Player Retiring should be Later for greats

In NBA Live 04, almost everyone retires at the same age: 37. Just check the retirement screen. The only guys older are the ones already 37 at the beginning. Guys like Ray Allen, Cwebb, Jkidd and Shaq, Duncan and Garnett are all bench players at 36 and minimum skill retirees at 37. Not very realistic. Malone put up 25 ppg at 37, 22ppg at 38, and even 20 ppg at 39. In 04, a player like Kobe will be averaging 3.5 pts and be gone by 37. Ridiculous. And yet, even guys like Greg Ostertag can play to this same age of 37. He should be gone at 32. There has to be balance of greatness determine how long you play.

ALso, a question, is there really a feature in live to coax a player out of retirement? Can you offer a 7 year deal to a oldie like Divac? Will he have to play it out if he's signed? I want him to break the old age records, then retire his jersey

If a player is still putting up nice numbers and filling a need for there respective teams, you should atleast be able to persuade them to stay another year or atleast trade them somewhere they can be off use( filling minutes for a team that needs whatever the player is capable of doing well still, like rebounding, scoring wit a high percentage, has good quickness left in legs etc) Teams should have basic needs requirement that are either filled or need to be filled based on the offense and coaching styles of a team. I'm getting ahead of myself.

In NBA Live 04, almost everyone retires at the same age: 37. Just check the retirement screen. The only guys older are the ones already 37 at the beginning. Guys like Ray Allen, Cwebb, Jkidd and Shaq, Duncan and Garnett are all bench players at 36 and minimum skill retirees at 37. Not very realistic. Malone put up 25 ppg at 37, 22ppg at 38, and even 20 ppg at 39. In 04, a player like Kobe will be averaging 3.5 pts and be gone by 37. Ridiculous. And yet, even guys like Greg Ostertag can play to this same age of 37. He should be gone at 32. There has to be balance of greatness determine how long you play.

ALso, a question, is there really a feature in live to coax a player out of retirement? Can you offer a 7 year deal to a oldie like Divac? Will he have to play it out if he's signed? I want him to break the old age records, then retire his jersey

Vlade, I couldn't agree more. Frankly, I seem to agree with alot of your ideas as they have merit and would most certainly enhance the gameplay experience.

i think it should be based on more things than just age. maybe if they took a players injury total into consideration, or maybe his position. it could also take into account if he has won a ring or not. personally 37 is far to early seeing as alot play past it and alot still play good past it. i would say that playing good at 39 should be uncommon though, have a few players who can still put up numbers at that age in the league, not everyone. still player retirement should definetly vary inreguards to the age they retired.

Maybe there should be a career-pay total stat. Tell us how much a player has made over his career. Maybe guys that made a ton of money and didn't win a ring will sign for less to be on a good squad. Guys who won rings but didn't make money will want to be stars in loserland, like stephan jakson on atlanta. Some guys could have a laziness rating like Vin Baker. Once he get big contract, he suck. Juan Howard too.


Thank you for agreeing. Remember Parish played till he was 44 and Abdul Jabbar to 42. They weren't as good then as before, but they still had enough value to be of use. Big men with great skills should be allowed to play much longer, so should little 3pt guys who do nothing but shoot.

The other thing I wanna say is that Stat should affect development. If rookie is starter, he should get good faster than if on bench. LIVE 04 is TOTALLY RANDOM and make no sense. Sometimes carmelo just average, sometime he allstar, no matter what you do with him. If you start old guy, should decline less than if on bench. Old guy who play a lot and have good team should play longer.
Guys should weigh many things to decide if its "over". like in real life. Bad team, no playing time, early retire. Good team, good role, stay around.

And also, Pippen is very overrated in 04. No way was he a 70 this way. He was a 90 + ten years ago, but not even 60 now.

Pippen was 38 in 03 and it's impossible to get one of your rookies to have a 70 rating at that age. IMPOSSIBLE. EVen if you have a 99 player, he will be gone by then if not below 40 rating. Why so silly logic?

I never thought of that, but you're right about the rapid decline of good players, VlaDiv. They do sink to the 40's and 30's way too fast. Even if their skills go down, I don't think their offensive and defensive awareness should go down, but actually increase because of their experience over the years.

3pt ability and awareness should only improve. Passing maybe improve a little too. Lose stamina and quickness mostly.

i will agree that, i absolutly hate the fact that player development is so damn random. i kicked ass with melo for his first 2 seasons and he didnt even gain a single point overall.

There's no option to bring players out of retirement, but I'd certainly like such a feature. I actually suggested a version of it in one of our Wishlist discussions a year or so ago. It would be a way to combat retirements that occur too early or squeeze one last season out of a vet, giving him a farewell tour.

Personally, I'd like to see players give an indication of whether they're going to retire. That way, you would be prepared for it and could either plan for the future or try to persuade them to stick around for another year or two.

That's not to say surprise retirements should be eliminated, but it would be nice to be given a heads up. Quite a few veteran stars will nominate a season as their last ahead of schedule, so it wouldn't be at all unrealistic for their virtual equivalents to make retirement "plans".

Also, I'd like to see some players simply fade away from the NBA without an official retirement. Take Olden Polynice for example. He hasn't retired, he's still trying to make a comeback and every so often latches on to an NBA team, though he's yet to get into a game since 2001. Some players might stick around in the free agent pool for a few years, then get wiped from the database without an official retirement notice.

I agree with everything

(and who was the 1 guy who voted no)?

Well the fade away thing happens too. Guys in live 04 often have like a 30 rating, and then next year they are just gone. No retirement mention. They just don't get signed, so they are out after a year. Rookies take the spots and vets cant get back in. All I'm saying is there should be more that end like that, instead of early retirement. Guys should be looking to play as long as possible to make long money for career, not early end. That way if you like old player, you make him play longer just for fun. He doesn't HAVE to quit on you, you quit on him.

It certainly happens, but usually when a player's overall rating drops to below 30. Depending on the player's age and how long it's been since a team showed interest, they could perhaps fade away without officially retiring while they still have a half-decent rating.

Mind you, that's a smaller issue than premature retirement and the ability to bring players out of retirement (within a reasonable duration of time), persuade them to stick around or being notified that a player is contemplating retirement.