{"id":2058,"date":"2016-12-02T08:30:20","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T07:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/?p=2058"},"modified":"2016-12-01T20:40:50","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T19:40:50","slug":"nbas-houston-rockets-committing-esports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2016\/12\/nbas-houston-rockets-committing-esports","title":{"rendered":"NBA’s Houston Rockets committing to esports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">With the news that <strong>Houston Rockets<\/strong> have appointed <strong>Sebastian Park<\/strong>\u00a0as Director of Esports Development, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-12-01\/rockets-first-nba-team-to-dedicate-front-office-slot-to-esports\">Bloomberg also reported<\/a> that the NBA side’s owner is looking to invest in the sector.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2059\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2059\" style=\"width: 243px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2059\" src=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/SebastianParkHoustonRockets.jpg\" alt=\"Sebastian Park, Houston Rockets\" width=\"243\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/SebastianParkHoustonRockets.jpg 450w, https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/SebastianParkHoustonRockets-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/SebastianParkHoustonRockets-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/SebastianParkHoustonRockets-420x420.jpg 420w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2059\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sebastian Park, Houston Rockets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>Les Alexander<\/strong> is the owner of the Houston Rockets, but it was Park who told Bloomberg: “Nothing is off the table. We\u2019re going to look at everything.” This is a line that will widen the eyes of esports startups the world over and that of team owners looking for a sale too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">The expectation now is that Houston Rockets will enter a team in some form, whether that’s starting from scratch with their own brand and building a team, or acquiring one already in existence. Parks stated: “What really drew me to the Rockets was their ability to say, \u2018There are things we know, and things we don\u2019t know. We know the esports space is valuable, now let\u2019s take time and really figure it out.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">This approach is a breath of fresh air after a whirlwind of traditional clubs entering the space in some form. The Rocket’s owner joins those behind the scenes in the Philadelphia 76ers, Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards and Golden State Warriors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">Sebastian Park’s own background is in team ownership. He co-owned Team Archon until recently: “A lot of people look at esports myopically, as something that needs to explode in the next week to make ends meet, and I was there, I ran a team in that manner. The Rockets can approach this not from the perspective of a start-up, but as an organization that can make bets with the purpose of being a major player in this space.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>Esports Insider says: The patient approach being taken by Houston Rockets in entering esports is great news, and bringing an endemic experienced figure on board makes a lot of sense pre-investment.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the news that Houston Rockets have appointed Sebastian Park\u00a0as Director of Esports Development, Bloomberg also reported that the NBA side’s owner is looking to invest in the sector.\u00a0 Sebastian Park, Houston Rockets Les Alexander is the owner of the Houston Rockets, but it was Park who told Bloomberg: “Nothing is off the table. We\u2019re … <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2016\/12\/nbas-houston-rockets-committing-esports\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","esi_template":"default","excluded":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,55,106,237,240],"tags":[40,1099,386],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial","category-esports-titles","category-latest-news","category-news-by-region","category-north-america","tag-esports","tag-houston-rockets","tag-nba"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NBA's Houston Rockets committing to esports<\/title>\n<meta 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