How To Play The Game: the key to a better gaming experience

THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND MY MODDING

      Have you ever wondered what it's like to play a basketball videogame that has a REAL feel like the actual NBA? First, you should play with patience and be smart in defense, but also allow your players to sift through team's offensive plays. Secondly, you might consider using my game settings along with my DLC for a much improved NBA gaming experience.

      I played videogames especially sports and basketball ones since 1990. Along with other experts of the game, I consider NBA 2K11 to be the best NBA videogame because of the high customization is capable of and its graphical beauty. I would take the 'photographic' player's faces in 2K11 over the 'cartoonish' faces in 2K14, the smooth realistic moves in 2K11 over the robotic moves in 2K14 any day! Even if it lacks newer animations and possibly smarter A.I. used by next gen NBA games, few people know that 2K11 turns into a more enjoyable game that comes close to perfection if you tweak the game sliders, the coach profile(s) and players skills and tendencies.

      Therefore all my efforts between 2014 and 2020 went into a constant battle against the limitations of the crazy arcade style of play with unrealistic fastbreaks and an unfair stealing tendency implemented by default by 2K Sports. This 2K system that I called "monkeys on steroids" has been in use in all of their game installments ever since and is apparently loved by the masses for obvious reasons: it gives you pleasure quickly!

     One thing no one can fix with 2K Sports is the "momentum" which is a code that software developers put in the game engine. It is the least troublesome bug which causes you to miss several shots in a row sometimes but on the other hand helps you when the opponent is forced to miss many open shots as well. That same exact "momentum" happens usually during one quarter usually the 3rd when one of the teams makes a decisive 8-0 or 15-4 or similar run. This "momentum" evens things out and balances the game so none is winning/losing by a big margin. But apparently we can all live with that, right?

       The whole philosophy of my roster modding is that I’m using real player ratings and tendencies and almost everything in my game is based on a special formula using player’s data from basketball-reference.com I also set the Potential for EVERY player in the game to 0. This way I am trying to limit the "buggy"evolution of 2K player development over the season and the random change of player ratings (this is a bug that sadly makes the Association mode unplayable). Anyway, players Potential set to zero should stop them from reaching unrealistic and “off career” values because what we don't want is the players in the game to become better than their real-life counterpart. Let's keep the lack of realism to a minimum, shall we?

        In modding players I use career average stats per 36 mins. This will change the game drastically in terms of ratings. You have been warned, you won’t find the NBA hierarchy you were used to because there is no such thing as an overall rating chart for my game! NBA gamers especially those who play online got used to the 2K flawed system. What 2K Sports has been doing is they bump overall ratings for NBA players who have a fanbase through notifications and several updates kids run to download from 2K servers. In my opinion and other experts of the game, they should have historical stats as a real foundation instead of trendy hypes that only exist to satisfy their customers who are willing to pay anything for instant gratification. But to them it is all just a game while for real fans who watched NBA games and not just highlights (like millennials or NBA team bandwagoners do since HD TVs exist)…"it’s not just a game" to paraphrase the 90s NBA ads for the ‘I Love This Game’ campaign.

      To go into more details, 2K Sports favors tall men and their skills used close to the basket like rebounding, blocking, dunking and inside shooting. Those were the most important factors for MyPlayer mode you probably guessed why. If not, here is the explanation. Kids who are the target customer for 2K games, always bought the game to create their player who could dominate the opponents instantly so they were given those factors to boost their character. Basically if you played as a very tall center you were given less skill points but you would dominate under the basket offensively and defensively thanks to your size. This is something that ruined the real NBA feel of the game!

     If you ever looked at NBA game boxscores, you know centers in the NBA have huge field goal percentages because they operate so close to the basket that they often score with minimal effort that sometimes is a simple tip of the ball or an easy dunk. Their field goal percentage (FG%) is over 50% in most cases. Once we apply the conversion formula for historic NBA stats to the game index, that 50+% translates to 80+ as their shooting skill. And the sad part is this weighs a big part of the players overall rating. In case you didn't know, the CPU is making its team lineups and even substitutions based on the player's overall rating in an automated effort to present the game with the best players on the court. 2K's idea wasn't bad to begin with but...that doesn't tell you the truth behind this method we debunked just now.

         It took me years to find a way to avoid the 2K BAD (aka for commercial purposes) intended system. As a result, the roster files I've created have historically accurate lineups but players ratings are based on 36 minutes real stats. Don't worry, inside my formulas there is a Stamina value that takes care of how early the players get tired. It means the "mediocre" players who played only 5 or 10 minutes in real life will ONLY last 5-10 minutes on the court in my game. And then there is the Touches value that decides how often a player will get the ball when moving to offense basically telling the game how important he is for the team and if his teammates should give him the ball or not.

        Now you are starting to get the big picture: even if those "mediocre" players with high ratings per 36 minutes will be on the court because the CPU chooses them, they will get tired early and when that happens another factor will kick in: the Fatigue effect which will lower their skills and make them miss shots or turn over the ball, so in the end those high rated players who in fact are mediocre will not be that great. And to add one more value, the Consistency decides which player will be hard to guard and able to score at will or go on a hot streak (that is the real Barkley while "mediocre" players will not be consistent!).

       And again - if you are into technicalities - the 36' per game system is the only way to calculate player ratings for every player even for those who played only 5 or 10 minutes per game because it uses multipliers so it evens out the stats for all NBA players as if they all played 36 minutes per game. The only downside - that Charles Barkley complained about on the Open Court show - is that some mediocre players who never seen more than 5 or 10 minutes per game coming off the bench might get better overall ratings with the 36 minutes per game system than...Charles Barkley! Which is fine with me because some players who never got the chance to play a lot were actually fantastic (they went overseas and won major competitions with mediocre teams!).      

      In my game, reserve players will almost be as good as the starters and they will get enough minutes to prove themselves worthy just like the real NBA where, when a starter is injured another rookie can take his place and become a star. Examples in the 2014 wee Taj Gibson, Donald Sloan, Tony Wroten, Draymond Green (who have taken David Lee's spot in the GSW starting lineup in 2015). Jeremy Lin (who got his "Linsanity" nickname for that reason) is another good example from the last decade. For retro fans, Elliott "Socks" Perry is another good example when he replaced an injured starter Kevin Johnson in 1995 for Phoenix. Given them the chance to play, these surprise backup players can put up similar numbers to their all-star teammates. NBA player's “per 36 minutes” stats proves my point: just go to basketball-reference.com and start comparing random players by their 36 minutes stats.

       According to this “new order of things”, players have lower overall ratings than you are used to see in NBA videogames. It just happens because of the formulas I am using according to which rebounds, consistency and many other factors are only at half what you are used to see in EA and 2K games. It gives a better ratio between 0 and 99 and it won't boost player's percentages. And on top of that it doesn't mess up the gameplay when these values are combined with the Game Sliders. In other words it keeps things under control so none of the players gets boosted by the 2K gameplay bugs (yes, they are quite a few "thanks" to the game programmers who don't have real basketball experience).

      Speaking of sliders, the best version of my sliders is dated October 18th, 2022. This is something I was working on for 6 years and been waiting for...for 25 something years since I first started playing NBA videogames! It goes along with an adjusted "universal" Coach Profile. Feel free to download my NEWEST SLIDERS. I use this in Coach Mode as I stopped using a game controller and  I have no pleasure in controlling players on the court but prefer to coach and simply watch the way the game emulates the real NBA. By the way, I find it shocking people don't know that NBA 2K11 has the perfect basketball manager type of game included. All you need to do is switch on the Coach Mode and there you are as the coach of an NBA team!

       For more than a year I emphasized positional player tendencies that include driving to the basket, rebounding offensively with better dunking and active behavior from the big men with their ability to 'putback' a shot typical to the modern style of play; also the way players 'contest a shot' has been recalculated for all players in my database according to their historical defensive stats.

      Since February 2019, all players got a +15 in Strength which helps in not missing an easy layup (that was necessary especially for guards because in my system they are rated the lowest in scoring inside the paint area. Now players go on fastbreak more often and less annoyingly with the Fastbreak slider at 30. If they are not well defended, one or two players will run on offense right after their team was scored on. This is way more different than the buggy 2K fastbreak system and it gives a natural feeling to the gameplay.

       I finally reached the perfect balance in terms of gameplay and scoring in October 2022 when I added the final touch to a series of prior adjustments: I used a stats based formula for the Clutch slider for each player in order to differentiate between prime time players who were really 'clutch' their entire career and the mediocre ones. There was also a -20 value to the Vertical for all players to reflect realistic athletic skills. Now players have between 25 and 45 inches verticals just like in real life where 28'' is the average in the NBA. Now both User and CPU teams score around 100 points a game with about 90 field goal attempts per game each while shooting realistic percentages (45-ish in FG, 30/45-ish in 3s depending on defense/desperation shots, FT are as real as they can be if you leave the REAL FT% setting untouched).

       There were a few issues I needed to fix so the game will look more realistic and challenging. It's worth mentioning 2K Sports completely messed up the offensive rebounding and the block for at least 5 years in a row. Therefore I fixed the rebounding issue so now both teams have Off Reb at 100 and Def Reb at 0. The blocking value was set to 1 (if it's 0 the stats won't count the in-game blocked shots; if more than 1, the game will abuse it - stupid 2K!).

      Another thing I did in May 2020 was to raise the attempted dunks frequency, on-ball steals and shot contest along with the help defense strength and the steal success. The rate at which players get fatigued was increased to 20 from 50 (yes, the effect is reversed in 2K games!) so more substitutions will be needed as it happens a in real game situation. As a result, you will have more turnovers, fouls, more free throws, smarter substitutions, more but also a few missed dunks, better player coverage on the court, a real battle in the paint area especially for getting the rebound, putback shots after rebounding offensively, some early foul trouble for certain players who were very aggressive historically and committed more fouls in the NBA etc.

     Now both the CPU and the User have the same game sliders (except for a slight adjustment in shooting for the User because my game is now on All Star level which gives a much needed boost to the CPU defense) and they do miracles when used in Coach Mode! For playing without the Coach Mode you might have to adjust some sliders according to your level. I recommend touching only the Off or Def Awareness sliders for the CPU: if it's too hard, decrease them; if it's too easy, increase them.

      These sliders work with my Roster files (and possibly with other mods different than mine) as they go hand in hand with the adjustments I made to the players - yet another reason to use my mods. So far I highly recommend to use them with the mods I released so far (1992-93 DLC, 1995-96 DLC, 1997-98 DLC, 1999-00 DLC, 2002-03 DLC, 2006-07 DLC, 2008-09 DLC, 2010-11 & 2011-12 DLC, 2014-15 DLC, 2017-18 DLC, 2018-19 DLC. 2019-20 DLC) and the future mods. This is the best version of my sliders/settings and roster. The only thing I might change in the future will be the customization of individual player's tendencies and hot spots.

       Here is the template for the Coach Profile(s). It is already contained in the Roster & Season files that you acquire from me when paying for my mods. This is vital for the way teams play on the court and obviously can influence the score so...make sure you keep it unchanged when playing my mods.

Offensive Tempo - 50
Defensive Pressure - 50
Help Defense - 50
Fast Break - 50
Crash Boards - 50
Run Plays - 25
Double Teams - 25
Zone Usage - 10
Bench Depth - 50
Take Inside Shots - 50
Take Close Shots - 50
Take Mid-Range Shots - 50
Take 3PT Shots - 55
Attack the Basket - 100
Look for Post Players - 25
Throw Alley Oops - 1

     And lastly, the GAME SETTINGS In my settings the substitution method is set to “fatigue” instead of “rotation” because it works better with the sliders and the progress of the game during a match plus this way it respects the actual playtime NBA players have got during their career and make better use of the bench players. Now how cool is that?

Game Difficulty SUPERSTAR (where the CPU will defend better and compete realistically)
Game speed 45
Player speed 50
Substitution Method (in Association/Season Settings & Coach Settings) Fatigue
Fatigue ON
Clutch ON
Injury OFF
Shooting% & FT% REAL PLAYER (if you switch this to USER it will affect the players stats/score development/balance of the game!)
FT Difficulty 50
Coach Settings all to AUTO *except for the Late Game Fouling

         Fee free to share your opinion and show us your results after using these settings and sliders. But before that I should tell you there are a few things from the real NBA that cannot and will not be simulated in videogames! Don't ask me why, nobody knows why they don't work in the artificial (A.I.) world - but probably it is best this way or else we would all live in a matrix. :))

NBA Stories: Steve Javie, the retired NBA referee now pastor

Steve Javie (born 1955.01.17) was my favorite NBA referee over 25 years of watching the league. He has had that rare combination of strictness and openness a referee should have but cannot be faked as it has to do with the self disciplined personality of who wears those shoes. A long time referee but also one of a kind impartial game analyst for the media after retirement, he finally retired from sports to follow a different career that doesn't involve busting any more knees on the court.

He worked more than 1,500 games, including 200-plus in the playoffs and 20 in the Finals. “Steve was the best referee I ever worked with, and I reffed with everybody,” said Joe Crawford, a friend and former NBA colleague. “He knew the rules. He got plays right. And he had guts. He was very aggressive but always under control.”

Bad knees finally forced Javie to limp away after the 2011 season, his last assignment being the decisive sixth game of that year’s NBA Finals. By then, he was on a spiritual quest. Thanks to his wife of 28 years, Mary Ellen, he’d rediscovered a faith he’d virtually abandoned as a young man. The couple had started a charity benefiting underprivileged children in Montgomery County and Philadelphia. But he needed more. “I thought, ‘I’ve got to be doing something more with my life than blowing whistles against basketball players,’ " he said.

At a St. Andrew’s event, a visiting speaker mentioned the Catholic diaconate. The possibility of becoming a deacon hung constantly around his neck like the whistles he wore as a referee. “It’s a calling,” he said. “It’s nothing I aspired to. I knew I was getting near the end of my career because my knees were failing. That realization makes you think about what you’re going to do afterwards.”

The journey Javie started in 2012 ended this June 8, when he and six others were formally ordained as deacons during an ornate ceremony at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul. The grueling process that got him there took seven years and yielded a master’s in theology, a new title, and the right to deliver homilies, wear a collar, and perform such traditional priestly duties as baptisms and marriages.

“I was at the ordination,” Crawford said. “Watching him do all the little things around the altar, you could see how prepared and calm he was. That’s how he was as a referee. Anything he gets into, he gets into all the way. He’s so devout now. As a matter of fact, he’s so devout that sometimes I have to tell him, `Steve, shut the … up.’ ”

Assigned to St. Andrew’s, his home parish and the largest in the Philadelphia archdiocese, Javie delivered his second homily last Saturday. “I’m not afraid to get up and talk in front of people because I’ve been doing that my whole life,” he said. “But talking about something really personal like faith, that’s stressful.”

Actually, Javie, who usually speaks in rapid and intense bursts, seemed more poised and conversational while addressing the parishioners, which he did not from the pulpit but from in front of the altar. “He’s very at ease, which probably comes from what he did all those years,” said Monsignor Michael Picard, St. Andrew’s pastor. “His preaching, even though he’s just starting, is really superb.”

The story of how Javie switched from the arena to the altar is one that combines love found and spirituality sought. It began in the late 1980s when the NBA’s travel demands made him a regular at Philadelphia International Airport’s US Airways counter. That’s where he met Mary Ellen.

“I was someone who except for Christmas and Easter didn’t go to Mass. But I could see she was a devout Catholic,” Javie said. “So on our second date, I thought I’d impress her and I said, `How about if we go to Mass, then get lunch afterward?’ “We’re sitting there in church, and this priest is droning on. I’m looking at my watch thinking I’ll sit here an hour then be with her the rest of the afternoon. I wasn’t paying attention, wasn’t getting anything out of it. Afterward, she asked me what I thought. I told her I didn’t get anything out of it. She looked at me and said, `What did you put into it?’ That stopped me in my tracks. She said, `Did you maybe say a prayer for somebody in your family who needed it? Did you pray to the Holy Spirit for enlightenment?’ She really got me thinking.”

The renewed devotion helped in 1999 when Javie was one of 15 referees implicated in a tax-evasion case that involved misuse of frequent-flyer miles. He was the only one acquitted on all charges.

Noticing their colleague’s newfound focus, the referees Javie worked with began to ask questions. Some even accompanied him to church.

“A lot of guys I traveled with, they struggled with all the temptations that come with being on the road,” Javie said. “I would try to talk to them about it. My thinking was we’re all sinful, but if we can talk about these things with each other, it might make our marriages and families a little more solid. “When I was a crew chief, the second guy would sometimes grab the new guy and say, ‘OK, Steve, tell him what you talked to me about.’ I’d try to mentor them, not just in basketball but in life.”

After retirement and the deacon decision, Javie ramped up his religiosity. From August through May, he took three-hour classes at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in philosophy, theology, spirituality, and homiletics. Then there were workshops, psychological examinations and, before ordination, written, practical and oral examinations. “We’ve never been blessed with children, but we’ve got nine nephews and nieces and I tell them I never studied that hard in my life," Javie said. "Those professors were brilliant. It was a really intense, extensive process.”

His new schedule is sometimes as hectic as his old one. A day after ordination, Javie had to deliver his first homily at St. Andrew’s. There are Masses, ceremonies, home and hospital visits, counseling sessions, and speaking engagements. “I made a living in sports,” he said. “They paid me to referee, and it was a good job. But this is something else, a really incredible journey. I worked in the Finals for 15 years. I worked Game 7s. But that doesn’t compare with this. It’s a feeling I can’t describe.”

Those who know Javie well, such as his fellow Whitemarsh Valley Country Club members, now feel free to move conversations beyond typical locker-room talk. “Now that they know what I’ve been through, they feel like they have permission to talk about their faith, even to complain about it,” Javie said. “They realize that I’ve changed in one way, but not socially or personality-wise. I’m just Steve Javie. I always have been. It just so happens I’m not a referee anymore. I’m serving the Lord now.”

[*Except for my introductory paragraph this article appeared on the Inquirer]

Levy's revamped 1992-93 NBA Season DLC is out now!

Welcome to the 1992-93 Season DLC! This is a project that initially started in 2015 when I was on the move throughout Europe while volunteering at different households. The internet connection was very bad or completely missing due to the poor hosting by some of the people in the volunteering network (sadly many were taking advantage of the volunteers too which tells you all about the level of decency our society got to in the 21st century).

     My initial project was based on the 1991-92 season mod created by other 2K11 gamers around 2012-2013. As it usually happens with big projects like this, the community based mod was a fiasco because player's ratings were wrong and many had wrong cyberfaces while many players from 1992 NBA were missing. That's were I decided to step in with all my knowledge about the game and 25 years of NBA watching at that time.

     As of 2020 you can forget about the previous attempt to create a playable 1992-93 NBA season. That is all gone because now I've completely revamped the 1992-93 DLC. I personally wasn't happy with the previous version so I've decided to redo it entirely starting with the player database and ending with the graphic part. It took me on and off about 5 months to complete this project between November 2019 and March 2020. So there you have it: the best retro mod ever done for an NBA 2K game! To be more convincing I am going to tell you this is the DLC I am using to play NBA 2K11 in 2020 during the global COVID-19 lockdown when governments and the World Health Organization are still looking clueless at the cousin virus of the previous SARS they ignored since 2003.

     This new version of the 1992-93 DLC includes realistic players with team rotations from the 1992-93 season, 3 teams (Bobcats, Grizzlies, Raptors) that weren't in the NBA at that time but can't be deleted from the game so...they got real players who were injured or away from the NBA during 1992 and 1993 (and that is a bunch of decent players!).

    On top of that this DLC was made from scratch on a clean, default 2K11 Roster file basically an official file which I modified into a retro mod. That means this DLC can be used to play a 100% guaranteed bug-free game in the Association Mode, something I am actually doing at the moment. To make things even more realistic and interesting, I created impeccable draft classes starting with the 1993 Draft Class that can be added to the game following the 1992-93 season. Now how cool is that? For more details about this particular part please check my post(s) about My PHX Dynasty which is an Association Mode game that makes use of these DLCs.

     If you followed the evolution of my NBA 2K11 modding throughout the years, you already know my game is now faster, teams shoot more threes, have better defensive skills, there are more dunks in transition, teammates box out and big men rebound more intelligently, all players make better use of the screens, and the CPU makes better substitutions based on the fatigue method (which triggers the real NBA stamina of each player separately).

     The 1992-93 NBA Season DLC features:

- a realistic gameplay based on my own formula that gives realistic scores, percentages and correct movement of players on the court that emulates the real NBA pace

- players with accurate bio (position, height, age, college, draft pick), appearance (eyes color, muscle & body type), skills and tendencies (including touches, isolation, post up, spot up etc.)  based on a template and several formulas I use now that take into account real stats from NBA players career (it calculates career average ratings per 36 minutes from the data sheet on https://www.basketball-reference.com)

- complete roster (14-15 players) and an accurate lineup plus correct situational (starters and bench players) for each team; historic players for 3 teams (Bobcats, Grizzlies, Raptors) that weren't in the NBA at that time but can't be deleted from the game so...they got real players who were injured or away from the NBA during 1992 and 1993

- advanced textures for player faces created specially for NBA 2K11 or in many cases taken from NBA 2K14 and applied to 2K11 faces that make players in this mod look crispy clean and more realistic than any other video game on the market in 2020 thanks to the genius in rendering of 2K11 that is so difficult to match by more recent "modern" games

- a completely new portrait system for the player's in-game photos with round action photos

- some players' names were tweaked to match the NBA 2K11 name list so the arena announcers can pronounce them; those who weren't on the 2K list in 2010 when the original game was launched will be called by the number on their jersey

- real coaches names (two per team) with real height, cyberfaces and experience years

- historically accurate courtside dornas and reserves chairs, stanchions, banners, floors and jerseys with hex edited colors for each team used in 1992-93

- a new retro TNT Sports presentation and scoreboard with the addition of my logo for the 1992-93 NBA Season DLC

- my own global textures for 2K11 that include progressive sweat, skinnier/realistic legs, simple retro accessories etc.

- sepia style background photos of the top players in the NBA in 1993 for the game menu

     If you want to understand how my version of the game works, you should go to the How To Play The Game page at the top of this blog. There are explanations about the Game Settings, Game Sliders (that also work with the Coach Mode on) and the Universal Coach Profile.

     Installation guide for my roster file:

1. Pay & get the roster file (.ROS) and the season file (.RFG) then place them into your NBA 2K11 SAVES folder.

2. Download ALL mod files (.iff, .cdf) from the links I will send you by email and install them into your NBA 2K11 GAME folder.

3. Lastly, start the the game and load the game files. To do this, go to “Options”, select “Load/save”, and load > “Roster1819″ or "Season1819". Go to “Manage Roster” to check if you have successfully updated your NBA 2K11 PC roster.

     In case you're interested in acquiring this mod, send me an email to leeunagi@gmail.com first. After that I will provide you with my PayPal account where you can send your payment for this mod. As soon as I cleared your payment, you will receive an email from me containing the Roster (.ROS) file and the Season Mode (.RFG) file along with all the links to the files contained in this DLC. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Enjoy your game, folks!

     Here are some extra screenshots from the 1992-93 Season DLC:

Levy's 2019-20 NBA Season DLC is launched

Hello, fellow NBA gamers! Here I am with another great release before the stupidity of the human race (in case you are one of those morons who abuse the term racism simply because you are a P.C. baby, it's time for you to know there is and always has been only one race on this planet; the rest is called ethnicity!) wipes all of us out with the help of a flu related virus that we should have found an antidote for since the last epidemic in 2003 but during the last 17(!) years of so-called advanced technological era, scientists and politicians were busy jerking off while watching their pile of money growing bigger.

I've created the 2019-20 NBA Season DLC after the 2020 All-Star weekend so the 2019 NBA draftees are properly configured to give realistic results in the game. It is probably the best version of NBA 2K11 visually thanks to the various patches made available by the Chinese modders and also the huge amount of work done by me which comes with a ton of experience in modding this game on a  daily basis since 2014. 

The whole database for the players was completed 100% and done separately by me. This means every tendency and move of each player you see in the game is the effect of my formulas and testing. I like realism in my game and I am against the randomness of the arcade gaming that unfortunately is preferred by the mass gamers these days. I also added new photos for each player downloaded from the best photo archives and then modified one by one with photo editing software to match the NBA 2K11 game presentation.

If you followed the evolution of my NBA 2K11 modding throughout the years, you already know my game is now faster, teams shoot more threes, have better defensive skills, there are more dunks in transition, teammates box out and big men rebound more intelligently, all players make better use of the screens, and the CPU makes better substitutions based on the fatigue method (which triggers the real NBA stamina of each player separately). 

The 2019-20 NBA season DLC contains:

- a realistic gameplay based on my own formula that gives realistic scores, percentages and correct movement of players on the court that emulates the real NBA pace

- complete roster (14-15 players) and an accurate lineup plus correct situational (starters and bench players) for each team; also a few free agents and basically every player who was active in NBA for at least 5 games this season

- advanced textures for player faces created specially for NBA 2K11 or in many cases taken from NBA 2K14 and applied to 2K11 faces (with tattoos!) that make players in this mod look crispy clean and more realistic than any other video game on the market in 2020 thanks to the genius in rendering of 2K11 that is so difficult to match

- the All-Star weekend with accurate players that you can use in the Quick Play mode and realistic jerseys, arena and court

- accurate skills and tendencies for each player using a template and several formulas based on real historical statistics of NBA players career as they are presented by https://www.basketball-reference.com (mainly career average ratings per 36 minutes)

- a completely new portrait system for the player's in-game photos with long rectangular action photos

- some players' names were tweaked to match the NBA 2K11 name list so the arena announcers can pronounce them; those who weren't on the 2K list in 2010 when the original game was launched will be called by the number on their jersey

- real coaches names (two per team) with real height, cyberfaces and experience years

- real courts and jerseys with correct colors for each team used in 2019-2020

- an NBA TV presentation and scoreboard with the addition of my logo for the 2019-20 NBA Season DLC

- my own global for 2K11 that includes the best stuff released over the years in the gaming community including progressive sweat, skinnier/realistic legs, Nike accessories, long leg pads etc.

- new canvas style background photos of the top players in the NBA this year for the game menu

- a few G-League teams with jerseys and courts to replace some now defunct D-League teams (credits to DaCrispy!)

If you want to understand how my version of the game works, you should go to the How To Play The Game link on this blog. There are explanations about the Game Settings, Game Sliders (that also work with the Coach Mode on) and the Universal Coach Profile.

Installation guide for my roster file:

1. Pay & get the roster file (.ROS) and the season file (.RFG) then place them into your NBA 2K11 SAVES folder.

2. Download ALL mod files (.iff, .cdf) from the links I will send you by email and install them into your NBA 2K11 GAME folder.

3. Lastly, start the the game and load the game files. To do this, go to “Options”, select “Load/save”, and load > “Roster1920″ or "Season1920". Go to “Manage Roster” to check if you have successfully updated your NBA 2K11 PC roster.

In case you're interested in acquiring this mod, send me an email to leeunagi@gmail.com first. After that I will provide you with my PayPal account where you can send your payment for this mod. As soon as I cleared your payment, you will receive an email from me containing the Roster (.ROS) file and the Season Mode (.RFG) file along with all the links to the files contained in this DLC. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Enjoy your game, folks!

NBA Stories: Kobe Bryant 1978-2020

I've been listening to Ryen Russilo for years and I can say he is my favorite (ex)ESPN analyst apart from the master of all, Bill Simmons. Ryen's newest podcast dedicated to Kobe Bryant (https://youtu.be/80Nrj_p7CBc) was still informative but it started with a wrong assumption about human psychology that gives absolute power to the media and their news devourers, the ignorant and self-entitled masses. I told him that he should go back and study some Anthropology and Psychology before lecturing youngsters on the internet about human feelings. They have the tendency to gulp on the media news without filtering the information or even thinking...and later start a war based on opinions about it. 

I have to contradict Ryen Russilo. We are NOT compassionate by default! Compassion takes years or even a lifetime to master. That's why Buddhism has so many ancient texts about it and its devotees still struggle with acquiring it , not to mention most religions say almost nothing about compassion (Christian pity is not the same as it has a selfish individual goal in mind when the believer expects to be granted access to heaven based on his dees!). Our first human reaction to other's death - in this case Kobe's - is...fear of our own death which is 100% selfish. When celebrities and media anchormen saw it happened they instantly (and subconsciously) thought about the possibility of their own death which indeed is imminent. So yeah, let's stop pounding our chests for a second, stop crying about our own insecurities and talk in a NEUTRAL and OPEN and HONEST manner about the loss of a great athlete who only recently got to full maturity and had become a better person.

It is astonishing to me that media still can't deal with news in a proper, natural manner. When something terrible happens the first thing they do is run to the books and look what the best recipe for reacting to the news is. Why do people always need scripts and props in their life? Is it that difficult for them to be human?! When interviewed about Kobe's death news, some NBA players were asked what was their reaction the moment they found out and what were they doing as the media's expectation and politically correct view on those is you to be devastated and unable to go on with your everyday life. This is how humans are made into robots! 

Jerry West gave the only declaration (or interview or whatever you want to call it: https://youtu.be/-yYyT6DhMxU) I could listen to related to Kobe's basketball legacy. The rest are just fabricated, pretentious reports. Stephen A. was speaking like he was reading off a script but at least he is the only one who said Kobe was changing and planning to accomplish more after his basketball life. Unfortunately he focused on the "Mamba mentality" of Kobe Bryant - which of course everybody knows was his signature - and described it as the right tool to "not listen to anybody and conquer the world for yourself". 

It is sad the society needs more examples of extreme selfish attitude and the main lesson people learn is to force their way into the world instead of taking things naturally and adapt to the infinite situations life offers to all of us. In Alan Watts words, we are not brought into this world the way parents think when giving birth to children - which in their opinion entitles them to get the whole credit - because "we don't come into this world, we come out of it as every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe."

I took Kobe's death news very naturally: luckily it happened in the first 30 minutes since the helicopter accident had happened so there was no filtering and no censorship or other P.C. bullshit. I watched Kobe Bryant's career since he made it to the NBA following the 1996 draft (the best in the NBA history) but I never liked his extreme selfish and psychotic mentality on the basketball court (which by definition is a team sport) but I always respected his talent and impact on the game. So when I got the news, I must say I was shocked and saddened for Kobe and his daughter who both died in that crash. I was thinking he could have done so much for sports in general and the public in the future because of the way he was recently involved in business deals, either personal or just lobbying for others. Only since reaching the age of 40 (probably the last chance to get to full maturity for most people), he decided to change his approach completely and become open to others.

It is really not much to be said anymore. When life fails bringing people together, death is left to do it all. Ironically, Kobe became a better person only recently. In his own words, he just started understanding that there is more to life than just selfishness. None of the media anchormen mentioned this most important aspect! Therefore  I will add this: maybe when people change - which rarely happen - they deserve to go to a better place. R.I.P. Kobe

Then I got a reply, the typical trolling reply we all get on social media nowadays thanks to technology and the easy way for everyone to intrude in everyone's life. Here is how it went:

- It's never natural to die unnaturally.  Is me stomping on a flower or running a red light at an intersection and killing a baby considered natural?  And the Mamba mentality everyone speaks of is why Kobe is even talked about, why he had the success/fame he had and the driving force behind his championships. Otherwise this would've been just another helicopter crash we never heard about.  Kobe didn't just RECENTLY better himself...he's been growing and maturing as a person and it's common for people, especially men, to "grow up" and be wiser aka more mature as they age, particularly as they go into their 40s. You went on this judgmental rant that made no sense really.  Quick to point fingers and find supposed flaws in others...I guess that's the "natural" thing to do huh.

 My answer was straightforward as I can hardly tolerate trolls anymore:

- You went in over your head into something you don't know much about. I recommend you go back and watch all those interviews Kobe did in the last 2 years on YT and see how much he changed. That of course if you watched his whole career as an NBA (selfish) player. And BTW, you trolling doesn't take away anything from what I wrote. Why trolling? Because I was talking about having a natural reaction to the news about someone passing away while you talk about dying naturally. Can you activate your brain before making assumptions and simply just read what people write before trolling? I guess not…

A few days later of painfully bad reporting and reacting to the news about Kobe's death we got the official report on CBS News (https://youtu.be/LK0uM5OIONA) . 

There is something fishy about this official report. Some comments seemed to notice it too.

- I feel as if everyone want to blame the pilot, which is unfair. They asked him to hold out for 12 minutes, but no one is batting an eye about that. We've all went to work in bad weather; ice, snow, sleet, rain, high winds, floods, fog and every other type of hazardous road conditions. Our emotions pushes us to pinpoint blame when in actuality blame is never solely based on one entity.

- I blame the FAA. They should have refused permission to continue. The pilot just got disoriented.

- ME: Of course nobody will blame the FAA! You can see the official version and the people commenting here they already decided to blame the dead. As always.

- Bryant should have never got in that chopper. Very irresponsible.

- ME: "Mamba mentality"...gets you killed, literally.

- I swear some of y'all have selective reading/understanding and I choose to believe that instead of y'all just being pure stupid. I said it's unfair to blame the pilot SOLELY... I believe y'all can be diagnosed with selective reasoning, look it up if you don't know what it is.... SMH. I said what I said I'm not responding to the narrow minded people.

The eyewitness interview (https://youtu.be/28QYy8lrww8) states the opposite - and that middle aged guy knew what he was talking about! Comments on the video with him got thousands of likes and replies like these:

- The reporter really lucked out with this witness. He was so thorough and detailed.

- This man is a great human being. He did not pull out his phone to take pictures, or record a video. The man pulled out his phone and called 911. Had he not done that, the first responders would not have been able to get there so quickly.

- For someone who didn't technically "see the helicopter" this is the greatest witness testimony in the history of the world.

- This might be the most intelligent witness interview ever done.

- 'll give this man respect where it is due. This is why you need to pay attention to your surroundings. He did that. He didn't do anything that any of us can't do. He knew something was wrong, and he paid attention to his surroundings. He didn't throw in drama to the situation. Simply provided facts the best he could.

So this eyewitness called 911 first and then when the cars went too far he called them back telling them they are in the wrong area. He has lived in that area for 17 years and that day was the worst ever in terms of fog, clouds and low visibility. Briefly, he explained the helicopter was coming down very SLOWLY with the speed of only about 5 miles/h and clearly hit the middle of that hill because the helicopter was flying too low (150 feet) and probably saw the ground at the last second which also means he had no radar and no help in navigation. So if you want to blame someone 1. blame the air traffic control and 2. whoever decided to fly that helicopter on that weather-wise atrocious day. Why always someone has to hide the truth and cover up for someone else who was in charge or at fault is mind boggling; it must be greed and the money because that's when people lie and act unnatural.

- You think the helicopter came down at 5mph with that destruction? Come on man!

- ME: Well, the eyewitness must be right because there was no explosion. So yeah, falling off the sky with minimal speed can still destroy a chopper. What would you expect, people getting off and walking into a bar? I guess that's how things in movies kids watch these days look like. No surprise indeed. Lower the standards Hollywood!

Less than a week after the accident, there was  an excellent simulation of the helicopter flight path (https://youtu.be/XSHpbGhy3Ko) made by a YouTuber who apparently is a helicopter pilot. Just before the impact, the pilot entered a very dangerous mountain area where the clouds were at a lower altitude than the hills and the path was narrowing while the only visual clue for the pilot was the mountain pass highway he was following. The disaster occurred when the pilot got scared of the mountains closing in from both sides and he decided to fly higher into the clouds and lose all visual contact. The next mistake was fatal when he realized now he couldn't see and was relying only on technology and what the instruments on board were telling him. Not happy with that he probably lost his grip and turned 180 degrees and left the clouds going straight towards the ground hoping he will be able to see clearly again but not thinking there might be a hill right next to them. This also proves the first eyewitness statement was correct about the pilot being confused because he had no idea where he was before the helicopter hit the ground.  

Just after I wrote this I found an official statement saying that "the helicopter was not equipped with a Terrain Awareness Warning System, or TAWS, which could have alerted the pilot that he was flying too close to the mountain. The NTSB recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration following a 2004 crash that all helicopters should be equipped with the system, but it was not implemented. It's unclear whether the system would've prevented the accident, which took place in heavy enough fog that the L.A. Sheriff's Department said it kept its choppers grounded."

Then the comments related to these facts started coming in:

- Time to reform FAA. Absolutely 100% Unacceptable that FAA has not implemented vital NTSB recommendations.
- I hope all nine families go after the FAA and sue them.
- Correct... FAA generates over a billion a year. I stated this on the 2nd day.
- ME: I stated on the 1st day they gave that official statement and sounded fishy because they were blaming the dead (as they always do!). They were obviously afraid people will find out it is their fault helicopters are not equipped with the proper technology for bad weather.

- I wish someone said “hey let’s just cancel everything, it’s too dangerous”.
- Unfortunately, having money is not always a blessing.
- The FAA’s helicopter flying handbook states that losing all visual references during a flight “can cause sensory overload” for a pilot, who can then lose the ability to think rationally.  This is most likely what happened. My family friend is a pilot and said that he once flew into fog and couldn’t tell that his plane was on a 40 degree angle . Up was down, down was up, fast seemed slow, etc. It was the worst experience of his life.  This is probably what happened.
      - Pilot error.  Sometimes you just have to say "I'm sorry Mr. Bryant, but right now isn't a good time to fly".

Well, people like maniacs and winners like Kobe and his signature "Mamba mentality". This is part of the bigger media and movie trend where if someone is a serial killer or does something incredibly fortunate or stupid, he or she will get recognition from the public for being special. Nobody cares about real heroes anymore, now it's all about super-heroes and villains!

We can only assume the pilot asked the "should we cancel this flight and go back?" question at least once during this flight. We all know Kobe's certain answer to that question. Unfortunately for the other passengers including his own daughter Gianna (please use the nickname Gigi ONLY if you knew her personally!), Kobe never in his life knew how to take things slowly, wisely and/or cautiously. You might hate me for saying this but then again, it is your loss for not accepting the truth and living a lie.

Someone finally agreed with me on YouTube and said this:

- It’s all about balance bro the mamba mentality is great but it can be obsessive at time and detrimental. Just like a person that’s obsessive at with the gym they’re addicted to it because they have some sort of trauma and the gym is their release but they’re still addicted no different than a drug addiction or food addiction although it’s healthier it’s still an addiction cause by a mental disorder and you should get to the root of it and stay at peace rather than go crazy doing things.
- ME: Absolutely! Now try to say this about Kobe and see if you can get out of here alive, haha!
 - It is his own Mamba mentality that killed him. Facts.
 - The thing is Kobe flew around the world to play basketball games in all sorts of weather for over half his life, there was no danger in his mind. No excuses not to get to basketball practice. He failed the no.1 rule as a parent to keep your kids safe.
 - Kobe's pilot in the past said that pilots can sometime feel intimidated because they have a VIP or Mega Star flying with them. They will try all attempts possible to get the job done. They don't want the person to feel like their incapable of doing the job. In this case I really wished he had said, "I'm sorry Mr. Bryant and other passengers but this trip can't be made at this present time due to dangerous weather situations". It could have been delayed until after the fog lifted. Or they could have just drove the 2 hours drive.

Five days later on the Inside The NBA ESPN show (https://youtu.be/NqJtsfXnvO0), Shaq was already making jokes about a pumped up Kobe in his rookie year when his Lakers teammates used to make fun of him because of his training routine without the basketball that made him look possessed by some weird unnatural force while he was practicing his dribbling moves on the court. I had to comment on their video saying this:

- ME: The hypocrisy is finally over. Now we can enjoy talking about Kobe again like real adults with good and bad, funny and silly and everything else life comes with. I'm so glad the media fabricated shit is over!

To make things funnier for us (unintentionally)  and proving how retarded the media can be, BBC England brought the news of Kobe's death to the population in the UK by showing the most recent picture of him and his daughter but then putting on LeBron James highlights thinking they must be one and the same person if the Lakers uniform they were in looks the same. Which reminded me of overpriced British Airways flights from London to USA and their English ladies employed at Heathrow Airport working behind the boarding desk who couldn't make the difference between LA (the state of Louisiana) and L.A. (the city of Los Angeles) while having the destination of our flight printed clearly on the boarding pass. Yeah, the future is bright...

NBA Stories: A shout-out to me from Bill Simmons and The Ringer podcast

2020 is a year that started auspicious for Lee Unagi and his YouTube channel. In case you wonder why I am writing this is because...that is me. My actual name is Levy Nagy but Lee Unagi is the version of the name I came up with while I was in Asia teaching English to kids who wanted a more Asian-friendly name for me as they were struggling with my natural Hungarian name in the classroom.

I went to sleep last night getting notifications from YouTube followers and got a bit surprised at the growing numbers of subscribers on my channel in only a few couple of hours. First thing I checked when I woke up was the news. Surprisingly for me, I got a shout-out on Bill Simmons' newest  episode (number 14) of The Book Of Basketball 2.0 podcast on The Ringer network. Even more surprising was that his guest was Steve Nash, my all time favorite NBA player whom me and other knowledgeable NBA fans consider the last pointgod (a point guard who played godlike basketball) in the NBA. 

There was a link to YouTube and a short 7 minute video with Bill and Steve talking face to face while some highlights of the infamous Game 4 of the 2007 NBA Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals between Phoenix and San Antonio were rolling in the background. The poster for the podcast with Robert Horry's hip checking Steve Nash into the sideline boards  was exactly the picture I cropped and used as a cover for the same very game I uploaded to YouTube in May 2019. That felt good but...must have felt awful for poor Steve!

Another quite shocking thing for me after listening to Bill Simmon's latest podcast with Steve Nash was to find out Steve never really watched the Suns games over the last years and especially the fact the game I uploaded - which Bill asked him to watch entirely so they can talk about in this episode on his podcast - gave a whole lot of anxiety to Steve Nash because of the way things were handled back then by the referees, David Stern who died only a couple of days ago, and the over aggressive Spurs players including Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry. I am really sorry my upload brought sadness and desperation to Steve Nash who evidently was lost for words a few times on the podcast. Also I couldn't not notice Nash wasn't really prepared to have this conversation with Bill despite he is in general a great spokesman and well informed.

On the same 7 minute short video from the podcast, people commented on YouTube saying that Steve Nash is underrated although him and the Suns revolutionized basketball and shaped it the way it is played nowadays.

• The problem is you bring on a player and it turns into a boring interview. With another NBA writer/historian it’s an awesome back and forth conversation between knowledgeable people. Nash admits he doesn't think about this stuff and can’t remember half of this stuff 👍 but as player interviews go this one isn’t bad.

• This was the best podcast in the series so far. Well done!
• Nash is underrated.
• True but the man did win not one, but TWO MVP’s.
• Yeah. But he still does not get enough credit for it.
• People spent a decade slandering him because a white boy won an MVP over Kobe, sad people!
• He is definitely properly rated.

• ME: He is underrated! Just because you and me appreciate him doesn't mean the majority of the people do the same. He has been underrated all his career starting at the draft and when signed with Phoenix in 1996 (the best draft in the NBA history!) and booed by Phoenix fans (yes, you read it correctly!).

• Nash is underrated because he played on one of the best teams in the NBA, but really was FAR better than the other two of the "big three". Stoudemire and Marion were both fine, but neither had any chops on their own: Nash was the engine and soul of that team. Think abut it: they were mostly even with the Spurs, who had a "big three" who could each create by themselves of play off the ball. Stoudemire and Marion could really create efficiently by themselves. Each brought something. But Nash was the key. Reminds me of Barkley in Phoenix. KJ was never enough as a second fiddle. Same with Nash. Both first ballot HoF-ers.
• Dude would thrive in today’s NBA, was just a little to early.
• Since 2000 I don’t think there is a pointguard that has gotten more people paid than Nash. A lot of players owe him a few steak dinners for what he did to their career.
• Steve Nash is the player that really "changed the game." Everyone else took the league he made to the next level. Congratulations to them, but don't erase what Steve and those Suns did.

• That Horry hip check killed the series. As Simmons wrote in his book "even a washed up Horry could swing a series". LOL

• One of the most controversial plays in NBA history and no one even scored.
• Refs always ruining something.

• Make no mistake, the Suns CRUSHED Cleveland twice that same year. San Antonio went on to sweep them but Phoenix would have as well. David Stern decided the championship when he suspended the Suns' leading scorer and his main back up at the same time.

• Probably one of the greatest teams to never make a finals. Though once or twice they were clearly screwed.
• Thinking about that series just made me sick. The league hated the Suns.

On that last note, let me add this. The now defunct and much praised David Stern by the media people who didn’t really know him, helped the Spurs back then and robbed the Suns of their chance to advance to the next round. Spurs were a great team but they were preferred by Stern as they better fit the NBA's international marketing agenda (which ironically was the biggest achievement of David Stern's career as NBA commissioner). 

When fans discuss the commissioner's decision to penalize the Suns by the book, they all realize the law was applied wrongfully - and Phoenix fans knew it back then already. One of the comments on my Game 4 video clearly states the undeniable facts. The rule IS NOT if you “leave the bench you get suspended” or “step on the court when a foul has occurred”; according to Stu Jackson, VP of officiating, the rule it is: “if you leave the bench DURING AN ALTERCATION, you get suspended.” If you check the tape, the “altercation” (assuming it rises to the level) had not happened yet when Boris and Amare came off the bench. It’s only well after Amare and Boris come to check on Nash and are right by his side that the altercation takes place. So the suspension of Amare Stoudamire and Boris Diaw was...unlawful but made by David Stern in a "horry" (you get the pun!).

A few more things about me and the passion for basketball and the NBA. I've been listening and reading Bill Simmons analysis and comments about the NBA for about 15 years, never really missing any of his podcasts. Steve Nash is the player I tried to emulate unintentionally during my 13 years of amateur basketball playing. He was my doppelganger in the NBA. I had played football brilliantly until high school when I fell in love with basketball. Technically speaking I turned long 25 meter leg shots on the football field I used to kick (and destroyed a few rusty goal posts!) into later well known long threes on the basketball court opposing teams were afraid of in the 90s because they didn't know how to guard them so far from the basket. I played basketball at semi-pro level until graduating from college when I got my spinal cord injury just like Steve(!), not to mention I am white European and had long hair for years. 

I've watched Steve's career from day 1 and knew right away he would turn out to be THIS good. The rest is just hate and envy coming from low IQ players like Shaq & co. and their so-called "fans" who just jumped on bandwagons like Lakers, Heat and Warriors at the time. Life is unfair but worth living as long as you keep in mind what Steve Nash always said (but not many listened): "Let's have some fun out there!".