National Basketball Association

Rick Fox explains how eSports helped him connect with his son

Published Mar. 22, 2016 9:49 a.m. ET

Nick Schwartz

Three-time NBA champion Rick Fox became one of the first high-profile athletes to jump into the world of eSports by purchasing a professional League of Legends team in 2015, Echo Fox.

Before Fox was an eSports team owner, though, he was simply a passionate fan of the game, and he explained in a revealing interview with Vice Sports that video games and eSports helped him forge a bond with his son, Kyle.

While Fox was playing for the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 2000s, his son lived on the East Coast, leading to what Fox called a "broken family." Though he couldn't be with his son in person, Rick and Kyle connected online by playing games like World of Warcraft, and later, League of Legends.

Via Vice Sports:

Kyle introduced his dad to League of Legends years later, and after Fox witnessed Counter Logic Gaming beat Team Solo Mid in a sold-out Madison Square Garden last summer, he quickly became more involved in the scene.