How to Play

The main game. Draft a starting five from a half-randomized pool of real players under a hard salary cap, then your squad plays an 82-game season against the whole league. Every player's price is his fame, but his real value is hidden until the season ends. Knowing the difference is the test, and these rules power every other mode too.

1. The Cap Is the Game

Five spots (PG, SG, SF, PF, C) and $70 for all of them. Prices run from $4 role players to $25 all-timers, and they're set by fame: raw box-score wattage, the number on the back of the card. A famous name costs famous-name money whether or not he was actually worth it. The math says you can't pay five superstars, so somebody on your roster has to be a bargain. Finding those bargains, the rebounding machines, the elite defenders, the table-setters the casuals scroll past, is the entire skill.

2. The Draft

Five rounds. Each round spins up a random franchise and era (every franchise has the same odds, no matter how many eras it spans) and you sign one player you can afford from that cell. You get one team reroll and one era reroll per game. Spend them wisely.

• Multi-position players sign where they really played. Tim Duncan can take your PF or C spot because he played both; he will never be your point guard. When you sign him, tap the spot you want on your lineup bar, and any time before the season starts, tap a signed player to move him to another open spot he can play.
• You can't draft the same player twice, even across different teams or eras.
• Players appear in every franchise-era cell where they had a qualifying season. '90s Pistons Rodman and '90s Bulls Rodman are different cards at different prices.
• You can never go broke. A signing only goes through if it leaves enough money to put a real player in every spot you still have open, and every dealt board always has someone you can afford. No dead ends, no filler bodies.

3. The Hidden Test: Value

Every player's true rating stays hidden until the season is over. At the results screen you see what you paid next to what each player was actually worth: a rating graded only against his own position and era, so a 1962 center is measured against 1960s centers, not against the modern game. Your score quietly rewards money well spent: the more real value you squeeze out of $70, the higher your ceiling.

• Big stats aren't value. Plenty of famous scorers were empty-calorie expensive. This is where Knowers separate from name-rememberers.
• Fame sets the price, not the worth. The skill is paying $8 for a player who plays like he costs $20.

4. Roster Construction

Talent isn't a team. Five guys who can't shoot have spacing problems no matter how famous they are; five scorers with nobody to run the offense don't get clean looks; a frontcourt with no rim protection bleeds points. The game checks your construction (spacing, playmaking, interior presence, shot creation) using each player's skills graded against his own era, and a flawed build costs you wins. The results screen spells out exactly what your roster was missing.

5. Chemistry

Real teammates play better together. Draft two or more players from the same franchise and same era and they quietly boost the whole roster. There's no tag for it in the draft list. knowing who actually shared a floor is part of knowing ball.

6. The Season

Your team plays all 82 games against the whole league, compressed into a month-by-month feed with the games worth talking about. Every run faces the same balanced slate. Opponent strength comes from real season results, with a home/away adjustment, and nobody gets an easier road. Seasons are seeded: a rematch link replays the exact same season, so you and a friend can run identical drafts and compare. How much of a win ceiling your team earns depends on the value you found. Name recognition raises nothing.

7. The Knower Score

Your final score is a 0–100 composite of everything the game measures:

The grade next to your score is a hard grader: an A+ requires perfection, full stop. The leaderboard ranks by Knower Score, and your global rank compares you against every season ever played.

8. The Data

Every card is a real player's real peak season with that franchise in that era. Thousands of players from the 1960s to today, from open data. No guessed stats, no filler. Ratings are percentiles within position and era, so a 1962 stat line is graded against 1962, not against the modern game, gaudy old box scores buy fame, not value. Prices are fame across all of history. The gap between them is the game.