If you want to play a video game recreating the sport of basketball, your only real option these days is 2K's NBA series, which is a casino-like experience so exploitative and bereft of joy that I would only wish it on my worst enemies. If you want to play a video game recreating the experience of being a basketball fan on the internet, however, you should try playing 82-0.
A browser game that says it's from 2025 but which has blown up online just this week, it works like this: you roll the dice to generate lists of players who were on the rosters of teams in a certain decade ("Cleveland in the 2010s, "Boston in the 1980s", etc) then have to draft a starting five, picking one player per roll. Once you pick a player that's it, that position is filled, so if a subsequent roll gets you a better player at the same position, tough.
Let's say you roll Denver in the 2020s first-up: do you grab Jokic, an extremely good basketball player, or do you hope that you can roll the Sixers or Lakers later on and get Wilt, an even better centre (for the statistical purposes of this game), instead? And if you do that, who else do you pick from the 2020s Nuggets, because you have to pick someone? Jamal Murray? But you might get the 2010s Warriors later, gah!
While settling for "extremely good" players instead of "the best of all-time" might work in most fantasy scenarios, what stings about 82-0 is that the stated aim of the experience is that you build a roster that can go a whole NBA regular season undefeated. The closest an actual team has come to that were the Warriors in 2015-16, when they went 73-9, and that's a record that might never be broken, because in a league where parity is key and the bounce of a basketball can be cruel, it's almost impossible to have everything go your way across 82 games.
I'm thinking it's almost impossible to achieve in this game, too, because the closest I've come today--82-0 takes the stats of your roster and crunches them to generate a simulated W-L record--is 71-11 with a squad featuring Steph, Charles Barkley and Luka:
So yeah, it's hard! Brutal, even! Because no matter how lucky you get with your draws on some all-timers, you'll usually end up stuck with a squad that has at least one Regular Guy on it (the roster above is the only one I've ever made that doesn't), and that's enough to bring your stats down to the point where you lose some games.
Which is fine, because I don't think the point here is to actually go 82-0 (though some have obviously achieved this). The real fun here is comparing your squads, arguing about the rules, debating the stats and boasting about your talent assessment, all hallmarks of modern, online NBA fandom. If there was just some way to complain about flopping and the refs it would be perfect.
NBA fans should check 82-0 out here, and if you're into it, please note the pop-up you'll get pretty early on about server costs and if you can spare a buck or two to help out!
