tipped everything off with their tools and mods for NBA Live 95 and NBA Live 96 PC, and as we’re still passionate about basketball video games, we intend to be around for some time yet! Obviously the internet has changed a lot since we were founded, but we’re grateful that so many people still see us as a destination for basketball gaming.

To that end, it was our pleasure to provide extensive coverage of the virtual hardwood here on the NLSC throughout 2023. In addition to covering any news and previews regarding the latest and upcoming iterations of NBA 2K, Dee and I produced a plethora of original content about basketball gaming. If I do say so myself, we make a great duo in that regard! We obviously co-hosted the NLSC Podcast, I continued to write multiple articles a week and try my hand at some more videos, and Dee produced a huge amount of videos for the NLSC YouTube channel, from highlight reels to the weekly Top 10 Plays. I can speak for both of us when I say that we had a blast creating that content!

Thus, as we get ready to enter 2024, we’re presenting our Year-in-Review here at the NLSC. Dee and I have made our editors’ picks of my weekly features, our podcast, our videos, and the Top 10 Plays, choosing our favourite ten of each to spotlight. Needless to say, we encourage you to browse the entire NLSC archives, but this is the content from 2023 that we’re most proud of. I’d like to thank Dee for being my co-pilot for another year, and I look forward to what we’ll be doing with basketball games in 2024. I’ll touch on that again at the end of the wrap-up, but before we get to that, here are both of our picks for our favourite articles, videos, Top 10 Plays, and podcasts throughout 2023!

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This is a very late announcement, but since NBA 2K24 pre-orders are now open, we’re getting closer to having a prize to deliver! Congratulations to Pep, winner of our March Modness 2023 giveaway! Pep released some retro Charlotte Bobcats jerseys during March, and continues to do awesome work for NBA 2K14, all while upholding the spirit that our modding community was founded upon. Once again, his prize is a copy of the standard edition of NBA 2K24 PC. There’s still much to learn about NBA 2K24, though we do know that the PC version will be a prior gen port again this year.

A big thanks as always to everyone who entered this year’s March Modness contest, and continues to share their mods here at the NLSC! Don’t forget that we offer free and permanent file hosting for our modding community, in order to preserve these great releases for years to come. Whether you’re modding NBA 2K23, an older favourite like NBA 2K14 as Pep is, or indeed a very old NBA Live game, I encourage everyone to make use of our facilities. For more information on uploading and adding files to our Downloads database, be sure to check out this tutorial.

Welcome to the NLSC Rewind for 2022! It feels like it was only a few months ago that I was compiling last year’s Rewind, but that’s how it goes these days. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that the last few years have all run together. That’s largely due to the pandemic, but it’s also true what they say: time does seem to go faster the older you are! In any event, it’s been another fun and productive year here at the NLSC.

Our modding community has been busy all year, seamlessly transitioning from NBA 2K22 to NBA 2K23 when the latter was released. A handful of older titles were also kept updated in 2022, including NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14. Glancing at the various modding sections, it’s clear that even more great work will be coming in 2023, with some great projects brewing for classic games as well. As always, a big thank you to everyone who continues to release work here! I’d like to remind everyone that the upload facilities in our Downloads database remain 100% free and available to all.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the NLSC Rewind for 2022! For those who are unaware, I use the Rewind to share some “editor’s picks” of our original content from the past year. Obviously I encourage you to peruse our entire archives; as with topics in our Forum, old comments sections are still open, and I’m proud of all our work. At the same time, there were some features and episodes of the NLSC Podcast that I’m particularly proud of, and I believe that you’ll really enjoy checking them out if you did miss them the first time around (or perhaps, enjoy them again a second time!). Without any further ado, let’s rewind the year that was 2022 here at the NLSC!

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On behalf of the NLSC Team, Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings to our community! Whatever your beliefs and traditions at this time of the year, I hope that you’re happy, healthy, and spending some quality time with friends and family.

A big thanks as always for continuing to support us throughout 2022! I hope you’ve enjoyed being a part of the community here at the NLSC this year, and are looking forward to more good times in 2023. We’re certainly keen to continue supporting our modding community, and creating entertaining original content in our coverage of basketball gaming. To that end, our gift to you today is a showdown between Santa’s Slammers and Team SSX in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition!

There’ll definitely be plenty of video content coming in 2023, so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel! NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is also on my list of games that I’m overdue to cover for Wayback Wednesday, and with 2023 marking the 30th Anniversary of the NBA Jam series, it seems like an appropriate time to get around to it. Once again, Merry Christmas, Season’s Greetings, and a happy holiday season to basketball gamers everywhere. Enjoy these NBA Jam: On Fire Edition highlights, and if you’re hitting the virtual hardwood these holidays, have a blast!

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a look back at the year that was 2020 here at the NLSC.

I think it’s fair to say that 2020 has been one of the most unusual years that many of us have ever experienced. For me, it’s both flown by – as the years seem to do as you get older – yet it’s also dragged. The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously disrupted life as we know it in so many ways, and contributed to 2020 being somewhat miserable. On top of that, we’ve lost some beloved athletes and celebrities, including Kobe Bryant. Although the hardships of the pandemic are not over yet, it’s safe to say that a lot of people are looking forward to a fresh start in 2021.

At the same time, there have been bright spots. The Next Gen consoles launched, and while it hasn’t been easy getting hold of one, people who do own them generally seem to be happy with them. Here at the NLSC, we were able to keep doing our thing for another year as far as producing content and supporting the modding community, and we also officially added a new member to our team. 2020 is a year that I’m sure a lot of people would rather be done with and soon forget, but since this is the last Monday Tip-Off of the year – there will be a Wayback Wednesday this week, and then The Friday Five will open 2021 – I’m taking the opportunity to look back at 2020.

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Please join me in officially welcoming Derek, aka Dee4Three, to the NLSC Team! Derek has been co-hosting the NLSC Podcast with me for a little over a year now, on top of being a valued contributor in our modding community, and long-time passionate basketball gamer.

In addition to chatting about basketball gaming with me on the podcast, you can look forward to more great content from Derek in the not-too-distant future. He’s currently working on V3 of the Ultimate Classic Teams Roster for NBA 2K17 PC, and some converted faces for other retro roster projects. He will also generally be a part of our coverage of, and commentary on, the virtual hardwood. Derek will also be helping out with some moderating in the NLSC Forum, and of course, he has already provided some very useful modding tutorials.

I hope that you’ll all give Derek a warm welcome, and the opportunity to grow in his new role as a member of the NLSC Team. It’s been a pleasure to have Derek as part of the NLSC Podcast for the past year, and I’m really looking forward to collaborating with him on future content and projects. You can follow him on Twitter @Dee4Three84, and also find him on YouTube.

Please be advised that our Forum Rules have been amended with an official policy regarding Patreon. Our rule regarding charging for mods now reads as follows:

Charging money for mods and patches is not allowed. Beyond simply not being the “done thing” in our community, it also invites legal problems, as profiting off someone else’s intellectual property and likeness is illegal. As long as we’re not charging for updates, the developers are happy to look the other way (and sometimes even quietly support us) when it comes to modding.

Please note that while you are free to take the risk of charging for patches on your own site or blog, you may not promote it here with any links. Donation links, tip jars, and Patreons are acceptable, but releases cannot be held for ransom in demand for donations (thus indirectly charging for them). All Patreon content must also be made available publicly within a week; Patreon-exclusive releases cannot be posted here.

Further information on how Patreon releases must be handled has also been added:

Patreon is another service that you may use, and is a good platform to seek support for hosting larger mods. However, it must not be used to circumvent our rules against charging for mods. Early access via Patreon is allowed, but the mod must be made available publicly on the NLSC within a week of the Patreon release. If those conditions are adhered to, you are free to promote early access releases and your Patreon in general. Patreon-exclusive releases without a public release count as charging for mods and are not allowed. What you do with your Patreon is your business, but as far as our community and platform is concerned, you may not promote/link to any Patreon-exclusive releases. or your Patreon in general if you aren’t posting any public releases.

These rules are now in effect and apply to all future releases. We are implementing this policy in the interests of being fair to our community, and avoiding any problems with intellectual property. If you have any questions, please contact myself or another member of staff.

For anyone who’d like to rep the NLSC out in the real world, we have some good news! Regular NLSC Podcast co-host Arcane has created some new merch for the site through his clothing label, Arcane Uniforms, and it’s available now through TeePublic.

Items include t-shirts, phone cases, wall art, mugs, sticks, pillows, and more. In addition to a retro NBA Live Series Center design, you can also pick up merch branded with the NLSC Polygon design, NLSC Grindtime, and even March Modness. Many of Arcane’s other basketball designs are also available, with all items currently being 35% off.

Find the full range here over on TeePublic, and check out some previews below! Premium NLSC apparel, including personalised basketball jerseys and shorts, is also still available through Arcane Uniforms; you can find more details on how to order it here in the Forum. Be sure to follow Arcane Uniforms here on Twitter and here on Facebook for further updates, and to get in touch with Arcane about ordering information or any other queries.

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NBA Live 19 Patch 1.16 is now available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. As always, it will come through automatically as long as your console has an active Internet connection. If you encounter any issues, try restarting your console, or checking for the update manually.

The latest update adds the newly unveiled Earned jerseys to all 5v5 modes. 3v3 now has 15 points as the win condition, and hitting Level 100 will allow you to start a new player at Level 50. Reward tiers for Court Battles have also been adjusted (with a new fourth tier added), new rosters and audio have been pushed through, and some gameplay tweaks have been made.

Please see below for the full release notes for NBA Live 19 Patch 1.16. You can also find a complete update history for NBA Live 19 over in our Wiki. Feel free to share your impressions of the patch in the comments section below, as well as join in the discussion here in the NLSC Forum.

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We’re currently experiencing a few issues with accessibility around the NLSC. As explained in posts on our Facebook page and Twitter, these issues are the result of installing our SSL certificate. This is something we’ve needed to do for a while to keep up with web standards, and was essential to implement as soon as possible since as of July 2018, Google Chrome will start flagging sites that don’t use SSL as being unsafe.

While the NLSC is basically up and running, we’re still sorting out issues with redirects and subdomains. This means that old links aren’t properly redirecting to HTTPS yet (resulting in some missing images and the like), and forums.nba-live.com currently isn’t operational, meaning it can’t be used to access the Forum or Downloads section.

For the moment, you can use these links to access the Forum and Downloads section:

• Forum
• Downloads

Browsing the main site, as well as the Wiki, should generally work as normal. As noted, old HTTP links may result in a few missing images until we get everything sorted out.

Thank you for your patience as we troubleshoot these issues. Hopefully everything will be working as normal very soon. Note that the aforementioned links will still work after we get everything back up and running as intended, but the plan is to use the subdomain as before. If you have any questions or encounter any other errors, please let me know.

UPDATE: The regular links are now working again. We’re still cleaning up a few issues with redirects and mixed content warnings, but generally speaking, everything is operational.

Happy New Year, basketball gamers! I’m glad to have you back at the NLSC as we tip off 2018, and gear up for another year of hitting the virtual hardwood. In that spirit, a new Monday Tip-Off article will be out shortly, but before that, I wanted to lay out some of our plans for a new year of basketball gaming.

I’m actually currently out of town, but as soon as I’m back, I’ll start catching up on any files that have been added to our Downloads section. It’s my hope that our modding community will continue to make good use of our hosting facilities, so that we may avoid losing mods that have been uploaded to hosts that routinely delete files after a period of inactivity. In any event, I’m sure that we’ll see many great releases this year.

On a personal note, I’d like to be a bit more active in the modding community this year, if possible. I had grand plans to do that last year, but unfortunately, things kept getting in the way. I do have a list of ideas for mods that I’d love to make if I can find the time, and with a couple of them already out there as beta/demo releases, I’m eager to give that a try. I can’t make any promises, but it’s certainly my intention to try to release some work here and there.

If nothing else, I’ll continue creating original content in the form of my weekly features. In addition to Monday Tip-Off, I’ll continue to post Wayback Wednesday and The Friday Five features every week. The NLSC Podcast will be back on the air – hopefully as soon as this Sunday – and we’ll do our best not to miss weeks as we unfortunately ended up doing last year. I’m eager to get some more video content out there on a regular basis, possibly in the form of a revamped Tuesday Triple. We may also be looking to finally add a few new content creators to the NLSC Team, so stay tuned for more details.

As always, I encourage everyone to make good use of our Forum, as I’d love to see lots of great discussion taking place throughout the new year. Our Wiki could always use a few extra helping hands as well, so if you have the knowledge, the time, and the enthusiasm, please feel free to pitch in and help keep our resources up to date.

Since it’s a new year, I will mention our Patreon and GoFundMe campaign once again. As I’ve said before, I don’t want to push them too aggressively or more than a few times a year, but if you are able to help out with our hosting fund in any way, we’re grateful for any and all contributions. A big thanks to everyone who has already dug deep and lent a hand in that regard. I hope we’ll continue to justify your generosity with our content and facilities.

With all that being said, let’s get Year 22 here at the NLSC underway! Thanks for being a part of our community!

And so, 2017 is all but in the books. I know I reflected on the year that was in my most recent Friday Five article, but I’ve generally made it a tradition to post a few final thoughts on New Year’s Eve. With that in mind, here goes!

It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to run the NLSC for another year, its 21st in operation. It’s been great to see all the talented modders sharing their work with the community, and I’ve enjoyed releasing my own work here and there when I’ve found the time. As I mentioned in my Year in Review in the Friday Five, I’ve enjoyed creating original content throughout 2017, and in particular, covering some topics that have been on my To Do list for some time.

Something that I forgot to mention in last year’s New Year’s Eve message is that we’ve managed to post a daily update of some kind every day without fail since December 31st, 2006. Our archives currently don’t go back that far as we changed to a new content management system in 2011, but I promise you, the streak is indeed intact. One of my goals with the NLSC is to bring basketball gamers something new every day, be it a round-up of the latest additions to our Downloads section, news from the preview season, one of our regular features, or other information of interest to basketball gamers. I’m proud of the fact we’ve been able to do that for over ten years running.

This was our first full year with our current host, and I would have to say that for the most part, it’s been smooth sailing. Thanks to a combination of donations, our Patreon supporters, and advertising revenue, we’ve been able to cover the monthly hosting costs, and expect to be around for a while yet. As such, I’m hoping to do more fun things as we enter our 22nd year covering basketball video games.

Thank you for your support throughout 2017, I hope to see you all back with us in 2018. Until then, as is the tradition around these parts, I’ll leave you with Lutz’s words of wisdom for the occasion: Remember the safest order of things on New Year’s Eve: 1. Fireworks, 2. Drink, and not vice versa!

See you in 2018!

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a recap of the year 2017 here at the NLSC, and a look ahead to 2018.

It’s the final Friday of 2017, which means we’ve also reached the final Friday Five of the year. As we’ve mused several times on the NLSC Podcast, the year seems to have just flown by, and it seems like only yesterday that I was writing the Year in Review for 2016, as well as our traditional New Year’s greetings. Either we’re all getting older, or we’ve just had a lot of fun over the past twelve months. Nevertheless, I’m going to assume that my calendar is correct, which means it’s time to look back at the year that was here at the NLSC.

2017 was another eventful year across the board, especially as we had three new games to play. Those releases had their highs and lows, with a little bit of controversy and a couple of surprising additions along the way. In our community, we saw a lot of great mods released for games new and old, and some interesting discussions take place in the NLSC Forum. We maintained our regular schedule of original content throughout the year – for the most part – and managed to cover some topics that have been on the To Do list for some time. We’re looking forward to our 22nd year in operation in 2018, but before that, let’s take a look back at what happened in 2017.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five discusses some of the changes I’d like to make to the NLSC and our community in general.

Tomorrow marks my sixteenth anniversary as webmaster/administrator of the NLSC. I took over the site from Tim on August 26th 2001, a little less than two months before my seventeenth birthday. In other words, at this point I’ve basically been running the site for half of my life, which is kind of an overwhelming thought to be honest! I’ve had my ups and downs during that time – personally, professionally, and with the NLSC itself – but I don’t regret taking the gig for a minute. It’s given me a lot of creative satisfaction, fascinating insight into one of my favourite hobbies, and some tremendous opportunities.

Like a lot of people, I often look at milestones and anniversaries as an opportunity to reflect and take stock of things. It doesn’t pay to dwell too much on the past, but no matter what you’re doing, it’s important to learn from experience. One of my goals is to keep the NLSC relevant and maintain a certain level of quality, while also looking to get even better. I’d like to think that I’ve had some success in that regard, but at the same time, there’s still work to be done. I may be covering some familiar ground here, but as I look forward to bigger and better things, here are five changes that I’d like to make to the NLSC and our corner of the basketball gaming community.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with some reflections on the NLSC’s big move last year, which was one of the most significant in the history of our site.

Around this time last year, I was in the process of moving the NLSC from our old host to our current home. It wasn’t the first time that we’d had to move to a new host, but it was definitely the most stressful move we’d undertaken. On top of the usual downtime and teething problems, there was also an air of uncertainty. For the first time since I took over the NLSC, we’d be footing the bill for our hosting costs, rather than getting free hosting in exchange for advertising space. We also had a deadline, as our old host was discontinuing their services as of July 7th 2016, which meant if we hadn’t moved or at least backed up everything by then, everything would be lost.

Fortunately, it all turned out for the best. We found a new home, nothing was lost, and in terms of covering our expenses, we’re confident that we’ll be around for a while yet. Needless to say though, until everything was transferred and running smoothly, and the financial side of things had been sorted out, I was under a lot of stress. There were a few moments where it looked very bleak, and I found myself trying to prepare for the worst and figure out how to announce the unfortunate news. With our future now looking much brighter, I thought that I’d reflect a little on that time, and offer a little more of the back story.

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