You don't need to download anything or make an account. Open the game, pick who you want to be, and you're playing. This page is the two-minute version, plus the handful of things I wish someone had told me on my first save.

First, decide whose life you want

There are three completely different games in here, sharing one simulation engine but almost nothing else. You can keep saves in all three at once and bounce between them whenever you like.

• Be the player. Create a prospect and take them from a high-school gym all the way to a legacy people argue about. This is Career mode, and it's the heart of the whole thing.
• Run the front office. Take over a franchise as GM - trades, the draft, the cap, and an owner who is grading every move you make.
• Coach a program. Recruit, work the transfer portal, and drag a small college into the big time.

If you have no idea which to pick, start with Career. It teaches you the sim's language - what a good stat line looks like, how rotations move, what the league does around you - and that knowledge transfers straight into the other two.

Build your guy

If you go Career, you'll build a player first: a position, a height and body, and an archetype that decides what you can become. This screen matters more than it looks. A quick guard and a rim-running center grow in completely different directions, and your archetype quietly raises the ceiling on one family of skills while lowering others.

The one build that never works is the balanced one. Being a 70 at everything makes you a bench player forever, because rotations are decided by what you're best at, not by your average. Pick a lane on the create screen and commit to it. There's a full breakdown in the builds and positions guide if you want to plan before you commit.

Your first week in the game

Once you're in, the loop is simple and it repeats for twenty in-game years:

1. Handle what's on your phone. Coaches, teammates, and your agent text you between games. Answer them - the replies are not decoration.
2. Play or sim the next game. Both are first-class options, and you can switch every single game.
3. Spend what you earned. Good performances pay out Training Points. Put them into the two or three skills your role actually uses.
4. Watch your role. Bench, rotation, starter, star. That ladder is the real scoreboard early on.

Play five or six games doing that and it clicks. The first time your coach bumps you into the rotation because of something you actually did on the floor, you'll get why the game is built this way.

Playing versus simming

On game day you can drop onto a full 3D court and hoop, or sim the game and manage it from the bench. Neither is the "real" way to play - they feed the same box score, the same season stats, and the same career totals.

Playing gives you control over your own possessions and the shot meter, which is the fastest way to outperform your ratings. Simming is far quicker and lets you burn through a season in an evening. Most people I hear from play the games that matter and sim the rest, which is exactly how I play it too.

Saves, slots, and syncing

You get five save slots, and each one keeps its own mode, settings, and difficulty. Careers save to your device automatically, so you can close the tab mid-season and pick it up later.

Making a free account is optional but worth it: it syncs your saves across devices, so a career you started on a laptop is waiting on your phone, and it puts you on the online leaderboards. If you never make one, nothing is taken away - your saves just live on the one device.

Add it to your home screen

The game is a web app, so it installs without an app store. On iPhone, open it in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android, Chrome offers an Install prompt in the menu. It then opens full-screen with no browser chrome and works the same offline-friendly way. Native builds are on the way as well.

Four mistakes new players make

• Spreading Training Points evenly. Covered above, and it's the big one. Elite at one thing beats decent at everything.
• Ignoring the phone. Those conversations move relationships, open trade doors, and change contract talks. Skipping them costs you real outcomes.
• Forcing shots to chase points. Efficiency feeds your role. A 6-of-9 night moves your standing more than 8-of-25.
• Quitting a bad rookie year. Starting at the end of the bench is the intended experience. The climb is the game.

Where to go next

Pick the guide for whichever life you chose: Career mode, GM mode, or Coach mode. If you're still deciding on a build, read builds and positions first. And if you want to understand how players actually improve, training and progression explains where every point comes from.