The Black Mamba Might Be Making His Way Into Esports
Rick Fox may have been the first Laker to make his way into competitive gaming, but he may very well be not the last.
In an interview with Malik Forte and Michele Morrow on Bleacher Report’s eStream last October 11, 2016, Echo Fox owner Rick Fox said that preliminary talks with the recently retired Kobe Bryant have begun. Their topic: an opportunity to enter eSports.
“We had some conversations about this (eSports),” said Fox. “If I had to suspect, Kobe is not far off from making his own move.”
“He’s obviously welcome always to be a part of our world in any way, any capacity he’d want to be. We’d love adding him to our group,” he added.
In an interview with USA Today last June, Bryant said that the narrative of eSports is appealing to him.
“I think people are really interested in watching people problem solve. It doesn’t matter what industry. People are very fascinated by that—seeing the struggles people go through and how they overcome it,” he said.
“To be able to sit and watch a performance on TV and watch how the gamers are figuring out those challenges amongst themselves, you can’t help but be interested.”
The future first-ballot Hall-of-Famer also said that he would be open to future investments into the industry along with former teammates Rick Fox and Shaquille O’Neal (co-owner of NRG eSports).
Bryant owns multiple investment outfits, including Kobe Inc. and the newly launched Bryant-Stibel. Bryant-Stibel, launched on August 22, 2016 with business partner Jeff Stibel is a venture capital firm with interests in media, data, technology and gaming.
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