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.

Levy's 1997-98 DLC is launched (as a tribute to STEVE NASH)

Hello gamers from all around the world! The 1997-98 Season DLC is now launched and available for all my paying fans. Check the page with the mod at top, read the description and feel free to contact me. :)

This represents the biggest contribution I ever done for NBA 2K11 from both graphical and database perspective. It also emphasizes the appreciation I always had for STEVE NASH who is one of the greatest players as the best free throw shooter, one of the best shooters and the 3rd best passer in the history of NBA. Therefore the 1997-98 Season DLC is my tribute to my hero Steve Nash who in 1997 was in his 2nd season and still with my favorite team - Phoenix Suns - that drafted him in 1996. 

There were very few people who gave Nash a chance as a rookie (most of the Suns fans were actually booing him in 1996!) but I remember seeing him for the first time on TV and telling to my friends that a player with such unbelievable court vision and unorthodox moves will reach stardom one day. Now, after almost 20 years, some of my friends call me and tell me that if I was an NBA agent at that time I would be probably rich. :))

Steve Nash recently announced his retirement after several years of back pain (coincidentally I played basketball for 13 years as a hobby with the same symptoms!). Nash always played for fun instead of fame - something that players nowadays rarely do - but when pain overcomes joy, you have to make your final choice. Thank you Steve from the bottom of my heart for all those memorable moments, you will always be present in my game! :)

An Open Letter to NLSC

If you were watching my activity on NLSC recently you have probably seen I just got banned. This happened to other great patchers in the past (not that I am one of them!). The reason seems to be...asking for money on their forum which is obviously against the rules because - not many of you know but could have guessed - NLSC have been lobbying for years for companies whose products it is promoting. Now the truth is I NEVER asked for money on that forum! I did "charity" work to make patches available just like everybody else does so people can use them in their game and patch it themselves. And, if people were willing to use my mod they were invited to come over on this blog and get in touch with me so I can provide them with a working Roster file in exchange for a fee. It is my way and at least 1/2 mod patchers out there do the same when they ask for a donation! Anyway, it is a matter of choice how we contribute to the gaming community. I will let you read my open letter that I sent to Andrew, the admin on NLSC, and let you judge the situation yourselves. Here it is!

Andrew,

You know this is bullshit! I never asked for money on YOUR forum! My blog is my own business, who asked you to check on me?! 

And yes, NLSC is YOUR forum because if you cared about the gaming community you would have left the links with the files (btw, all legal!) so everybody can use them, even if they are assholes and never thank for anything. 

I'm afraid you are the biggest loser because you don't respect any rules, not even your own. You just take money from companies to sell an unfinished product like most of the games are nowadays. Now I understand why the best patchers left YOUR forum and all you have left is that ego-maniac skoadam who can't take any criticism.

Btw, I live the life and I am happy to not own anything and have no frustration. My gaming and patching is a very long time hobby, perhaps even before you started because there were no Windows games out there - and I thought I can help others while promoting myself. But you are just too dumb to accept that other people are different from you: seating in a company owned chair and selling lies to people.

I do not want to hear your excuses and please stop telling me about the rules if you are above them! There was the Pope, then we had some dictatorship; now it's a "free" world with BP and people like you trying desperately to own everything just to make them forget they will leave this world exactly the same way as everybody else does: through the backdoor. 

I hope you'll find love and happiness someday 'cause you need it! :)

L.

*NOTE: And to prove my point, Andrew also banned my IP permanently from NLSC after getting this message and seeing it published here so everybody can read it. :))