Gordon Hayward: eSports is not ‘fringe culture’

An NBA star is coming out with guns blazing—no pun intended—in defense of competitive gaming.

Utah Jazz star Gordon Hayward recently penned an essay for The Players’ Tribune, in which he told traditional sports fans who are confused why watching people play video games has become popular to stop worrying so much. Instead, Hayward said viewers should recognize that the competitions share the same qualities.

“In the past few years in particular, professional gaming has become a thing, and it’s becoming more and more of a thing. This isn’t even a fringe culture. It’s a movement, really. And as a non-gamer, you can either acknowledge this fact, or you can be wrong,” Hayward wrote.

The basketball player said the essay was not written to defend gaming, but to open the eyes of non-gamers to “this incredible thing that’s happening right now.” And really, isn’t every single one of us a gamer?