NBA Stories: Sasha Djordjevic

ALEKSANDAR "SASHA' DJORDJEVIC

(This was also one of the first NBA trading cards I have got back when I was in high school)

     I started working on a game that is more appealing to me lately than any other game before: NBA 2K10. I always wanted to mod the 1995-1996 NBA season which was the last year Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson played together in Phoenix (the duo I loved to watch when I started following the NBA around 1992).

     While creating the draftees who entered the league at the end of 1996 because I want to play a fantasy association game but based on reality with realistic players, I stumbled upon a Serbian player I watched A LOT when I lived in Europe. Sasha Djordjevic was every European basketball teen's dream on T.V.!

     In 1996 Djordjevic accepted Portland's offer for the NBA minimum salary of $247,000 while Djordjevic's contract with Barcelona was worth $3.3 million for two and a half seasons(!). So he took a HUGE salary cut just to compete in the NBA. What happened next will explain why a coach by the name P.J. Carlesimo was chocked by the legendary NBA player Latrell Sprewell at the end of the next season when Sasha's coach worked for the Golden State Warriors...

     Djordjevic understood that he would be Portland's back-up point guard, because he believed he could do enough in 15 minutes per game to eventually command a starting position in the NBA. As it turned out, the Trail Blazers coach, P.J. Carlesimo, branded him a defensive liability and limited Djordjevic's NBA career to 61 minutes.

     "Obviously, the coach had a lot of problems," Djordjevic said. "He doesn't communicate with the players. It's not like figures on a chessboard, where you move the pieces saying the horse can do that, the queen, the king. "Now I'm feeling a little bit cheated. The people were so nice, but the coaches didn't talk to me. You would think they would talk to the players, especially the guy who is the point guard, who comes from another culture."

     Obviously, each NBA coach knows his team best. But it's just as obvious, watching Djordjevic in Atlanta, that he flourishes under pressures that would undo many NBA regulars. He said he is content now to be one of those great players that Americans will never know.

"There are a lot of players on the high level of Europe who can easily play in the NBA — easily," he said. "I'm not underestimating the NBA level. I am saying that you can find players on the same level in Europe. They just have to go to the right NBA team at the right spot and the right age. Me, I am 29. I just want to play."

     This story goes almost hand in hand with another Serb's career: Sasha Danilovic who played for a longer time in the NBA and much more successfully (he started as SG for Miami Heat). But Danilovic also left the NBA being disgusted by the team's organization and those who were in NBA's charge. Such a shame!

     Sasha Djordevic's PER GAME stats look like this:

G PTS TRB AST FG% FG3% FT%
8 3.1 0.6          0.6         50.0         71.4         80.0

     But his NBA stats PER 36 MINUTES look as good as any NBA star's:

Levy's 2002-03 DLC is launched (as a tribute to the G.O.A.T., Michael Jordan)

              Here we go again! A brand new DLC is launched today: Levy's 2002-03 DLC. This will go as a tribute to Michael Jordan who played his last season with Washington Wizards in the 2002-2003 NBA Season.

              As much as I hated Michael Jordan for winning the 1993 NBA Championship against my favorite team Phoenix Suns, I always admired his godlike basketball skills. The 1992 Dream Team at the Olympic Games at Barcelona looked so cool in those white uniforms having MJ as the leader of the new generation! That will be the iconic team of perfect basketball…although they lost to the American college team that year (allegedly they let them win).

          Jordan had a long, successful career. He retired twice and came back just as many times. His last run with the Washington Wizards was a proof that a perfect athlete can compete even at the age of 39-40. Now, that brings us to the raw, nasty side of Jordan’s personality. He was psycho enemy team killer. Some called him a sociopath. And that is not far from the truth.

         The referees were helping him winning? Yes, for sure. Could anyone stop him from destroying individuals on the court and teams? No.

               

             Recently I watched several YouTube videos about what contemporary NBA players called the killer instinct of Michael Jordan. Simply put, you couldn’t provoke His Airness without getting humiliated in the end.

         But sometimes, MJ was funny and looked friendly out there to some of the less threatening players like Sam Cassell.

Levy's PHX Dynasty: The League

3.      THE LEAGUE

There are many great things to say about the whole league and the way it progressed over a few months of simulation. Obviously I played ALL my Phoenix games in this awesome Coach Mode - which makes the game look like a “general manager” basketball sim game. Why nobody really played it like this? I will tell you why. Because if you don’t have the right Roster file with properly and realistically created players plus a well adjusted lineup, trust me it won’t work too well.

As you know, my game uses real contracts and real ratings based on 36 minutes per game stats. Basically you can see some of the greats at work in your virtual reality game. I remind you, I am WATCHING my game as a coach, NOT PLAYING as a player. Seeing Kevin Johnson dunking over Hakeem in one of the recent PHX vs. HOU games this season made my heart skip a beat. It reminded me of that great dunk in the real NBA in 1994 that embarrassed Kenny Smith for playing bad defense on KJ and really upset Hakeem.

THE TRADES

What I liked most about the league was the way it handled the trades. I mean they looked REALISTIC like I have never seen before in any of those 2K12, 2K14 and the rest of the horrible future instalments of the NBA 2K that kids buy these days.

Let me give you some examples of trades the CPU teams did this season before the trade deadline. A few teams simply started signing the free agents available on the market. LAL signed GF-Dontonio Wingfield for 1 year/2.14M then they traded him to WAS for G-Lawrence Moten and a 2^nd round pick; GSW signed G-Vernon Maxwell for 1 year/2.18M; HOU signed C-Loren Meyer for 1 year/2.34M; SAC signed G-Lloyd Daniels.

HOU was involved in most of the trades. They sent PG-Matt Maloney and PG-Brent Price to DET in exchange for PG-Joe Dumars and FC-Rick Mahorn. A few days later, DET traded PF-Grant Long for PG-Randy Livingston (ATL). Hawks also traded FC-Alan Henderson and a 2^nd round pick for G-Tim Legler from WAS. Then SF-Eddie Johnson for PG-Terry Porter (MIN). They also wanted desperately Big Ghita who is my starting center and whom I signed earlier this season. He is having a double-double with PHX.

LAC had its own good deal of trades. They gave away a 1^st round pick for G-Bob Sura and PF-Danny Ferry from CLE, and then later traded PG-Pooh Richardson and C-Stojko Vrankovic for PG-Mark Jackson (IND). After that, SG-Brent Barry went to HOU for C-Loren Meyer and F-Rodrick Rhodes. And F-Rodney Rogers went to (an imaginary but foreseeable in the future) Bobcats team for centers John Amaechi and Amal McCaskill.

CLE made a historical trade acquiring PG-John Stockton from UTH in exchange for F-Carl Thomas and PF-Cedric Henderson. Then they traded three pointer specialist SG-Wesley Person for PF-Lawrence Funderburke and G-Lloyd Daniels (SAC).

DEN traded F-Laphonso Ellis to GSW for G-Vernon Maxwell and C-Felton Spencer.

NJN traded two guards, Kerry Kittles and Kevin Edwards to LAL for PG-Derek Fisher.

NYK traded two of its guards, John Starks and Chris Mills for SG-Hubert Davis and PF-A.C. Green (DAL). And then PF-Charles Oakley and a 1^st round pick for PG-Terrell Brandon (MIL). They also made a shocking trade in giving away the heart of their franchise, C-Patrick Ewing for PG-Ron Harper and a 2^nd round pick (CHI).  CHI also traded PG-Steve Kerr to IND for C-Mark West.

POR gave away their PG-Kenny Anderson for a 1^st round pick and C-Derrick Coleman (PHI). They also traded C-Arvydas Sabonis for C-Dean Garrett and SF-Eric Williams (DEN). And later SG-Isiah Rider went to SAS for SF-Monty Williams.

SAC traded two of its aces: shooting extraordinaire PG-Abdul Rauf for PG-Tyus Edney and PF-Roy Rogers (BOS), then SG-Mitch Richmond for one of the best rebounders in the league in PF-Carlos Rogers (TOR). Later TOR sent GF-Walt Williams to WAS for PG-Rod Strickland and PG-God Shammgod. WAS also acquired guards Bimbo Coles and Brian Shaw from GSW.

SEA gave away all-around player F-Detlef Schrempf for PF-Terry Cummings and a 1^st round pick (PHI). They also get rid of the bad mouth of PG-Gary Payton a 1^st round pick and PG-Michael Williams from MIN which surprisingly traded F-Kevin Garnett to VAN Grizzlies for a player in a hot shape by the name of Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

THE INJURIES

Some of the NBA teams were less fortunate this season because of injuries. Some of those happened early in the season as well. I remember ATL losing PG-Mookie Blaylock one or two weeks into the season… Then VAN Grizzlies losing their starting PG-Lee Mayberry. Next was TOR Raptors losing C-Marcus Camby. FOR THE SEASON!

The other teams and their players were luckier. They usually missed 1 or 2 weeks, in some case a month or two (Rodman was one of them but CHI still won during his absence).

I strongly believe some of these injuries influenced the way the teams played this season and their win-loss ratio. This is perfectly REALISTIC!

This season coming to a close, I decided to reduce the effect of injury so from now on my sliders have Injury Frequency at 5 and Injury Severity at 0. Players still get injured quite badly sometimes. It might be a 2K bug like many others…

NBA Stories: KJ's historical last run with the Suns

          Here is a story for you. Kevin Johnson retired at the end of the 1997-98 season (officially on 1999.10.02). He comes back TWO years later after NOT playing basketball at all...unlike MJ who made hoops and had his own gym AT HOME while he was "retired".

          So...KJ comes back to Phoenix because they had a decimated team by losing players (their start point guard Jason Kidd) to injuries and practically didn't have 12 healthy players to fill the roster. Next thing they do thank to their mentor KJ, Suns eliminates the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the Western Conference. Spurs are undoubtedly the best dynasty team after the 90s Chicago Bulls.

          There are a few noticeable things about this 1999-2000 NBA season Phoenix team. Clifford Robinson led the team in scoring at 18.5 points per game. Hardaway, Jason Kidd, Rodney Rogers, Tom Gugliotta, and top draft pick Shawn Marion rounded out a list of six Suns players averaging double-digits in points.

          Kidd led the NBA in assists per game and was tied for fifth in steals, while being selected for the 2000 NBA All-Star Game. Rogers finished the regular season fourth in three-point field goal percentage, and won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award. Kidd would earn All-NBA First Team and NBA All-Defensive Second Team honors.

          Now it would be too much to say Kevin Johnson singlehandedly beat San Antonio but him mentoring Phoenix surely got the job done. He came out of his retirement and played in six games and then would retire for the second time after the playoffs.

          This was my comment to the following video PRAISING Michael Jordan on the day he retired for the second time in his career, in 1998:

          "You media people suck but are lucky to have a job thanks to these great athletes! Yeah, KJ was a terrible human being but still a better person than the psycho MJ. The biased NBA still doesn't think KJ who had almost a double-double per game career is HOF worthy, FFS! NOW, use this story. It's a free gift from me so you can get the money to feed your family! ;)"

Levy's PHX Dynasty: The Team

LEVY’S PHOENIX SUNS DYNASTY

(A 2K11 Association Mode based on Levy’s 1997-98 DLC and future updates)

THE TEAM

            Every franchise needs a few great players so I decided to get my hands on the big guns especially since my team lost more games than it won.

            The first addition to the team was PG-Brook Thompson who is an average player but a much needed backup point guard whom I assumed I could use later if one of my main guards gets injured. He was signed as a free agent for 1 year at 1.96 million/year with the player’s option in the 2nd year. I am at the middle of the season when I post this and B. Thompson didn’t do much except playing a few minutes per game as a substitute in the fourth quarter when the team was already losing. Later in the season, I traded him along with C-Charles Jones (whom I acquired from Houston) for a 1998 2^nd round pick and G-Vinny Del Negro who was on San Antonio’s trade list.

            Most of the trades I’ve done were offered by the teams controlled by the CPU. I never forced any trade on the CPU teams in order to keep the realism level high in my game. As a lifelong Suns fan, I wanted to stay loyal to the real life Phoenix Suns but some of these offers were too good to be refused. On 26/11 Milwaukee offered me Ray Allen in exchange for FC-Antonio McDyess and a 2^nd round pick. At that time my starting SG (Rex Chapman wasn’t doing great), so I took the offer. Who wouldn’t want a pure shooter on his roster?

The next trade offered to me was on the 16/12 by the Houston Rockets who wanted a young guard-forward desperately so they offered me PF-Charles Barkely and FC-Charles Jones for GF-Marko Milic and my other starting power forward and really great FC-Danny Manning. I was sad to see Manning leave but couldn’t resist to the idea of a “back to the future” Phoenix Suns from 1993. I already had PG-Kevin Johnson and SF-Cedric Ceballos on my roster so Chuck was the missing link, right? Or was it Majerle…because the next thing I did on 14/1 was to trade SG-Rex Chapman back to where he came from, the Heat, for none else than GF-Dan Majerle. Now my team was about to bring back some sweet memories with Danny Ainge as coach who also played in the 1993 NBA Finals against Chicago.

            Another trade I made was very subjective. My favourite Suns player of all time, Steve Nash wasn’t very happy as the 3^rd point guard behind Jason Kidd and KJ so…I decided to part ways with my starter PG-Jason Kidd in exchange for a player I always admired on and off the court, FC-Brian Williams aka Bison Dele from Detroit Pistons who in real life died in mysterious circumstances in Tahiti being probably killed by his money hungry brother – which was really a modern Cain & Abel story.

            And one last notable acquisition was signing a giant who was a novelty in the NBA at the middle of the 90s, the tallest player at 7’7’’ C-Gheorghe Muresan who in reality was born not far from where I was born. He fit in perfectly and started to dominate the boards and collect game MVPs one after another.

            There were a few minor injuries happening to my players this season: Marko Milic, John Williams, Horacio Llamas-Grey, Chapman, Thompson, Ray Allen were all on the injured list for 1-2 weeks. During SG-Ray Allen’s two weeks injury, my team had the longest winning streak (8!) which can hardly make sense. Ray-Ray is my 3^rd best scorer and my team owes him the recovery at the beginning of the season. But while he was out, other players stepped up.

            At the moment my team leaders are:

And my roster looks like this:

Levy's PHX Dynasty: Intro

LEVY’S PHOENIX SUNS DYNASTY

(A 2K11 Association Mode based on Levy’s 1997-98 DLC and future updates)

We all remember the 2006 NBA Live basketball PC game which came out in the autumn of 2005. That’s when I played a ‘dynasty mode’ last time. So this year it’s been exactly 12 years since then! All this time I craved for a decent game to exercise my itchy fingers to play something similar – and that is happening NOW with NBA 2K11, still the best basketball videogame up to day. ;)

            I remember I liked the NBA Live series by EA Sports but they were missing some visual aspects that nowadays the market is oversaturated with. Unfortunately the NBA 2K series has taken a step back starting with NBA 2K12…which is why I enjoy using 2K11 and have modded the shit out of it too. :)) If you followed my work on the infamous NLSC website and Moddingway, you know I am talking volume here. :)

            So let’s get going with what seems to me to be the biggest NBA gaming experience so far over the last 20+ years (I started playing basketball videogames in the late 90s).

I am huge Phoenix Suns fan since I watched the Suns playing for the first time in 1991-1992 and then of course my basketball world was shaken in 1993 when Barkley & Co. lost to the UnstopaBulls following an injury of Cedric Ceballos who was a starter and possibly a Scottie Pippen stopper. Therefore I always chose Phoenix when playing NBA games no matter if it was on PlayStation 1 or 2 or PSP or PC.

            This year I thought of trying something new. I got tired of screwing around with the controller settings because the game always evolves. Actually the game is a code and it doesn’t evolve only adapts to us. The gamers evolve by becoming better at controlling the players in the game. That means we end up changing the game settings and sliders every now and then to make it more challenging. Well, you might like to do that every second week but I got bored of it!

Another aspect of basketball I like is coaching and managing. I did that in real life for a short time too. Because there is NO decent basketball manager game on the market although I tried pretty much all of them, I decided to try the Coach Mode in NBA 2K11 (which stupidly enough doesn’t exist in the newer instalments of NBA 2K!). And this is when the biggest surprise happened. With all the adjustments to the gameplay and the realistic player attributes I made over the years, with this mode on the game looks completely different. It is so good that beats the real NBA games on TV nowadays. You should try it sometimes but don’t forget to use my DLCs if you want realistic results! :)

Enough said. I will dedicate the following pages to write about the evolution of my Phoenix Dynasty game. And I will start by saying I was so busy having fun with it that I didn’t have time to even write about it. I only saved some in-game print screens and kept some important moments from several games I managed this first season.

The starting year is 1997 to be exact which was a great time to watch NBA as opposed to what is going on these days. Of course the whole 90s decade was dominated by Chicago with the exception of 1994 and 1995 when Michael Jordan decided to focus on his personal life and Houston had a great champion calibre team which brought them two trophies in a row.

            Before I go any further, I have to share some tips with you about the game settings so you understand why things happen the way they happen in my game.

            The general rule if you want my DLC to work is let the game handle the player skills I adjusted with REDeditor. As you might know, I used some formulas to insert realistic values in the Roster file based on real NBA stats taken from Basketball Reference website. I used the 36 minutes factor – that’s why we got high values for players who maybe never had the chance to play many minutes in real life but their skills are absolutely impressive. An example on the Suns is Horacio Llamas-Grey who’s rating is 80(!) but…his stamina and durability are extremely low. That means he will score and rebound at will if you let him unguarded but will play only a few minutes before being substituted for another player who’s durability is higher. And believe it or not, that is all realistic!

Oh, and players will get injured too based on those attributes! This is how I lost a couple of players on my roster to minor injuries this season for example John “Hot Rod” Williams who was at that time the starting center. But that opened my franchise to a new level because I started trading players. I will get into that soon.

Now, if you want to see realism in your – alas, simulated game – you will have to use my settings and sliders along with the “universal” Coach Profile (they all come set up and delivered by email if you ordered any of my DLCs). You can read about them and find them in the How To Play The Game section on my blog.

Levy's 1992-93 DLC is launched (as a tribute to one of, if not the best: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf)

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is my favorite - and the only non-Phoenix Suns - point guard in the NBA between Kevin Johnson and Steve Nash. But of all of them, I respect him the most because he transcended the game of basketball with his work ethic, self-discipline (fighting a terrible Tourette syndrome) and profound humanitarian beliefs.

I can listen to this conference over and over again: amazing story telling by the greatest shooter in the NBA! By the way he still holds the record for the most scored points in college. Only Kevin Durant came close before he graduated almost 10 years ago. Jump to 13:40 in this video and find the truth about who was the best player in the history of the game. No, he wasn't Jordan! Actually a very young guy called Chris Jackson back then beat Jordan in a 1-on-1 game at the NIKE CAMP in 1989!

Of course something had to stop him from climbing that genius ladder... Abdul-Rauf was blackballed by the NBA for his personal beliefs so his basketball appearance in USA was shortened along with our pleasure of watching high class basketball.

He went on to show his amazing skills by playing in different leagues around the world and was still an active player in 2011 at the age of 42! Sadly his best years were taken away by the organized basketball circle of the NBA and corporate America. Here's what he has to say in his defense.