Can you skip the story in NBA 2K23?

As an avid NBA 2K gamer and content creator, I‘ve gotten this question a lot since 2K23 launched. And unfortunately, the answer right now is no – there is no way to skip or disable the long-winded MyCareer story, even if you already completed it once. I‘ve tested and confirmed it myself across multiple consoles.

I can‘t say I‘m surprised that 2K essentially forces players down a narrow path to progression yet again this year. But that doesn‘t make it any less painful for hardcore fans who just want to grind.

The MyCareer Story Isn‘t Just an Introduction Anymore

In the early years of MyCareer, the initial story served as a quick origin, getting your rookie up to speed on NBA life before allowing freedom. A necessary evil, but one you could blow through in 2-3 hours.

However, over the past several years – and especially in 2K23 – it has bloated into a restrictive, mandatory 10+ hour campaign riddled with padding and grinding. Based on user reports, expectations seem to be 8 hours on the short end up to 12-15 hours on the long end before hitting the full NBA season.

Just take a look at the content unlock progression year-over-year:

As you can see above, 2K has continually held more and more features hostage behind this story gate. Things that used to be available within an hour now take 8x as long.

This leads to understandable complaints from diehard fans on social media and forums:

"2K forces you into an overly long story every time you make a new build just to waste your time instead of letting you play" – @NBA2KGuru

"Maybe if they put this much effort into franchise or other modes instead of a movie no one asked for I‘d actually still be playing 2K23" – @HoopsHead93

And based on reports of declining sales for 2K23 so far, many players seem to be backing up their complaints with their wallets:

Declining NBA 2K Sales

Fans want freedom and choice, not restrictive tunnel vision. So let‘s talk about making the best of this lemon situation in 2K23 if you still want to play.

Efficiency Hacks to Minimize Wasted Time

While I can‘t offer any way to completely skip the story, here are tips to plow through it as fast as possible:

Difficulty and Game Speed:

• Drop difficulty to Rookie
• Set game speed to 100 for faster pace

Simulating and Skipping:

• Sim past anything that isn‘t a mandatory Quest
• Skip all optional cutscenes
• Sim portions of required games once up by 25+ points

Minimal Grinding:

• Don‘t worry about stat grinding or badging up early
• Only do training/development needed for next Quest task

With this min-max style approach, I‘ve been able to trim the story down to 8 hours consistently compared to some players taking 15+ hours.

It requires some discipline and focusing only on target objectives. But it works.

And while tempting, I don‘t recommend trying to simulate full games or chunks of the story. 2K has put in walls to block progress until certain events are complete. Sim too much and you‘ll break the sequence and risk bugging things out.

Hope for Adjustments in the Future

While this year‘s MyCareer seems entrenched in its forced progression, I‘m optimistic 2K will make changes based on fan feedback for 2K24 and beyond.

I‘d love to see a "Skip Story" option added after completing it once. Even if it meant not earning quite as much badge progression on subsequent builds to balance things out.

At the very least, they need to stop padding out quest chains to artificially inflate play time. Nobody I know enjoys repeating the same Gatorade drill 5+ times or wasting badge upgrades on early throwaway builds.

Time will tell if the voices asking for more choice and respect of players‘ time will be heard. But feel free to hit me up on Twitter @CrownMeTheGOAT if you want to vent about things that should change in the future!

For now, hopefully the above tips help you push through the MyCareer slog faster. And if you can stick through it, there IS a robust NBA career beyond the clunky onboarding story. 2K still sets itself apart from competitors once you have that full access. So try to stick it out and avoid burning yourself out too hard grinding those first 10 hours. Trust me, it will pay off in the end!

Let me know if this helps or if you have any other questions around 2K progression, grinding, or workarounds! I‘ve got your back.