This review is mostly about MyCareer as that is the only mode I have played enough to give a review.
NBA 2K19 as just a pure basketball game is great, the commentary is done really well, it's seamless, interesting and relevant. The animations are great and the players show lots of emotion. It's great how the commentary team will occasionally mention a game you played a while back or a previous season or event in your career. The story is cheesy, trying to create a dramatic rivalry and force a great revenge story in too little time.
The issues in this game are huge.
As of now, many players have been buying items from the store, only to have them not appear in the inventory. This happened to me on two separate occasions, and after multiple attempts to reach out to 2K support through email and live chat, when I mention my issue and ask what the can do to fix it, by either returning the VC or the items I am ghosted by them for 5 days and counting.
Generous 2K has given all MyCareer players a free wheel spin, allowing you each day to get an array of free clothes, shoes, fans, boosts etc. the only issue being when you go into Ante-UP to get your wheel spin, you are placed in a different lobby filled with people trying to also get their spin on the single wheel. It's an interesting minigame as you and a never-ending flow of players come in to spam X around the 'line up' circle. Getting into the line is a wheelspin of its own. The wheel spin idea is great and I appreciate it, but it is negated by standing there spamming X until you get lucky.
Edit: 2K has since fixed this issue by placing multiple wheels down. Just as I was beginning to enjoy waiting too...
Another issue, that thankfully hasn't happened to me, is the blank VC Checks for sponsorship endorsements (Which can be HUGE money), meaning you don't get the money you deserve, and unless you have screenshots of before, after and everything in between, 2k won't help you.
I assume it is due to the VC greed again this year, MyPark can become an absolute ghost town, with most players afk, making it extremely difficult to find people to play with you and if you are under 85 Overall, good luck getting a game, as nobody wants to play with a lower Overall because attributes are far superior to player skill.
2K is so quick to ban people and fix their VC glitches, but have a picnic and a road trip before trying to fix disappearing items, glitched animations, blank endorsement checks etc.
After another long server outage, you can be assured that their servers are still a huge issue.
A suggestion for 2K is to make it easier to get to 99, so nobody has to spend their entire life at this game to get the. It would make the game more about skill as everyone is on an equal playing field, and it would also lead to more experimentation, as everyone tries to find what build suits their player the best.
EDIT: I noticed the UI when making a MyPlayer is horrendous. For example, when choosing height, there are bars on the side which give you an overview of how certain attributes are affected, e.g. Ball Control. I decrease my height significantly for my position, Ball Control had a full green bar. I increase height significantly and Ball Control had a full red bar. The problem is at both heights, my Ball Control potential attribute was the same. Why 2K? Why show a bar telling me that my ball control is drastically affected when it is the same? There is also the issue when upgrading attributes. The bars are not all aligned from 0-100. My Ball control and Steal bar can be in the exact same position, but Ball Control is 76 and Steal is 68 - why? If you are going to have bars, make them so a truthful representation of my attributes. all attribute levels should be aligned e.g. 50 should be half way, 99 should be at the top. Don't make it so a 68 and 76 are represented by the same bar, where elsewhere a 84 and 76 are a further ahead on other attributes.