And we back!!
Lol s/o to KOT4Q tho.
This time we got Clyde “The Glide” Drexler Spotlight Series. Join me as I recount certain games throughout this series that I found interesting. Grab your brew, spark your loud, take your shits or just kick back and enjoy my struggles against the CPU on the way to Diamond Steve Francis.
Challenge 3 (27 w/ Paxson)
So the first two challenges don’t really merit any discussion, but I found this one interesting because it wasn’t about Clyde.
This challenge was only on Rookie, but I was still surprised at how the Paxson card played.
His stats didn’t look great… especially his shooting. I figured it would take a lot of money plays to get him going.
I looked at his Evo goal and decided to run him in a Weekly before the Spotlight.
And…… he was actually nice!
He dropped a smooth 18, scoring in a variety of ways. His slashing was the biggest surprise, as he could just turbo around guys and go up with aggression at the rim. This card is solid.
Ok, I’m confident now.
On to the challenge.
The 60 three ball feels like 75 on Rookie. I ran Floppy a few times to get him going, and he shot fairly decent from deep. His driving to the basket was on point tho. Like in the Weekly, I was just driving around defenders and getting dunks and layups.
Oh, these early challenges are the best lol.
Too bad I know what lies ahead… 
Pax was goin off, but Clyde stole the show with this up-and-under that saw his head in the rim like some kinda basketball guardian angel, throwing it down with Divine mercy and shit.
Sure enough, Pax was POTG and secured the W (and his first Evolution) with 36 points.
I dunno if I’ll mess with Evo’ing him anymore, but I’ll take any boosts I can get for that final game.
Challenge 4 (Beat the Mavs)
The Mavs actually kept it close in the first half. They have a decent lil squad on this challenge, and they did one thing that caught me off guard by bringing the ball up with the PF Aguirre. I didn’t expect to have to bring KG out to meet a 6’6" ball handling power Forward. Dude came out hot, and kept getting assists.
Ok, cool. Time for KG to showcase those perimeter chops. I’m meeting you at half court buddy. Run that shit.
Oh, now you tryna go down low?
You’re the size of a guard, bro.
Get that weak shit outta here…
Starbury was ball Hawking, letting us score on the break and not having to worry about half court offense too much.
I finally tried out the Pippen card in this game, and I was impressed with his playmaking ability. We know he’s clamping up, but he’s dropping dimes too…
Rondo with the Alley…
…AD with the Oop.
Looking like that first preseason game, yeah? 
Clyde had 19 points and some nice dunks. Kenny the Jet had 9 pts 5 ast, with 2 rips. We took the W and kept it rolling.
Fun lil game, this one.
Challenge 5 (Beat the Lakers)
Pink Diamond Magic.
Diamond Kareem.
Sapphire Worthy.
Ok then… 
Nah lol this one wasn’t as bad as I thought. Only three minute quarters, and the CPU Magic didn’t post my Marbury all game, so it was straight.
Magic was still tough, but I just sagged off and made him look for other guys. Any time I pressed up on him, he drove and got the foul. Kareem was also a challenge, but I had a front court of Deke and KG to counter that.
Early in the game, Magic threw a nasty oop to a cutting James Worthy, who shook my Pippen. More on this later.
Remembering that Kurt Rambis was only a silver, I looked to get KG more involved.
Calling for a screen, Starbury sent KG on a cut that resulted in 3 the hard way.
As you can see, he couldn’t understand how Garnett got the shot to fall after he fouled the shit outta him.
KG looked him dead in his face and yelled “ANYTHING IS POSSIBBBBLLLEEE!!!”
After my next post fade with KG, they took Kurt’s spectacled ass out the game lol.
My bench lineup was inspired by the Lakers first preseason game, as Kobe (Laker legend) and Webber (commentator) joined Rondo, Bron and AD.
True to form, LeBron tossed a no-look to a slashing Davis, who got the nasty And-1 over KAJ.
Magic wasn’t really scoring, but he was setting the fucking table like his gf’s parents are coming over for supper. Dude threw two lobs from the 3 point line to end the first half; one to Kareem and another one to Worthy.
We were dead even by the intermission.
(I dunno why my “top performer” was Rondo lmao)
I knew I had to pull ahead in the third quarter, or risk that Magic lob cheese…
So pull ahead I did.
Six straight points from the Mamba to kick things off, including this nasty windmill on the break.
Kurt Rambis once again found himself on the wrong side of an And-1, this time behind a Clyde poster.
We took a big lead and never looked back. It wouldn’t be the last time I saw Kurt Rambis tho…. 
Challenge 6 (Drexler’s 1st ASG)
1986 Eastern All Stars
PD Isiah Thomas
Diamond Moncrief
Damond Dr. J
PD Larry Bird
PD Moses Malone
Damn!!
We’re not messing around anymore huh?
The only requirement is “win the game” so as long as I play smart and minimize turnovers, we’ll be straight.
Yeah right.
The CPU was extra cheesy in this one lol.
My guys were fumbling the ball outta bounds, fouling off the ball and getting boxed out by smaller guys… smh.
I was running PnR, trying to get switches. Either the help came and I was forced to kick, or my bigs were acting like they had 50 strength. Even when I got switched on a big and went ISO with my guards, I couldn’t sauce on them at all.
Moses Malone was looking like Scottie in his prime out there.
Ok, let’s run some plays.
'13 Heat for them 2k19 vibes.
Lots of screens for Starbury, B.Roy and Kobe.
I’m learning how important it is to get your guys shot releases down. If it ain’t Green, it’s prolly not going in. That’s something I really need to improve for online. I can’t wait to get a gaming monitor to help with delay too.
Surprisingly, I held a slim lead going into halftime. Leads are never safe when you’re playing against All Star teams tho. Especially in these Spotlight Series.
My team needed a hero.
Giannis takes over.
Dunking on anybody in his path.
Getting to the line (8-8 baby!!).
When you see that red circle under his feet, GG. I’m looking to catch a body every time down the floor.
I was being stingy with my MT and didn’t want to pony up for him. I was reading everyone on here saying how he is still incredible and you need to go get him and blah blah blah… so I finally did.
Mane!!! Best 50k I’ve spent all year 
Moses gets revenge with the And-1 slam right over the Greek Freak himself. After hitting the FT, it’s a 5 point game.
Kevin Garnett comes up big like we’re still playing his Spotlight Series…
Clutch block on Bird with just under two minutes remaining.
Driving dunk. Gets to the line, hits both.
CLUTCH.
(I’m close to getting him to Amy… he’s a beast)
I’ll take the W and my Sapphire Jeff Malone and you’ll never see me again lol.
Deuces!
Challenge 7 (Score 40 on MJ )
“Use Clyde Drexler and score 40 on pink diamond MJ”
Oh. Ok.
Now, I could have moved Clyde to the SF, where a less intimidating Emerald Pippen was waiting…
But if I’m gonna do it, I’ma do it all the way.
I started out strong, sending Clyde on Triangle cuts for dunks or FT’s.
Michael Ray Richardson got us some extra possessions with a few steals, but his only two points of the game came from this dunk on His Airness.
I was playing smart with Drexler. No use trying to pull up with this Pink Diamond blood hound on my ass all night. Let’s get to the rim.
With 25 at the half, I was confident.
MJ comes out with renewed energy, ball Hawking my ass for a couple steals and even hitting his signature switch layup.
Clyde responds with a crazy dunk where he grabs the rim and sorta swings himself underneath to throw it down on the other side. I’ve never seen this animation before so it was dope.
Despite some incredible play, MJ gets a 50 burger dropped on his head and we take the win.
Jordan still had a crazy stat line, so respect to the 
Challenge 8 (11 Assists)
This game was awesome for many reasons.
First of all… I now understand the true power within the Nets playbook lol. I got Clyde’s first nine assists organically, but then I started messing with that Quick Thru STS play and brooooo… Domination and evolving cards is gonna be a helluva lot easier from here out.
Another reason why this game was awesome is because it was Diamond Eddie Jones first game on the squad!!
I was spreading the love to everyone, racking up those assists for Drex. I wasn’t even trying to feature him but Eddie still ended with 11/2/4 and went 3/3 from deep.
I think I’m really going to like this card…
Lastly, this game was awesome because Clyde Drexler has some spectacular dunk animations. Remember how I said we weren’t done with Kurt Rambis? Lol well once again he found himself on a poster… only this time it was a
LOST
HAVE YOU SEEN ME??
because I murdered this man.
It was the 4th quarter and I was on takeover with Clyde. My assist goal was set, so I was just having some fun.
I didn’t think anything bad would happen.
I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
It was only one time….
Challenge 9 (Finals vs Pistons)
This game was fun.
Newly acquired Diamond Eddie Jones splashed a 3 at the halftime buzzer.
Nothing else to see here.
Challenge 10 (Diamond Magic)
If this is the card we get for all of these Spotlight rewards, I’m cool with it. Diamond Magic did his thing in this game, dropping a 16/2/6 line with a few pain-in-my-ass steals to go with it.
At times, the CPU was frustrating. They went on a little run in the 2nd where they just could not miss, and they kept getting to the line. Going into the half, I was actually down lol.
I really enjoy those games where someone unexpected on your team turns out to be a big factor in your success.
For me, in this game, it was Ben Simmons.
He was the 12th man on this lineup, and I didn’t even expect to run him big minutes. Starting the third quarter from behind tho, I needed a spark. Magic was making Ruby Worthy look like last year’s Opal.
Enter Ben Simmons.
He used his size to pester Worthy, who had been killing me in the first half. He was getting out on the breaks, looking for easy dunks. He helped bring us back and take the lead.
Simmons had some help from Kobe. When he wasn’t being guarded by Magic, he was torturing Byron Scott. I guess Byron couldn’t hang with the Mamba… 
Unfortunately, the Mamba had to baptize one of his mentors…
Kobe dropped 20, Simmons had 10/2/3 and a block in the second half alone.
Sorry Magic! See you soon tho 
Challenge 11 (Hold MJ under 20)
Good Lord the 
!!!
I know I could have just set it to double MJ every time and make the rest of the team beat me, but I wanted to do it my way.
I actually had to play this one twice.
The first time it was a fairly competitive game. I decided I was starting Kobe at the 2 because I’m a sucker for Kobe vs Jordan moments. He only had 8 points in the first half, but I messed up by going back and forth with him. Running down with Kobe and trading buckets. Sure enough, as the game is winding down and we are winning, MJ is still drawing fouls from my goofy ass CPU teammates and with under 1 minute to go, he sinks 2 FT’s to make it 20 points.
Fuck me.
Run it back 
In the next game, Mike again waited until the second half before going off.
This time I was ready.
Using most of the shot clock, bringing doubles and letting other guys score, there was NO WAY I was letting him get 20 again.
I was still putting in work with Kobe tho.
Kobe actually broke his ankles with the spinning jumper, and the rest of the squad went crazy on the bench.
Remember that All Star Game my rookie year Mike? Payback’s a bitch
Challenge 12 (Hakeem’s Rockets)
This shit was so toxic, I couldn’t even call for a screen without getting ripped. My guys literally forgot how the human body works… Giannis fumbling a pass into the hands of Otis Thorpe. Marbury getting stripped on layup attempts. Guys pulling up for jumpers instead of layups/dunks. Ice skating outta bounds.
It was ugly.
And of course, the Rockets couldn’t miss if they tried. I knew PD Hakeem would be a problem, but the rest of the team was Gold’s and Emeralds!! Goddamn man.
I got to debut T-Ross and Wilt, who I was lucky enough to pack. I also tried out Amy Steve Nash, who I got from the wheel locker code. He’s…. Okay. 🤷
I finally got my shit together in the third quarter and pulled ahead. KG had to check Hakeem’s bitch ass and let him know I was getting tired of playing these cheesy ass games.
Ross was POTG with 15/3/2 shooting 60%. Wilt The Stilt had a solid 9/8/2 but this was not a good game to try him out lol.
PD Hakeem still finished with 12 & 11 and 4 blocks lmao.
Challenge 14 (Drop 41 pts)
Stockton and Malone really pissed me off.
The whole team pissed me off.
It felt like after two buckets they were sending the double on Clyde. They used up almost all of the SC on damn near ever possession.
You basically need (at least) 10 points per quarter to reach your goal, but the five min quarters feel like three min quarters with all the bullshit. So you’re really trying to get it in.
Abusing the Quick Thru STS is the move in this one. Put that pride to the side and grind that shit out lol.
In what seems to be a theme in these challenges, Hornacek had this half court prayer answered with less than a second before halftime.
At least I was going into the half with 28 points lol.
Quick Thru STS.
Quick Thru STS.
Quick Thru STS.
Shortly into the last quarter, I was sitting on 42 with Drexler and no worries.
Once I reached my goal, I was able to mess around with my new Amythest Reward DeAndre Jordan. He’s a beast when it comes to catching lobs 
Challenge 15 (Score 39 with Hakeem)
I saw on here and YouTube that this game was glitched, requiring only 1 point from Hakeem to meet your goal. So I was extremely disappointed to find that they apparently patched it lol.
The cool thing about this Amy Hakeem is you can run him at the PF. So with my shiny new PD Wilt at the 5, run him at PF is exactly what I did.
Amy David Robinson can battle Wilt all night. Silver Chuck Person ain’t stopping this.
Now, I’d be lying if I said it was super easy. At this stage of the challenges, the CPU is injecting the same shit as the Lizard in Amazing Spider Man.
But Hakeem has some of the best post animations in the game.
His spins, his fades, his hook… butter baby.
So, with a little effort, I dropped 40 and quietly cruised to the next one.
Challenge 16 (Championship)
Young Shaq was a fucking problem.
But I had the solution.
Young Shaq is fast and powerful, like he was irl. And just like irl, he can’t shoot a lick. Maybe 2k didn’t want to dick us too hard on this one, but the Magic ran a lot of sets that brought Shaq out of the paint.
That’s cool with me.
Sag off, make him drive like he’s a guard or some shit. Bring the help defender and get good contests when he goes up. If you foul him, cool. Send his big ass to the line. The rest of his team is pretty buns. Even Penny is just a Saph.
This one wasn’t nearly as bad as I was anticipating.
As for my team, it was the Kobe & KG show. Kevin Garnett had 20/6/1/1/1 in a fantastic game. The Mamba was in his playmaking bag, dropping 9 assists to go with 12 points.
It’s time for the big one.
Challenge 17 (Finale)
My goodness, the CHEESE!!! I snapped and quit my first attempt lmao. This shit was crazy. You would think I’d be ready after playing the other games but this one was on a whole nother level with the fuckery.
So I decided to use Free Agent Michael Jordan as my extra card. A little unorthodox maybe… but I wanted to fight fire with fire. I knew GO MJ and PD Pippen were going to be tough. GO Magic was going to be unstoppable. I’d just have to go bucket for bucket and capitalize on any stops.
Well… the first game didn’t go that way.
Right out the gate, they were hitting EVERYTHING. And once again, my guys were forgetting how to do simple things like passing the ball, or staying in bounds.
We were down going into the half, but I was determined to bring us back and make it a game.
Well… good luck kid lol.
I was still getting ass blasted in third…
…when Magic stole the ball. He STOPPED the break and WAITED for his team to join him, just to throw this lob from the 3 point line to MJ.
Fuuuuuck this.
Restart and re-focus.
Ok… I can do this.
Some guy was beating on the locker room door, telling me they’re ready.
There was vomit on my jersey already, mom’s spaghetti. I was nervous.
But on the surface I was calm and ready…
To drain 3s.
But my Coach keeps forgetting what he wrote down.
The whole crowd goes so loud…
We opened our book but the plays don’t come out!!
It’s over now… everybody’s joking now…
The clock ran out, times up! Over!! Wow!!
Snap back to reality, oh…
There goes Olajuwon, whoa!
Sending Zeke’s shit into the front row.
Lol sorry y’all.
Anyways, this time I really locked in on defense and made them work for everything. As they say, defense leads to offense, and as I was able to get points in transition, I started getting into a groove. I stopped trying to hit jumpers and focused on getting to the rack first.
Mike and Scottie were doing well, but my bench mob really helped. Kersey has some nice animations at the rim, and a big frame. He can finish with the best of em.
Fat Lever was the floor general for that second unit. This damn Gold card was putting in work!!! At one point, he tossed a lob for James Edwards.
James Edwards
Ole wide body, block head, Gold card James Edwards. His knees are so bad, he couldn’t even flush the lob LOL
Old ass had to lay it up.
I think Brandon Roy’s face says it all…
This time, we were leading at the half. No motivational speech needed coach!! On that 8Ball & MJG shit, we were Coming Out Hard in the third quarter. MJ caught Worthy sleeping for this And 1 dunk. Sinks the FT.
From Green to Red… 
Pippen was locking up anyone who dared to dribble in his presence. He tied up David Robinson for the jump ball, which he actually won!
When you have MJ on takeover, there ain’t much a defender can do. I’m just glad it was my MJ and not CPU MJ.
They tried to close the gap in the 4th, but it wasn’t enough as we held on for the 77-72 win!!
Michael Jordan was spectacular with 25 pts, 3 assists and 2 steals.
B.Roy added 14, while Kenny the Jet had 8 pts and 8 assists on perfect shooting from the floor.
Otis Thorpe had a 7/7/4 line, and Fat Lever the Gold MVP had 10 assists and a steal, without even taking a single shot 
Honestly, this was the easiest of the three Spotlight Series challenges, but there were a few games that kept it from being a cakewalk.
Overall, I had fun.
And this set has some awesome cards like Roy, Pippen, Kersey and Clyde himself.
I appreciate y’all for coming with me on this journey! This shit is goofy but it’s fun to me lol. And I got a kick outta making notes in my phone as I played these challenges all week. I’m looking forward to the next one!
Welcome to the squad Stevie Franchise!!
2500 Mt Multiplayer Challenge (first game with Franchise)
Not the best stat line for Francis but my opponent rage quit in the 3rd. 🤷
Put Looney on a couple different posters tho.
