RealGM

True definition of a Nerd Baller. He's currently streaming my favorite game Starcraft 2 Live right now with audio/video commentary. He's a Platinum player which isn't great but isn't bad either.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gdhayward
http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/GordonHayward

True Nerd Baller right here.

wow nice find..

A millionaire playing Starcraft 2 *nods* can't blame him. I'd probably do the same.

He just said he plays with Fesenko on Starcraft2 all the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Hayward

His wiki page just got updated too. This is seriously cracking me up.

Hayward plays the video game 'Starcraft II' and occasionally streams his games and interacts with his fans.

yeah I saw that.. hopefully one day Fes plays on cam that would be a riot

Wow this is one of the nerdiest/coolest things. Props to Flash Gordon. Between him, AK, and Fes we are like the Goonies, if the Goonies consisted of nothing but Datas.

Outsider here but huge Starcraft nerd, i saw him streaming and i instantly started watching

could this be a paid sponsorship by Blizzard?

this is awesome, THIS is the future of the Utah Jazz not bad

I'm so sad I missed this. Lots of fans of other teams on another forum I post at are now Hayward fans because of this.

LOL was he talking or was it just the gameplay being streamed?

This is very good for his development as a basketball player. Tim Duncan and the Admiral apparently played the original Starcraft all of the time.

Alfred wrote:This is very good for his development as a basketball player. Tim Duncan and the Admiral apparently played the original Starcraft all of the time.

Hahaha never heard that before. I find that image to be hilarious though....

I love SC2 and everyone knows true ballers spend their free time playing it....

I hope he isn't like Deron who kicked me off of his friends list when I joined his CoD: Black Ops game and smoked his team....freaking douche.

xbox or ps3? By the way whats his online name?

I am loving the reactions here. When AK was found to be a closet WoW guy, everyone blasted him for it because he was underperforming his contract. WoW became a go-to reason for why he wasn't playing up to par. This is funny now, but if Gordo has a rough year...suddenly no one will be laughing and StarCraft will be put forward as a reason for it. Lawl.

I suspect it would be different if AK had made a stream of himself playing.

erudite23 wrote:I am loving the reactions here. When AK was found to be a closet WoW guy, everyone blasted him for it because he was underperforming his contract. WoW became a go-to reason for why he wasn't playing up to par. This is funny now, but if Gordo has a rough year...suddenly no one will be laughing and StarCraft will be put forward as a reason for it. Lawl.

That was pretty much my reaction as well. I'd like to think that Hayward's more committed to improving himself as a player than AK has been, so I'm more inclined to excuse his gaming merely as a peripheral activity, but that perception could definitely change. In any case, without much real Jazz news to talk about and no current reason to criticize Hayward for what he does with his free time, it's just funny for now.

You guys are nuts. KD, Dwight, and lots of other great basketball players play video games a lot. I doubt seriously that Gordo spends all day playing SC2 when he should be at the gym. He isn't married, doesn't have kids, and frankly, doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would get out a lot. I would think that a lot of these guys would rather be locked up pwning noobs than dealing with stupid fans when they go places most of the time. If SC2 or WoW would make these guys ruin their NBA careers, then they most likely would never have made it to the NBA to begin with.

HammerDunk wrote:You guys are nuts. KD, Dwight, and lots of other great basketball players play video games a lot. I doubt seriously that Gordo spends all day playing SC2 when he should be at the gym. He isn't married, doesn't have kids, and frankly, doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would get out a lot. I would think that a lot of these guys would rather be locked up pwning noobs than dealing with stupid fans when they go places most of the time. If SC2 or WoW would make these guys ruin their NBA careers, then they most likely would never have made it to the NBA to begin with.

I totally agree with that.

I didn't mean to suggest that Hayward is ruining or even hurting his career by playing Starcraft or that he is at all likely to do that. I really don't think WOW had all that much to do with AK's shortcomings either (though I'd say it might very well have been a symptom of the underlying cause(s) for AK's disappointing play). I, like erudite, was just commenting on the fact that people are reacting quite a bit differently to the news that Hayward is a gamer than they did to the same news that AK.

If Hayward doesn't live up to the expectations in the future, I doubt it will have much (or anything) to do with the fact that he likes to play video games, but what I meant to say is that I wouldn't rule out the possibility that people would try to establish a correlation (if not a cause/effect relationship) between those two things. Public perceptions are obviously wrong quite a bit of the time, but, in my mind, that only makes them more interesting to look at.

Hayward works out at St. Vincent's about 4 hours a day. The Jazz have talked to St. Vincent's trainers and with Hayward. His body can only stand so much training time a day.

Favors is working out with Peak Performance. The Jazz talked to him and the folks at Peak, so these two guys are doing what is expected of them and both are working hard.

Hayward is 21. He's a new media kid. Tweeting, game playing, streaming video are all on his list of things to do. I'm not sure he understands that this stuff can go wrong for him sometimes when he isn't expecting it, but that's the price of youthful exuberance. At least he's not arrogant. He wants to communicate with the fans and let them see him being a normal guy. No bling, no tats, but a few video games. That's a lot safer than riding a Harley or skiing.

Well, there's much more of a stigma that comes with playing WoW than a game like SC2, and it's certainly warranted. I think far fewer lives have been ruined by SC2 than WoW, simply because of the demanded time and lifestyle that comes with a game like WoW. But, I think those people are more of a product of how they were raised and taught (or not taught) by their parents in youth. A guy like Andre could definitely not be where he is now if he spent too much time on that game growing up.

So I know video game addiction (world of warcrack) is a serious issue, and not just among kids. I just don't think a guy like Andre would let it effect him enough to derail his career. In other words, having a level 85 paladin isn't going to cause injuries, unless he is being injured or staying injured on purpose to play the game, then that's a serious problem that, like you said, is a symptom of a much larger issue.