NBA My Career

Draft night to jersey retirement. Every summer bends the career.

Create your player

You are a fictional prospect entering the real league. Position and archetype shape your whole career: growth, injuries, money, legacy. Saves automatically.

Create Your Look

Sneakers in bright red.

Fictional gear and signature poses, just for your look.

Road to the Draft

Start before the spotlight. Choose your route, earn your stock, and make draft day yours.

Or quick start below with an instant draft result.

NBA My Career: Basketball Career Simulator

Build a fictional prospect and live a full NBA career inside the real league. Your position and archetype drive realistic per-game lines, and every summer brings up to three big decisions: hometown discount or the max somewhere new, surgery or load management, the podcast or the gym. Chase rings, MVPs, Finals MVPs and All-NBA nods, fight Father Time, and retire to a verdict that runs from ten-day contracts to the GOAT debate.

Draft night is where it starts: a made up prospect with your name, landing in a real NBA locker room. Where it ends is up to your summers.

Each season prints a stat line shaped by your rating, archetype, health and team quality. Each summer drops up to three decisions on your desk, one card at a time, drawn from over a hundred of them: contracts, surgeries, trade demands, tunnel fits, a rookie who idolises you, a mural in your neighborhood.

You build your player's actual face before the draft, and there is a dirty side waiting whenever you want it. Taking the under on your own rebound totals, faking load management for a bettor, tanking in March, an agent advance you were never supposed to mention. Every dirty choice raises a hidden league integrity meter, and at the top of it is an indefinite suspension and a comeback on the minimum.

How to play NBA My Career, a free NBA basketball career sim

Creating your player and picking a league

Create your player: name, one of 5 positions (PG, SG, SF, PF, C), and one of 15 archetypes, from Point God to Movement Sniper to Paint Beast.

Pick your league: today's NBA, or the 2003-04 throwback with the SuperSonics in Seattle, the Nets in New Jersey, the Hornets in New Orleans and no Charlotte yet.

Building your player's look

Build your look: skin tone, hair, beard, accessories and a signature celebration, or hit Surprise me.

Managing your money between seasons

Open the Bank between seasons. Savings pays 2.5% a season and never loses, five things you can put money into each have a price that moves every season whether you look or not (a fund, flats back home, two shares and a coin that halves as often as it doubles), the statement keeps your last 12 moves, and the card school on the team plane is one sitting a season on odds that are printed before you sit in.

Spending across seven aisles

Spend the money in 7 aisles: home, rides, investments, body, flex, family, and a shady aisle that only appears once you have something to hide.

Following your career in the News box

Read the News box. The paper writes up every season in your own position's stat, the SocialGram shows followers read off your fanbase with three fan comments under the latest post, and the rival's card keeps the head to head against the player drafted the same year as you.

Collecting badges in the Trophy Case

Collect badges in the Trophy Case: 21 of them, from a first ring and Rookie of the Year to 30,000 career points, a triple double season and $100M to your name, each lit the moment the facts of your career say so.

Answering your phone on the basketball calendar

Answer your phone. Texts from your agent, the head coach, the GM, a teammate or your mom land on the beats of the basketball year: draft night and your first summer league, camp, the trade deadline, the All-Star break, the playoffs if you get there, the offseason, and the summer before the last year of your deal. Every text says which beat and which year it came in on, and how you answer moves your karma, morale, fanbase or bank.

Making the call when your rival forces one

Some seasons your rival hands you a decision instead of a headline: a flagrant you can answer or let go, a debate show offering real money, a youth camp his foundation wants you to co-host, an All-Star vote his team is buying ads for. Every button prints exactly what it moves, and a gamble prints its odds.

Getting drafted and cracking the rotation

Get drafted by a real NBA team. Stronger prospects go higher and earn more.

Check the rotation. Top five picks open in the starting five; everyone else fights for the spot in camp every fall, and second-unit seasons come in bench minutes until you crack the five.

Playing seasons and handling the offseason

Sim each season for a full line: games, points, rebounds, assists, awards, team result.

Handle the summer, up to three decisions one card at a time. Only the first card can move your rating, and a card you just saw rests for a while (press moments follow your season, so those can come right back).

After a normal offseason choice, the result shows the actual changes. Expand it for any extra changes, then Continue opens the next card, or takes you back to your career after the last one, without applying the choice again.

Open Career Log and pick a year to review its saved overview, regular season and postseason. Changes compare with the previous saved season; older missing values say Not recorded. Back to seasons returns to the year tiles, and Review seasons is available after retirement.

Working a real free agency window

When the contract runs out, work a real free agency window: competing offers from named franchises with their own money, length and roster quality, and one push for more on any of them.

Retiring and facing the legacy verdict

From 31, a falling rating brings the retirement talk: stop now, one more year, or a farewell season that ends the career after it. Then face the legacy verdict and the Hall of Fame wait.

NBA My Career rules: ratings, the rotation and the bank

How archetypes and ratings work together

Archetypes shape the stat engine: Point Gods pile up assists, Paint Beasts eat rebounds, Bucket Getters score but break down more.

All-NBA needs 62 games played, and MVP talk starts at a 92 rating.

How growth and decline unfold

Growth runs to age 25, decline starts at 32, and health erodes late unless you invest in it.

How real the rotation actually is

The rotation is real: the man ahead of you is as good as your roster is, camps have memory both ways, bench seasons run at about 60 percent of a starter's numbers, and Sixth Man of the Year goes to actual second-unit seasons now. Joining a loaded contender can cost a mid player his spot in the five.

How the press reads your season

The press reads your actual season: a banner puts you on the podium, a collapse puts you in the scrum, a second-unit year brings the role question. Three answers every time, safe, honest or fiery, and the fiery one gambles your fanbase for real.

When a career finally ends

Careers end at 41, after 21 seasons, or when the rating craters. You can also walk anytime.

Playing inside the 2003 throwback world

The 2003-04 throwback is a sealed 29 team world, verified against the real season: every draft, trade and signing stays inside it, and contracts pay 2003 money, about a third of today's.

Money rules in the Bank and what fans nag about

Money has rules of its own. There is a 1% fee on both sides of every trade and a $100k floor in the account that cannot be invested away; a season that leaves you under the floor is covered out of savings first, then by a forced sale of holdings at whatever the price is that day. Cards win 42% of hands and a win pays 1.15x the stake, the most you can stake is $50k or 4% of your cash, and once you are $500k down for your career the guys stop dealing you in for good. Keep sitting in while you are losing and somebody at home notices, which costs morale and fanbase.

The fans nag you for the thing your position is judged on and never the other way round: a point guard hears more assists, a center hears own the glass, and nobody hears about a three, a block or a steal, because the season line does not count one.

How your rival's choices work

A season where your rival makes no headline has a 45% shot at a rival choice instead, never both in the same year, and every choice shows up once before any of them repeats. The buttons move only what they print: morale, fanbase, net worth, karma or the heat of the feud, and morale feeds straight into next season's box score.

How the phone's calendar works

Texts only arrive on beats your season really had. No playoff texts in a year you went home in April, no contract year texts until one year is left on the deal, and draft night's texts land before you play a game. Summer league comes round twice at most: the July after draft night and the one after your rookie year. One text a beat, up to three a season, fewer while old ones sit unanswered, and the same text never comes twice in a career.

The season the game retires you (41, 21 seasons, or a rating that craters) sends nothing about a year you will not play: no summer runs, no early lifts, no extension talk.

NBA My Career walkthrough: rookie drama to a title run

Reading an actual capped change

Say Health is 98 before a recovery choice that adds 10. The 100 cap makes the result 98 to 100, so the card shows +2. Continue moves you on (to the next card, or back to your career after the last one) with Health still at 100.

A Rookie of the Year season turns sour

You roll a Two-Way Menace guard, go 11th, and win Rookie of the Year on a bad team. Year three, morale craters and you demand a trade. Villain arc unlocked.

A title, a Finals MVP and a Hall of Fame verdict

The new team contends. You take the discount at 28, win it all at 30, and grab Finals MVP. Decline arrives at 33, surgery buys two more years, and the verdict reads first ballot Hall of Famer. The GOAT tier stays out of reach. It usually does.

Answering your rival's flagrant

Your rival takes you out on a drive and the refs upgrade it to a flagrant. Give it right back heats the feud and usually pays Morale +8, but it carries a 30% chance you are the one who gets tossed (Morale -5, Fanbase -5, Net worth -$100k). Help him up on camera is Fanbase +5, Karma +5 and the feud cools. You pick say nothing and watch the film: Morale +6, the feud heats up, and those six points ride into next season's box score.

NBA My Career tips for building a lasting legacy

Choosing an archetype built to last

Pick the archetype for the career you want to live. Durability differences are real.

Why low health is worth fixing fast

Do not sit on low health. Injuries shred seasons, and awards need games played.

Free agency as a basketball decision, not just money

Team quality moves your stats and playoff odds. Free agency is a basketball decision, not just money: the contender offers less than the rebuild, and the roster number on the card is what your next seasons actually run on.

NBA My Career FAQ: real teams, free agency and badges

Can I play as a real NBA star?

No, your player is fictional by design. The teams around you are real, 30 of them today and 29 in the throwback, but the career is yours to invent.

Can I start in a different era?

Yes. The create screen has a 2003-04 throwback: the 29 team league with the Seattle SuperSonics, the New Jersey Nets and the New Orleans Hornets, and no Charlotte franchise yet. An era career never meets a team that did not exist then.

How does free agency work?

An expired deal opens a window of real offers: your team's re-sign number plus named suitors, each with its own salary, years and roster quality. You can push any offer for more once. A weak case can get an offer pulled, but your own team never walks, so there is always a deal to sign.

Why am I coming off the bench?

Because the starter is better, for now. Late picks usually open with the second unit behind an incumbent whose level tracks the roster's quality. Grow your rating and you will crack the five; until then bench minutes mean smaller numbers, slower fame and a real shot at Sixth Man of the Year. A thin rebuild is the fastest route to starting.

What does the legacy score reward most?

MVPs and rings move it hardest, then Finals MVPs and All-NBA nods, plus longevity and points. The top verdict is the GOAT conversation, and it takes a stacked case.

What is in the Bank?

Four tabs. Account holds your cash, a savings account that pays 2.5% a season, and a statement of your last 12 moves. Market is five prices that move every season, each with its own risk word and a read on whether it is cheap or dear against what it usually goes for. Cards is the card school on the team plane, one sitting a season, on odds the screen prints before you play. Shop is the 7 aisles. It is the same engine Soccer Career's phone runs on, in dollars.

Who is my rival?

A generated player drafted the same year at your position. He plays his own seasons on the same scale you do, can win a ring before you and retire before you, and the head to head is kept for good. He is fictional, like your own player, so no real player's career is being simulated.

How do I earn badges?

By doing the thing. Each of the 21 badges is a test on the facts of your career, checked every time you open the case: a ring, an MVP, twenty thousand points, five seasons with all 82 games played, a million dollars to your name. The 30 point season badge sits a long way under the single season scoring record, Wilt Chamberlain's 50.4 a game in 1961-62, which is where it belongs.

Is my career saved?

Yes, progress auto saves in your browser. One career at a time, and starting fresh means retiring first.

Is NBA My Career free to play?

Yes. NBA My Career is free to play on DoUKnowBall, right in your browser. No download and no signup needed.

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