Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five superstitions that many of us may have succumbed to while basketball gaming.

Video games and sports are interests that invite a lot of superstitions, so it’s hardly surprising that there are superstitions surrounding basketball gaming! While I don’t consider myself a particularly superstitious person, I’ll admit that there are times when I’ve engaged in unusual and illogical rituals under the pretence that they’ll somehow have an impact on the virtual hardwood, or indeed a real game being played on the other side of the world. It’s silly, I know that it’s silly, and even when a superstitious ritual “works”, I’m well aware that it wasn’t actually a factor!

Besides, while superstitions may imply a belief in supernatural forces, there’s also a psychological explanation for them. They can provide us with a sense of control, which is comforting in situations we can’t influence. There’s also evidence that lucky charms and rituals boost confidence. Free throw routines and favourite jersey numbers are good examples of this. It only makes sense that this psychology also applies to basketball gaming, with superstitions both soothing us and pumping us up when we face challenges, from technical issues to moments that test our stick skills. Therefore, there may actually be some merit to a few of these basketball gaming superstitions!

1. Rituals to Avoid Crashes

Back in the 90s, getting PC games to run was frequently a more challenging process. We often had to correctly configure our hardware during installation, and if our PC was a bit older, a boot disk might be required to maximise system resources. Even in the early 2000s, many prebuilt home PCs were intended for general use, falling short of games’ recommended specs and even minimum requirements. This resulted in poor performance, crashes, and games failing to run. Game discs could also be damaged and become unreadable. Consoles have obviously avoided issues with incompatible specs, but they aren’t immune to hardware failure, or damaged cartridges and discs.

Knowing this and subsequently recognising the point where a game usually crashed, we gamers developed superstitions to “avoid” such mishaps! Some of those rituals include closing our eyes, looking away, leaving the room entirely (“a watched game never loads/always crashes!”), performing some in-game task before loading into gameplay, and simply crossing our fingers. The relief that we felt when we heard the tell-tale signs that a game had successfully passed the loading screen where it so often crashed added to the excitement of playing it! I’m sure that we all knew or eventually realised that the rituals didn’t work, but they did calm our nerves while we waited.

2. That Technique You Swear Works

This is another common superstition. In just about every video game genre, there are tricks and techniques that we swear make a difference in specific titles. Sometimes, we’re proven right. A classic basketball gaming example would be the corner three in Double Dribble, and similar hotspots in various games over the years. Other times however, these tricks and techniques don’t actually impact the results. The practice of mashing buttons while trying to catch a Pokémon is a common myth that has been debunked. Irrespective of the method and specific game in the series, there are no inputs that affect the RNG that is in play while you’re eagerly trying to catch them all.

On the virtual hardwood, there have been similar rumours regarding the dice roll on jumpshots in older titles. The advice may be to pump fake to set your feet first, or to hold down turbo/sprint while shooting, or perhaps to not shoot while using a speed boost. Granted, this is sound advice in some games – a pump fake will actually boost your chances of making a jumper in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition – but in many sim titles, it’s a placebo effect born of coincidence and confirmation bias. Of course, since these superstitions don’t end up having any impact, there’s arguably no downside to employing them. If nothing else, like a free throw routine, it’s a way to get locked in.

3. Forbidden Names & Topics

Here’s one from my days of playing 2K Pro-Am! NLSC THRILLHO ended up with a few superstitions when it came to our party chat. If we lost a game after bringing up a certain player or topic – especially if we happened to blow a big lead or choke in the clutch – then that player’s name or the subject would be taboo! This would eventually morph into anything related to a player whose name was verboten. After a session in which the mention of Klay Thompson ended up being bad luck – or so it felt, anyway – not only did we decide that he wasn’t to be brought up in the chat, but we should also avoid equipping his jumpshot for our MyPLAYERs for the rest of the year!

Now, for the most part, we were having some fun with these superstitions. I suppose I can’t speak for all of the guys, but I doubt that any of us truly believed that uttering a forbidden moniker or using that player’s animations cursed us with misfortune! It was just some light-hearted banter that built camaraderie and took the sting out of some tough losses. With that being said, there were some conversations that definitely led to our minds wandering from the task at hand, so avoiding those discussions while we were on the sticks was a sensible way of keeping our head in the game. Those running gags and chats with friends are something I miss as much as NBA 2K17’s online play.

4. Ending a Session with a Win

Whether you play online or offline, multiplayer or solo, I’m sure that you can relate to the superstition of needing to end a session with a victory. At the very least, you don’t want to end with a poor effort where you didn’t give it your all to remain competitive. In all fairness, this is as much about satisfaction as it is superstition. Furthermore, if a session is proving to be unusually frustrating, it might be wise to call it a night and try for a better run next time. As such, the “superstition” here is more about washing out the bitter taste of a previous loss, building your confidence for future sessions, and not allowing a miserable performance and defeat to sour your enjoyment of the game.

Mind you, I’d argue that there’s some element of superstition at play here. I’m sure that anyone familiar with competitive online gaming of all genres is familiar with a great victory encouraging you to play “one more game”. It makes sense: you’re having a blast, and you don’t want the fun to stop! You might still find yourself calling time on the session though, thanks to the superstition that playing that “one last game” will result in an unsuccessful match that leaves you wishing you’d quit while you were on top. And so, when a session is naturally drawing to a close and you’ve achieved an immensely satisfying victory, this superstition can shield you from disappointment.

5. Game Titles Ending in the Same Year

I’ll admit that I’m probably in the vast minority with this one, and it may be more a case of wishful thinking than outright superstition. Still, we human beings tend to recognise patterns; or at least, we sometimes think we do! There’s probably a bit of Apophenia at play for me here. In any case, I’ve noticed that some of my all-time favourite basketball video games end in the same year, such as NBA Live 96 PC and NBA Live 06 PC. That pattern – such as it is – has invited hopeful speculation that the next game whose year ends in that number will also be one that I really enjoy. As far as that theory being reliable…well, the results have undoubtedly been rather mixed!

When it comes to the games with years ending in six, NBA 2K16 did in fact delight me and become a favourite. I’ve also come to love NBA 2K6, and NBA Live 16 is one of the better games in a rough generation for NBA Live. At the same time, that hasn’t always been a reliable barometer. I don’t enjoy NBA 2K26. NBA Live 2004 is a classic; but NBA Live 14 is not! When the pattern holds true, there may be a logical explanation. Games released ten years apart are likely coming out around the same point in each generation, with all of the benefits and stability that brings. Then again, like most superstitions, it could very well be trying to find reason in the randomness.

What superstitions have you had when it comes to gaming, be it basketball or another genre? Do any of these superstitions resemble one of your habits? Have your say in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.

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