Back when they had all kinds of bball games, I had 'em all. Change of pace is great. All games do different things well and it's really sad that we are stuck with one game. It not only is making the game itself less innovative, but it's making the game seem worse than it is because you have nothing to compare it to. Taking a vacation to another game can really help you understand why you loved another game more.
Still taking Live all day if it's about skilled pvp, though. Was watching the WB dominates vid and the physics of the ball leaving his hand, even how it bounces off the backboard, seems suspect, but the 'feel' and responsiveness of that game is on another level. It's built for competition.
I would still play Live a bit if the servers were up. I will say I have no interest in playing offline unless I'm just messing around to cook the cpu for awhile.
-Smak