Not every NBA player can make the transition into acting. They don't all have tour de force performances inside of them, as Michael Jordan did when he left us in emotional tatters on sticky cinema floors with his acclaimed performance as himself in Space Jam. Some guys are just basketball players. That's why I love NBA 2K15's MyCareer mode. It gave (mostly) non-superstar NBA players the opportunity to show off their acting chops and make a little of that sweet ancillary money the Kobes and LeBrons of the league usually hoard for themselves.
MyCareer is a sports game's attempt at a story mode. It lets players create their own character and then take them through the early years of their career, with little moments of story sprinkled throughout. Every team has a designated Mentor -- a real NBA player who advises the main character in the game's piss-poor attempt at simulating the life of an NBA rookie. 2K Sports decided to up the realism by letting NBA players do their own voice acting. So no matter which team you're on you have a real-life NBA player as your Mentor. Immersive, right? It's almost like you're there looking at all that swinging locker-room dick with your own eyes.
The whole thing falls apart once put into practice. It's not that the players lack charisma; it's that there's only dust and a dead spider where their souls should be. It's not that they don't know how to read lines; it's that they're still groggy after waking up in a recording booth tied to a chair surrounded by audio technicians wearing masks from the Purge movies. The quality is bad across the board, with only a couple of players delivering passable performances. Kevin Durant gives one of the best performances of the game, which you will soon find out is not much of a compliment.
The Voice Acting In NBA 2K15 Is Catastrophically Beautiful
