Shaquille O'Neal Confirms Esports Players Are Indeed Athletes
It's a debate as old as esports itself, but one of the world's greatest ever sportspersons has confirmed that professional gamers are athletes. Despite the physical permutations of esports being incomparable to that of mainstream athletes such as sporting personalities and Olympians, basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal claims that professional gamers are athletes, with the mental game being his main reasoning.
Big Shaq, as he is better known by NBA fans, is a major investor in NRG Esports, alongside baseball's Alexander Rodriguez and James Rollins, and DJ Tiesto. Since his venture into esports, Shaq has helped NRG secure huge partnerships for their Rocket League roster and appeared in promotional content for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, proving to understand the best of both worlds.
Now, he's spoken out about the community's main debate in the wider media and has confirmed that he believes esports pros are athletes.
Shaquille O'Neal Says 'Esports Players Are Athletes'
Speaking in a preview snippet of a longer interview with esports journalist Jake Lucky, Shaq was quizzed on his opinion regarding the matter, to which he confirmed that he agreed.
"Athlete means different things, but athlete means here," Shaq said, pointing to his brain. "15 per cent of the game is physical and everything else is mental. So, the things you guys go through, that's why you don't have a long 'life shelf'. I think it's what, 5-6 years? it's the same thing with the NBA and the NFL."
"Yes, you guys are athletes," he said, adding, "I want to commend you guys, and I'm proud of you guys."
Are Esports Players Athletes?
The debate has been rife ever since professional gaming was labelled with the name esports, which is replicable of mainstream sports. Having originally seen most people in the wider media rubbish any connotations of athleticism within gaming, people are soon warming up to the idea.
Recently, esports has taken a major turn in embedding itself in the wider sports sphere, having seen Rocket League and Street Fighter be named Olympic events before Tokyo 2020 was cancelled; only Rocket League was included as an event, albeit in regional events due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since, Rocket League and Dota 2 have been named as Commonwealth Games events, as esports continues to chisel its way into athletics. If Big Shaq says esports players are athletes, take it as gospel. After all, he's not the kind of guy you'd want to mess with.