Games bearing the NBA 2K label, especially in the last few editions, offer up a yearly challenge for anyone trying to evaluate it at a critical level. What does one say about a sports game that's already nailed practically every aspect of the sport it covers down to the very grain?

The answer, found in NBA 2K25, is to do more. As anyone associated with professional sports will tell you, every great athlete must do everything they can do stay on top. That means adding more moves, refining one's strengths, and shoring up one's weaknesses.

For the most part, NBA 2K25 has done that with an even more impeccable presentation that's just as much a celebration of hoops and pop culture as well as the game itself. It accomplishes this despite a very large, very looming poop-throwing elephant on the court that's been leaving an uncomfortable stain on the experience for years.

I am speaking, of course, of the franchise's reliance on microtransactions. Yes, feel free to roll your eyes when you see this — trust me, I'm tired of talking about it, but the fact it's become this thing for my favorite sport to watch and enjoy needs to be addressed. The reason for the vitriol is because it's become practically unavoidable in the mode that I play the most: MyCareer.

For those unfamiliar, MyCareer is the single-player RPG-style campaign where you build and customize your own player down to the aesthetics and attributes. Once you've done that, you engage in building an actual career in pursuit of a narrative goal, whether it's to become some kind of mogul, win the most championships or became the greatest of all time. You can spend hundreds of hours in this mode. You can also spend actual hundreds of your own real money.

The 2K economy is fueled by VC, which is the in-game currency. You can buy "packs" of VC, which allows you to purchase all kinds of little goodies for your player avatar, like on-court shoes, apparel to walk around in the virtual world known as The City — and the ability to jump-start your player's attributes.

This is where things always feel a little shadowy in MyCareer. No matter what your backstory is, your created player always begins with a skill rating of 60 out of a maximum 100. For new players on normal difficulty or surrounded by players with more means, a 60 rating will get you stomped into oblivion. The game starts you with a bank of 100,000 VC, so one can boost their rating up a chunk, but it's still wouldn't be enough to stand in the paint and challenge the likes of Joel Embiid. It's also not enough for one to feel like they're "keeping up" in the game's community areas, where there are a bunch of colorfully dressed, creative and stylish avatars in VC-bought clothes using VC-bought animations and unleashing their VC-bought skills against others of their ilk. It doesn't sit well for me because it puts pressure on people — especially newer ones — to have to pay to truly feel like they're playing. That's a slippery psychological slope that also dips into societal areas like socioeconomic or digital divides, but that's a discussion meant for other spaces. I just think there's a better, less nefarious-feeling way forward when it comes to this part of the 2K experience.

OK, let's make a sudden and jarring pivot to the actual acts of playing basketball, which I still did plenty of in the MyCareer mode. Past narratives in this single-player mode have ranged from the heartfelt to the woefully silly, but thankfully — like last season — NBA 2K25 has stripped down the pathos and goofiness and has stuck to on-court exploits. Last year, your focus was building up enough accomplishments to become known as the GOAT.

This year, you're concentrating on building a dynasty, something that's become much more difficult to do in the modern sports age. What I enjoyed about this version of MyCareer was that playing the backstory of my created player was something I could do on my own time as opposed to being thrust into it as a rite of passage. This approach carries the echoes of last year's game, which allowed me to play a series of different scenarios as memories reminiscent of another time. This year's playable memories consisted of going up against a rival-turned-friend for the first time, impressing onlookers at a FIBA tourney, and getting my first real run with a bunch of an established pros (like Jalen Brunson) to show I belonged. It's cool stuff that was just about ball.

I also appreciated how the narrative surrounding my created player was more open-ended instead of painting me as a scrappy longshot underdog or a super-hyped No. 1 pick (overdog?). Here, I'm just known as a highly drafted rookie trying to prove he's at the very least the best player in his draft class, and many of his key moments and games reflected that at the outset. Another aspect that helps set apart this version of MyCareer from years past is how the chase to form "dynasty" adds a sense of longevity and investment over the course of multiple seasons and milestones. In prior years, after your rookie season, you sort of churned through further seasons at your leisure as a way to kill time. This year, everything from commentary to players sending video messages to social media reactions actually help chronicle your longer hoops path. It's good motivation to keep going.

What will also keep you engaged is how the game looks and feels. NBA 2K25 is easily the most attractive 2K game yet in terms of visuals and movement. The NBA has always been a showcase of players and the way they express and apply their craft, and every one of the game's known players — from Kyrie Irving to Jayson Tatum to LeBron or Steph — shoot, move and act like themselves more than at any other point in their lives spent as gaming avatars.

This is even more evident with the greater presence of the WNBA in this year's game, where stars like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark have put more eyes on their product than ever before. I encourage new players to give into the variety of WNBA offerings in 2K25. The women's game carries a different energy and movement, and it's been a very interesting experience stepping into the shoes of A'ja Wilson — who is essentially a final boss-level player as far as skill and individual brilliance goes — or running a pick-and-roll with Clark or Sabrina Ionescu with the option to launch a signature long-range bomb. There's a MyCareer-lite mode for the women as well, which just makes the game even more accessible and adds a lot more value.

NBA 2K25 still carries a lot of the standards for how sports games should reflect and celebrate their sport of choice. I just wish it didn't have this odd economic quandary hanging over it. If it were to somehow address that problem and leave it on the cutting room floor, we'd really be onto something.

Score: 7.4/10