NBA Players Rely on Video Games to Round Out Their Play

NBA Players Rely on Video Games to Round Out Their Play: "

Sports video games have always tried to bring the best of the sport to the gamer, with developers looking at players to pick up their nuances, habits and tendencies to make the game as realistic as possible for the person who plays the video game. But it appears some players are taking it a step further and taking what they see in the video game and incorporating it into the real life game.

Take for example the game of basketball. According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, Memphis Grizzlies guard Michael Conley is an avid player of NBA 2K9. Recently, while playing the game, he noted a move and shot by the virtual version of Rajon Rondo. Conely was so impressed with the move that he incorporated it into his on-court repertoire and dubbed it the Euro Step. And Conley isn't the only one.

According to the LAT story:

New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson said he invented and practiced his dunk moves on NBA2K9 three weeks before winning the slam-dunk contest at the All-Star game last February. Robinson watched his avatar do alley-oop dunks from the baseline and windmill dunks, and catch balls off the glass and turn them into dunks. He imagined the possibilities in real life.



"With the video games, you can try different dunks that people have never seen before," Robinson said.

Apparently, more an more players are playing the video game counterpart to their sport to pick up what other players or teams may do.

It interesting look at how life is imitating art.

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