The experience of playing the game, in both modes, is somewhat jarring in that it combines the series' typical focus on details — accurate player tendencies, styles, etc. — with a future that likely isn't going to exist. In the first scenario I chose, LeBron trains with a retired Kobe Bryant one summer, convinces him to return to the league, and forms a Knicks squad that includes these two stars, Chris Paul, and Kenneth Faried. Unless the league significantly changes its salary cap restrictions or several of these players attain enlightenment and lose their egos, such a situation will never happen. Yet it begins to feel somewhat realistic when commentators Steve Kerr and Clark Kellogg discuss the team's talent level and the challenge of Kobe and LeBron sharing the ball. It also seems a little more credible when you check your bench and realize that a fortysomething Vince Carter signed at the veteran's minimum in pursuit of his first championship ring. Each scenario exists in a well-realized world, if not a particularly likely one.