NBA 2K director: Stephen Curry is a 'rule breaker'
The NBA 2K video game franchise is widely lauded for its close adherence to the real, physical laws of basketball.
For example, NBA 2K factors in prior events - like fatigue, or ball movement - to accurately recreate NBA games on the video game platform. Typically speaking, if you have the player pull off a series of dribble moves before firing a jumper, or just fire jumpers non-stop, shooting accuracy drops - just like real life.
But what happens when one player, namely the league's MVP in Stephen Curry, is the exception to the rule?
"To be completely honest, we are still looking for ways to better translate (Curry's) game into NBA 2K," NBA 2K gameplay director Mike Wang told Ben Sin of Forbes.com. "He’s a 'rule breaker' when it comes to jump shooting … he becomes a problem in the video game world where we’ve been trying to train our gamers (to know) that certain types of shots should be rewarded versus others."
The goal for Wang is to create something as close to real life as possible, but also to not create something of a cheat code, or a glitch ("cheese," as it's typically called by NBA 2K fanatics). But those two dynamics are at odds with Curry and his shooting styles.
"Taking 3s off the dribble are also definitely discouraged in NBA 2K," Wang says. "Especially after over-dribbling beforehand."
Curry's breaking those conventions in real life. He's making 43.3 percent of his pull-up 3-pointers, and his percentages are at or above 40 percent regardless of the number of dribbles beforehand.
| Dribbles | 3PTM | 3PTA | 3PT% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 Dribbles | 2.4 | 5 | 46.9 |
| 1 Dribble | 0.6 | 1.1 | 50 |
| 2 Dribbles | 0.3 | 0.5 | 46.4 |
| 3-6 Dribbles | 0.8 | 2.1 | 39.3 |
| 7+ Dribbles | 0.8 | 1.9 | 43 |
(Courtesy: NBA stats)
Curry, it seems, is also relatively limitless. He's shooting 44.7 percent on shots from 25-29 feet out, and connecting on an absurd 60 percent on shots from 30-34 feet.
For Wang, the head-scratching task of accurately porting Curry to the video game platform is an ongoing process.
"We’re going to have to invest even more time in future iterations to really let Steph be Steph in future versions of NBA 2K," Wang said.
- With h/t to Fox Sports