NBA Dreams of Not So Much Reality

I keep playing this video game I’ve had for years now: NBA 2K10. It’s on the PS2. I’ve yet to buy a PS3, much less the newer PS4.

This info may be boring to anyone who’s not an NBA fan, but here is my explanation of my boredom. I started the franchise with the Boston Celtics. The first season starts in 2009 and goes to 2010. In real life, the NBA Finals was between the Lakers and Celtics, as it was in the game. In my season, the Celtics won. Not that odd. Next season in the game, same match up and same result. Again, not that strange. In real life, the Lakers and Celtics met 2 times in 3 years between 2008 and 2010. Not that strange to meet 3 times in 4. 
The strangeness begins as Kobe Bryant leaves the Lakers for Minnesota. Kurt Rambis is the T-Wolves’ coach. Maybe a Laker connection and triangle offense sells Kobe on a switch. Phil Jackson retires. Doc Rivers retires a 3-time champ (2008, 2010, 2011). New Celtic coach. Next Final in 2012 is Celtics over a Kevin Durant-less Thunder (Thunder make Finals without Durant). My Celtics defeat the Westbrook-lead Thunder in 4 games.

Next season, Tim Duncan is not on a team. Another break in realism. Surely the Spurs would have made room for him. I decide to make room on the Celtics for him. With Duncan, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo (Duncan signed for near veteran minimum exception) I defeat Portland in the 2013 Finals. (Lebron stayed in Cleveland through all this and doesn’t do much.) Okay, so that is a pretty good team and Brandon Roy (still healthy in this video hadn’t land) gets hurt in the Finals. Well, I sign Duncan to a long-term deal and trade him to Minnesota with Kobe for…Kevin Love. Granted, in this franchise Love was laboring away on Minnesota’s bench, so I freed him from that.

Well, in the 2013-14 season (in the game) I trade away Pierce, Garnett, and Allen. So, even though it made sense to trade off aging players, I likely would have been run out of town as the guy who traded off 3 five time champions (4 if you include Duncan). Except that with the addition of a promising rookie, I didn’t miss a beat and was the 2nd best team in the league still. I even tried loading up the other contenders to beat me. The Nets had Carmelo Anthony, a still healthy Yao Ming, and Jalen Rose (the game’s doing not mine on this one). I beat the Nets in 5 and the Anthony-less Nuggets made it to the Finals, where I easily swept them. Wish I had left Anthony on the Nuggets. That may have been a better match up. Just to see if I could, I scored 116 points with the rookie in a playoff game this season, too.

I’m now in the 2014-15 season and 2nd in the East to the Nets. The new rookie (now 2nd year) might be MVP. I have a new big three of Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo, and this Alvin Bridges. But I’ve won 5 NBA Titles in a row and probably on my way to a 6th. Why am I still playing? The season’s seem to be a forgone conclusion and the game is way too easy.