It's been a while since I've played any sports games, but I loved the early 00's/late 90's NBA Live (now 2k) and Madden. I found that I actually liked the team building parts more than the actual gameplay, although that was also great.
Not technically a video game, but there's a very fun basketball GM browser game. They also have several other sports, but I haven't really tried them. It's pretty addictive starting with a franchise back in some historical period and managing it over the seasons.
Adding the roster management, season, franchise and career functions to sports games made them so much more enjoyable and of course time consuming.
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