If there’s one thing I appreciate about gaming is that video games aren’t an exclusive hobby to nerds and geeks like it was back in the ’80s and early ’90s. Case in point: we have an NBA star talk about him entering a Halo tournament.

Gordon Hayward, Boston Celtic all-star who got injured at the start of the NBA season, talks about having to ask his coach Brad Stevens (his coach at college, who’s now also the coach of the Celtics), was so addicted and talented at Halo that he entered tournaments for money. Since Hayward was a high school athlete making money at the time, there might be NCAA rules that prevented him from participating, which would impact his career. What to do, then? Simple. Hayward asked Stevens if any NCAA rules would be broken if he participated in a Halo tournament.

I had to call coach Stevens to ask him if its was okay to play in a Halo tournament. I’m sure that was the last thing he wanted his new recruit to call him about. But he was okay with it and we actually won the tournament. So we won money, which was cool.

Read that last part of Hayward’s quote again: they won the tournament, which kinda makes all of this more awesome. 

Hayward says he still plays video games after NBA games as a way to wind down. Given he’ll be out for the rest of the NBA season, he’ll have a lot of time left for gaming.

Source: Uproxx