No one will blame you if you choose to jump straight into the action of 2K's MyCareer mode. Especially for NBA 2K21, the prelude to high school and college games can become a breeze, as there are 10+ games you need to play before you get into the big leagues. Fortunately, there is a way around all of the non-NBA history and assortments.
What you'll miss by jumping in the NBA
We have to warn that if you do this you will be missing a lot of material that you might be interested in. On the one hand, obviously, you won't know what happens in the story. More importantly, skipping your pre-professional career will mean you will lose the experience of being drafted. Instead, bypassing everything will require you to simply be on the team of your choice.
Where to find the NBA-only MyCareer option
You'll want to start by starting a MyCareer as usual. Then you'll have the option to skip the intro by pressing X, for those on PlayStation, or A, if you're on Xbox. This will take you to the main MyCareer menu, and there will be a "Neighborhood" option to click on. Typically, this sends players to the 2K range. Because you don't have a fully created player yet, this will automatically send you to the NBA game of MyCareer.
There is one thing that you will need to get into the league with this nice trick. The game will require you to pay 500 VC to enter the league directly. If you play a game or two of Play Now, that should reward you with enough VC to get you in without having to fork out real money. From there, you'll have the exact same experience as every other user who has made it to the NBA, so don't worry about having to sacrifice anything more.
Related: How to do a free throw in NBA 2K21
