Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward isn't playing professional basketball overseas during the lockout. Instead, he's taking his talents to a galaxy far, far away.

DeseretNews.com reports that Hayward will be playing video games professionally.

The 21-year-old Utah Jazz player has joined a professional video game league with IGN Entertainment. Hayward will compete with other eSports video athletes in a StarCraft II competition from Oct. 6-9 at Caesars Atlantic City in the IGN Pro League. Hayward is excited to be among 256 players shooting for a share of a $100,000 prize pool in IPL 3: Origins.

"I've been playing video games for as long as I can remember," Hayward said in a news release. "I'm a competitive guy, and I love the competitive nature of video games.

"Pro-gamers are really sports stars themselves," he added. "The mental strategy that goes into planning your next move and what your opponent is going to do are skills you need to be successful playing basketball — and playing StarCraft II. If you want to be good, you have to put a lot of time and effort into it, just like with other sports. I've got the best of both worlds.

...

Hopefully Hayward's interview gets entered into evidence in the ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiations so we can turn back the clock and undo this embarrasing chapter in the history of the league.

Oh, yes.

Professional journalism at its finest...

Reeeee-orrrrr. Reeeeee-orrrrrr.

Owait, that's the sound of my ignorant journalist alert being activated.

I'll be the dissenting voice - I think the entire concept of competitive videogaming is patently silly and an anathema to what makes videogames so excellent in the first place - they're just plain fun without the angst of worrying about being better at a game than someone else. Anything that adds that kind of element isn't something I can really support.