NBA 2K22: A Comeback for the ages on a normal Sunday afternoon

NBA 2K22 regularly has millions upon millions of players who fire the game up daily. With so many players come plenty of games. There have also been a ton of events this year as well, both on the old and new generation consoles.

If you have both the PS4/Xbox One and PS5/Xbox Series XS versions of the game, it’s amazing how different they are. New gen brings back The City but with new additions while old gen sends players on a voyage with a Park style setting on a cruise ship in NBA 2K22.

The events are different too for both. The City features its events in the beautiful Event Center but what makes old gen interesting as they send players on an adventure. From breathtaking snow-capped locations to ones on a beach, there are several unique environments in these NBA 2K22 events.

One event called “Power Up” occurred not long before the end of Season 6 of NBA 2K22. This game is played on a court that’s surrounded by water with a statue of Posiden tower over the court. It’s an epic setting to say the least.

The rules in Power Up are fun as players of certain positions will have their attributes and badges maxed out for one quarter. And then, in the fourth, all players on the court receive this perk which levels the playing field nicely.

I went ahead and got into a game as I love these events; plus, like everyone else, I wanted my 2X Rep, darn it ( I really wanted the baseball helmet). Anytime you head into one of these kinds of games, a key thing for me was always thinking about earning the Rep no matter if we lost by one or 30. I usually don’t quit games anyway but this makes you want to stay even more.

Heading in, we started the game and things were going fairly smooth. There was a bit of back and forth early on. However, it didn’t take long for our opponents to start ripping us to shreds with great shooting and a big man who was unstoppable in the paint like he was the second coming of Shaquille O’Neal. Oh, and who was tasked with guarding this beast? That would be yours truly as I play with a Two-Way Stretch Four on old gen (Slashing Glass Cleaner power forward on new gen in case you were wondering).

I think I’m a pretty solid defender and my MyPLAYER’s defensive attributes are extremely balanced (he can guard both the interior and perimeter quite well). But, it didn’t matter, as virtual Shaq was scoring at will and having his way.

Because of this and the good three-point shooting, they were pulling away from us early. I think they even had a 30-point lead at one point. It was so bad that everyone on our team left except one other player named Flyboy and myself (That’s not his real PSN so I wanted to use an alternative in case he doesn’t want to be mentioned).

So, at this point, I’m in a relaxed state and flopping for fun because we never sniffed close to their score so there was no pressure. After the second quarter ended, we were down by more than 20 points and it stayed that way throughout the third. Being thankful that the game was almost over, I was just looking forward to my 2X Rep.

As the fourth began, with every player maxed out now, things started slow on both sides and we found ourselves trailing by 23 with just 3:40 seconds in the game. At first, I didn’t think much of it and still thought we were toast with butter on it but we kept trying anyway.

Then, they just kept missing shots. It was very bizarre for a team who absolutely dominated us all game to just go cold like that. And then we got some good fastbreaks off of steals and rebounds and then we actually started to score…at an alarming rate.

And we were doing it in different ways. Scoring on the inside, hitting three-pointers, and more. Next thing you know, we’re down by 10, shaving off a whole 13 points. However, there were only 1:40 seconds left. Time was ticking and you never know if they start to heat up again on offense.

But they didn’t…now all of sudden, we’re only down by five points. My eyes widened and I can hear my heart thumping. I couldn’t believe that a 23-point lead was cut to just five, all in the fourth quarter. Now, you’re in win mode and I never ever thought it would come down to that.

A dunk on our end brought the deficit down to just a single point. A miss on their side led to a fastbreak opportunity and a great pass from Flyboy to our AI teammate for a layup to give us the one point lead.

Now you’re really sweating. Enough water is dripping to form a new river. They have the ball with only 11 seconds left. I was nervous as I knew where the ball was going to go; Virtual Shaq. Although nervous, I was determined as well.

They bring the ball up the court quickly and dish it to the big man with me guarding him. This man was dominating me all game so a part of me was thinking; “OK, in the worst case, if he scores, then maybe we’ll have a few seconds left to throw a heave of a pass and put a shot up”.

As this 7’0″ center was towering over my 6’8″ power forward, he started to back down quickly and then attempted to put up a shot. Quickly, I was trying to decide if I wanted to go for a block or steal and ended up going with a block.

What happened then resulted in the ball being stripped and stolen. So essentially it was a block and steal in the end. The ball was in our hands and Flyboy, who rode with me on this journey, threw up what clearly was a celebratory alley-oop pass as the time expired. 68-67 was the final score. We won.

I raised my arms in the air and let out a scream as I then proceeded to put my hands on my head to ask “What just happened?!?!”. We went on a 28-4 run in the fourth quarter (!!). I have been playing NBA 2K since around 2K3 and have played many games.

Ever since they started Park games in NBA 2K, I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of some pretty amazing games while also unfortunately being on the end of some excruciatingly awful losses. Same with comebacks. I’ve been a part of a few good ones and have been on the receiving end of some too.

But what happened on that beautiful court surrounded by the ocean and Greek architecture is one that will forever stick with me as I’m sure it will for my teammate, Flyboy as well. It’s the magical moments like this that make you love being a gamer. You just never know what’s going to happen when you fire up a game. This was one of those times on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Oh, and I got the baseball helmet.