Los Angeles Laker almost-great Rick Fox isn't spending his retirement like most former players do. He's the owner of the eSports team Echo Fox, an umbrella with eight teams and 35 players under it. That's a noteworthy investment from a former professional athlete, a class of people who are incredibly likely to disregard the notion that competitive video game players are also athletes.
Fox's venture was profiled on The Players' Tribune today. Normally, The Players' Tribune's pieces are of little value. It's a collection of ghostwritten softballs, a place for Derek Jeter to say "baseball's a part of my family" or for Carson Wentz to say "We play a special brand of football up in North Dakota." The kind of stuff that makes you reflexively pantomime a jerkoff motion. But, for as obnoxiously filtered as it all is, there's usually a good anecdote or two.
The piece starts with Fox describing a raucous arena. The reader is meant to think it's during a college rivalry game or an NBA playoff series. It's not. It's during the League of Legends championships. Fox says this is the moment when he knew he had to invest in eSports -- both as a smart business opportunity and as a chance to bond with his son.
The rest plays out like every Players' Tribune article plays out. It inflates Fox's purpose while also portraying him as personable and relatable. But, there are some highlights that are worth pointing out.
Maybe the thing that would most surprise non-eSports followers is this quote from Fox:
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