A Look Back At Old All-Star Promos In NBA 2K

I got on and  MT 2K23 just dove into the Jeremy Lin Spotlight Challenges. By morning, I'd finished it. And earning my first pink diamond (Marbury) was a nice pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Then I went back and did other spotlight challenges, earning a couple more pink diamonds (Rick Barry and Richard Jefferson). The RJ especially is a great card, and again, it feels extra special to earn instead of buy. It also helped that the game-to-game requirements of those spotlight challenges had normalized a bit. I was happy to not have to worry about playing the same game over and over to get 20 rebounds or something equally as insane.

Along the way, I got lost in all of the new cards I had missed, and that was quite the rabbit hole. Each game was a new opportunity to perfect my lineup, and I definitely missed thinking about that. There were tons of amethyst and diamonds that I couldn't imagine being able to afford a couple of months ago that were now insanely cheap.

Here's just a few cards I've picked up for next-to-nothing and really enjoyed playing with:

Diamond Josh Smith — The dude dunks on everyone, plays great defense and can even hit the 3. That is starting stretch-four material right there. The 10 HOF badges don't hurt either.Diamond Andre Kirilenko — Uh oh, another stretch-four to take minutes from Josh? Or, a playmaking defender to run at small forward? For me, the latter. Andre has HOF Clamps and Dimer, which is a lethal and unique combination for a 6-foot-9 forward. This doesn't feel quite as powerful as the diamond from last year, but for the price (under 20K MT), he's a steal.Amethyst Kevin Martin — An assassin from deep, and has diamond evolution potential with a nicely upgraded defense. Oh, and he's an amethyst with 10 HOF badges. Insane.Ruby Michael Carter-Williams — a 6-foot-6 point guard that when (easily) upgraded from sapphire, can shoot. He's a cheap way to deal with the Magic Johnsons of the world.

Then there was another evolution card I got particularly excited about. Jeremy freaking Lin!

He has everything I could ever want in an evolution card.

A high ceiling (pink diamond). A low chance he'd see a better card this year (since there's no way he's winning an All-Star Game contest or having a Moments-worthy game). Hall of Fame badges that are worth the grind (Dimer, Clamps, Range Extender, etc.). Reasonable statistical requirements (getting him to diamond was nothing compared to Xavier McDaniel, whose 1,500 points I'm STILL working on).

And Lin is just a player I've always loved utilizing in MyTeam, so I wouldn't (hopefully) ever get tired of playing with him. He's the perfect sixth man who can score and make plays for others (plus apparently can play defense now), so working on his upgrades has been enjoyable — and worth the diamond contract.

Plus, since it's almost the All-Star break, it seems like there is something on the horizon to work towards/look forward to.

A Look Back At Old All-Star Promos In NBA 2K MT

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