Rick Fox, who owns the eSports team Echo Fox, was at the NBA 2K16 Road to the Finals Championship in Downtown L.A. on Wednesday night to announce the start of the event and to introduce the Legend Edition cover athlete, Kobe Bryant, and the 2017 cover athlete, Paul George, to the audience.

The NBA 2K16 Finals featured two teams of five players who competed for a prize of $250,000. After confetti was tossed and the winning team received its check and championship rings, Fox talked to For The Win.

The three-time NBA champ shared what he has learned since jumping into the world of eSports, why he believes the NBA Finals will be neck-and-neck (he picks the Warriors to win it all), and his slightly biased advice for free agent Kevin Durant.

For The Win: What has it been like learning more about this different sort of (eSports) world?

Rick Fox: That we’re not so different. Just mastering excellence is I think what defines you as a pro. Playing and competing and winning under pressure, having a career where you’re idolized by young men and women who want to do exactly what you’re doing, jumping out of bed and being passionate about your career, I like at all those things and I look at the people that surround the players that are on Echo Fox. I see their dedication, their focus, their work ethic, how much time they put in, and it mirrors a lot of what it took for me to get as good as I got. And then I interacted with them just as I interacted with many of my former teammates.

There’s so many different forms and expressions when it comes to professional sports and what makes it a professional athletes. I know eSports in general is grabbing more respect and inclusion is something that I subscribe to in general, so having them join the fraternity of professional athletes actually is no longer a debate. It must happen.

Rick Fox with Echo Fox players Yuri Jew, Henrick Hansen, Terry Chuong and Jeong-hun Park. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for TipTalk)

FTW: Are you encouraged seeing other athletes like yourself like Shaq and A-Rod start investing in teams, as well?

RF: Yeah, because I think what they connect to is what they recognize as what they spent the majority of their life doing — competing and playing on huge stages, representing themselves and teammates and organizations for millions of fans. Everything that clicks reignites me … It reignites everything I’ve known for so many years, so to have Shaq as a rival instead of an ally today, have him talking trash and popping off on me all the time because of our teams competing is fun. I love it. I love that they’re taking a stand as well and acknowledging and recognizing what so many of us have seen in these young men and women.

FTW: Do you have a pick for the Finals?

RF: Which Finals?

FTW: The NBA Finals.

RF: (laughs) I was about to say, the 2K Finals? … NBA Final predictions, it’s hard having been a back-to-back champion, and to watch the Warriors this season do what they’ve done during the regular season, but also what they just did in the Western Conference Finals, to not believe that it is just their destiny to leave their mark as maybe arguably the best team to play the game. I know we can stack them up against our Lakers or stack them up against their Bulls, and yes you can have a debate all day, but what they’ve done is been special. And what they’re looking to accomplish is remarkable.

Yet at the same time, I’ve lost an NBA Finals, so I know what that pain feels like. And I know the Cavs are getting another shot at redeeming themselves, and man, I ended my career and I lost an NBA Finals. If I had another shot to go back — bum knee and all — I’d take it! I don’t know what the result would be, but I know I’d leave it all out on the floor, so I expect the Cavs to really, really put it out there, and have a game plan that gives them just as good a shot as the Warriors have of winning. But if I had to pick a team, I’d have to pick the Warriors.

FTW: Kevin Durant is facing free agency, do you have any advice for him?

RF: Come to the Lakers.

FTW: That’s a good answer.

RF: Yeah, come to the Lakers. That’s my advice. It’s pretty biased advice, but (laughs) I think he spends a lot of time out here in training and the offseason and I think he’d be a great anchor to the next generation of Laker greats.

(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Bonus Question: What would you call your own video game?