Boston Celtics forward Jonas Jerebko is a video game junkie. Now, he has decided to purchase an eSports franchise called the “Renegades.” The Renegades are based in Detroit, where Jerebko played five NBA seasons. From Saira Mueller of the Daily Dot:
“It’s a whole new regime that we’ve structured,” Jerebko tells Dot Esports. While the CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) team and its support staff have been retained by the new-look Renegades, all other staff have been replaced. Jerebko is keeping the Renegades name and logo, just with a slightly updated style.
“It was the CS:GO team that made us want to buy Renegades at first, we would never have bought it without the opportunity to keep the team,” he said. To make sure everything was done right Jerebko contacted ELEAGUE and WME | IMG representatives first, to ensure that everything would be sorted for season two of the TBS CS:GO league. He wanted to ensure the switch of ownership would be smooth to avoid another situation like that of Luminosity and SK Gaming, where both teams were kicked out of the first season after players switched organizations.
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“I’ve had some bad experiences with organizations,” Jerebko says. “When I signed my first professional contract, they flew me to Italy and dropped me off at an apartment with a pocket full of cash. That was on a Thursday, and they said ‘see you on Monday.’ I’m 18-years-old in a different country.
“So I’m just really trying to build my players up.”
Other notable athletes who own eSports teams include Rick Fox and Shaquille O’Neal. Jerebko will be different than those two, though, because he is extremely knowledgable about eSports. Jerebko has played Counter-Strike since the sixth grade, and has meticulously researched the world of eSports.
The Renegades’ CS:GO team manager Chris “GoMeZ” Orfanellis explained why the team chose Jerebko over four other organizations:
“It was mainly because Jonas just knew,” he says. “A lot of other teams have NBA figureheads, but I don’t think they would even know their own players or a lot about the game. Whereas Jonas knew all the players, he knew everything about what we need, what we do, how the game is played.”
While Jerebko says his career with the Boston Celtics comes first, he’s going to do as much as he can before the season starts to take care of the team and the organization, and will still continue to be as involved as possible. He even helped set up the house before the team arrived, going to Ikea and putting together the players’ beds and moving in other furniture.
Jerebko played 78 games with the Celtics last season, averaging 4.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game, while shooting 39.8% from three-point range.
