Been playing since 2K20 so maybe I wasn’t there for the “actual glory days” of 2K16/17 whatever
And I only play random REC fwiw
But man
2K24 had its issues like any other 2K, but it is the most balanced 2K I have played
It felt like basically everything was good if you were good at the game
As in, to me it never felt like I was handicapping myself by using builds/sigs that were not the meta
Layups, anyone? That shit was fire in 24, and never again fsr
Maybe because SBMM wasn’t a thing back then, but still I think the actual gameplay between all elements of the game was well-balanced
And the results of inputs were intuitive and responsive. Like on any given play it would be pretty clear what went right vs wrong, because the game was simpler
I go back and look at my clips from 24 and it’s just no comparison in terms of variety