Why Call of Duty became the ultimate quarantine pastime for NBA players
On the day the NBA suspended its season last month, Meyers Leonard headed home from AmericanAirlines Arena late at night, immediately plopped into his custom gaming chair, signed into Twitch, grabbed his Xbox One controller and booted up the only possible game of choice these days: “Call of Duty: Warzone.”
His Miami Heat had just lost to the Charlotte Hornets, and he had no idea when he might return to basketball. Just a few hours earlier, Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the coronavirus, throwing the NBA season into disarray. It has been more than a month since the NBA last played a game, and there’s still no indication when — or if — the season might resume.
Leonard played for about five hours the night the NBA suspended the season. A few days later, Leonard streamed the game on ESPN’s Twitch channel. About a week into the hiatus, Slam and FaZe Clan started hosting a series of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” tournaments featuring NBA players. Earlier this month, he raised money for COVID-19 relief by streaming on Twitch for 24 straight hours and a bulk of the time was consumed with Call of Duty.
Leonard is far from the only NBA player to fall into a Call of Duty obsession since the season stopped. New Orleans Pelicans swingman Josh Hart has streamed on Twitch more than a dozen times, almost exclusively playing Call of Duty. Dallas Mavericks forward Justin Jackson has jumped back into streaming. Even All-Stars such as Philadelphia 76ers point guard Ben Simmons and Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker have made a habit of interacting with fans while playing Call of Duty while the season is on hold.
NBA players’ love of Call of Duty is nothing new, but a life of social distancing and self isolation — paired with the March release of “Call of Duty: Warzone” — means they’re playing more than ever.
The NBA-COD connection
Hart found himself with more free time than he had anticipated midway through his rookie season with the Los Angeles Lakers. A hand injury knocked the rookie out for more than two months in 2018, and he needed a way to occupy some of his unanticipated downtime. His manager suggested he start streaming on Twitch with “Fortnite Battle Royale” at the height of its popularity.
These days, everyone is in the same sort of position. Suddenly, the daily routine of heading to the arena for a few hours for practice, or five or six hours for a game is gone. There are at least a few newly free hours each day to fill and, like so many people, NBA players are filling them with video games.
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” — and particularly its Warzone battle-royale mode — has been the game of choice for much of the world in the month since the NBA suspended play. In the last month, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” has been the most streamed game on Twitch. NBA players aren’t necessarily unique in their love of the Call of Duty, but the the league and the series have been closely tied for a decade.
In 2010, Call of Duty started featuring celebrities in commercials for its games, and Kobe Bryant was one of the first stars in an ad for “Call of Duty: Black Ops.” The next year, Kevin Garnett, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and then-Heat post player Chris Bosh were all featured prominently at the inaugural Call of Duty: Experience 2011 as part of a “Pros vs. G.I. Joes” event, pitting athletes against real-life soldiers in “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” In 2018, James Harden even subtly announced “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4” by wearing a promotional hat before a playoff game.
“Athletes are huge gamers and they’ve been gamers for a long time,” said Manny Anekal, an esports consultant from South Florida. “They’re clamoring for something to do and they’re all gamers, but it brings them attention. They’re missing that whole angle of sports.”
Said Leonard: “Maybe the most important is the fact that I still get to interact with fans and I do mean that. ... I think people feel that they can come in my Twitch stream and get a real guy. I always say to them: I’m just a normal guy who happens to play in the NBA.”
A lifelong passion
Jackson was just like so many other high school kids growing up this century: His parents were often prying him from his video game consoles, particularly “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” on the Xbox 360.
“The passion goes all the way back to that,” Jackson said.
It’s no coincidence most of the NBA’s most prominent Call of Duty players are all in their 20s. Leonard, 28, was a freshman in high school when “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” came out and the series became a phenomenon. For as long as the NBA’s under-30 set has been playing first-person shooters, Call of Duty has been the gold standard.
Call of Duty’s annual release plan means the games stay fresh, but it also means some releases are better received than others. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” dips into nostalgia, and also cribs from popular modern games like “Fortnite” and “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” with its Warzone mode.
“You could tell they almost borrowed all the best elements from all those other battle-royale games,” said FaZe talent manager Darren Yan, who recruits NBA players for the clan’s events, “and, once again, a lot of these athletes growing up were playing Call of Duty, so it feels very familiar.”
“NBA 2K20” is the game which got an ESPN spotlight, but a segment of NBA players are entirely uninterested in the series. As Leonard put it, “they’re either obsessed with 2K or they’re not interested whatsoever.”
“I play basketball for my job,” Hart said. “You just sometimes want to step out of that and play something that’s not as realistic.”
Call of Duty threads the needle perfectly for NBA players trying to replicate some of what they like about playing basketball. It’s a competitive outlet and streaming on Twitch lets players perform in front of a crowd like they would in an NBA game, and battle-royale games like Warzane give them ample downtime to interact.
One other key difference between Call of Duty and sports games: Call of Duty is a team esport. Athletes used to strategizing with teammates all year have to do the same to win in Call of Duty.
“If you play multiplayer, you can play with up to five other people,” Leonard said. “It’s not only popular, but you can play with other people.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 3:23 PM.
