Jeremy Lin news 2016: Attends annual 'Dota 2' tournament at KeyArena; says he is looking into investing in esports
Jeremy Lin has a lot on his plate right now especially after recently signing up with the Brooklyn Nets for the upcoming games. But followers of Lin know that aside from basketball, the one thing that he greatly enjoys playing is the free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena video game "Dota 2."
Lin is basically a professional NBA player by day and a "Dota 2" player by night as he admitted that he still plays the game at least three to four times a week even during the NBA season. He also recently attended the annual "Dota 2" tournament along with all the other thousands of fans to witness eSports gamers bring home the bacon for this year which is over $20 million.
Some people may never understand the depth of eSports, but not Lin who even said that eSports is nothing different to the traditional sports.
"It's like going to the NBA Finals and watching it," Lin told ESPN. "Any basketball fan would want to do that, so for me, I love coming here and experiencing it. It's not any different than traditional sports," he added.
He did explain that with sports, it's more of a physical component while in video games, a person is controlling a hero. Lin is optimistic about the future of eSports that he even believes that due to the international popularity of the game and its accessibility, the game could potentially be a part of the Olympics in the future.
Some may find it ridiculous considering it's just a video game. But given how fast the pace technology is moving nowadays, Lin, who signed a $36 million deal with Nets, sees "Dota 2" as a business opportunity. He may invest in an eSports team one day. And if he does, he wouldn't be the first one since Rick Fox invested on Echo Fox last year.
Lin currently has a matchmaking ranking of 4,000. He is also very familiar with all the characters of the game. And just for fun, Lin sat down in an interview and assigned actual NBA players to characters in the game. He said that Carmelo Anthony is "Phantom Assassin" while Steph Curry is "Razor." Kobe Bryant is "Juggernaut" while Jason Kidd is "Huskar." As for himself, he chooses "Spirit Breaker."
