Season has been out for a week, and you have already played more than 5,000 of them. Thank you to everyone who drafted a roster, sat through 82 games and took a shot at a title. Every season played and every bug report sent in helps make the mode better.
This week's challenge: Rookie Frenzy
The new Weekly Challenge is live, and this one is all about the first-year guys.
- Player pool: All-Time, every season from 1971 to 2026.
- Salary cap: $180M.
- Rerolls: two.
- Rookie Frenzy: rookie seasons show up about twice as often on the draft board, marked with a ROOKIE ribbon, and rookies are twice as likely to start trending during the season, up or down.
- Savvy Front Offices: rival front offices drive harder bargains during trades.
A rookie card is a player's very first NBA or ABA season, from a future MVP's debut to a role player's first year. Some of them will break out in front of your eyes. Some will hit the rookie wall. Building around them is the gamble this week.
Play a Friend is back
Play a Friend is back, rebuilt from the ground up. Challenge a friend to a head-to-head: you both pick a coach, draft a team from the same player pool on the same salary cap, and then play a best-of-seven series against each other, game by game.
- Start a match: tap Play a Friend on the main menu and pick a player pool: All-Time, Stern Era or Modern Era.
- Invite your friend: send them the link. If you are signed in, your lobby code is simply your username, so your friend can also open Play a Friend and type your name to join.
- No account needed: guests can play too, and pick a name in the lobby.
- Draft, then play: the series starts as soon as you have both confirmed your lineups. Neither team's rating is shown until the series is decided, so it comes down to the teams you drafted.
- Run it back: rematch with the same two teams, or redraft for a fresh pair.
Last week, by the numbers
Last week's best record was 74-8. If you think you can beat that, this week is your chance to try a new build.
A small change to Gregg Popovich
Gregg PopovichThe Beautiful GamePopovich was a bit overtuned in Season. Players were winning noticeably more with him than with any other coach, even compared with their own results using other coaches. His bonus in Season is now a little smaller. He still rewards the same kind of roster, a team full of good passers, and he is still a strong pick. Multiplayer is not affected.
What's next
A new Weekly Challenge starts every Thursday, with fresh leaderboards each time, so every week is a clean shot at the top of the board. I will also keep adding new surprises to Season mode going forward, so keep an eye out.
One of them is already planned: at some point during the season, I will update the rosters of the CPU teams based on their real 2026-27 stats, so the league you play against keeps up with the real one. Stay tuned!
Good luck with the rookies.
Coach photo: Gregg Popovich, The White House (public domain).