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    Gabe Norwood recalls video game bonding with roommate Sol Mercado

    Teammates would have seven-hour NBA 2K or Madden marathons
    Dec 29, 2021
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    PHOTO: (Right) Gabe Norwood/Instagram

    GABE Norwood wouldn’t exactly call himself a gamer. But he’s definitely been playing them all his life.

    “I’ve always been intrigued by video games,” he told Spin.ph before the holidays, reminiscing about his childhood growing up in America. “There was Nintendo and I was a kid and playing on the Power Pad and trying to cheat on Track and Field and Duck Hunt.”

    The Rain or Shine star added: “I’m pretty bad at any kind of single player game. Like I was bad at GoldenEye, I’m bad at Call of Duty. I stick to 2K, Fifa, Madden… those are my lane when it comes to video games.”

    His family was recently tapped to be the ambassadors for a new campaign for NBA 2K22an exciting time for the Norwoods, as their three young children are huge fans of the game.

    “My youngest — he’s four — his brothers let him kind of do the practice stuff, and he’s getting shots up already, too,” said Norwood.

    Even Gabe’s wife Lei has been getting into the game to bond with her energetic youngsters.

    “I’ve always been into gaming, like I wouldn’t shy away from playing,” she said. “But when it comes to sports games, obviously I’ve been more exposed to it now after being with Gabe then eventually with our sons. They are obsessed. They love the game, so I have to keep up.”

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      Gabe Norwood played video games all day with Sol Mercado

      Back in his single days, however, Norwood jostled at the sticks with a different video game partner: teammate Sol Mercado.

      The two were prized recruits for Rain or Shine’s 2008 season — with Norwood at the top of the draft pick, and Sol Mercado being picked fifth by Alaska before being traded to the Elastopainters.

      “I think a lot of people know Sol Mercado and I were roommates. We were actually roommates for the first couple of years [in the PBA]. So it was just a matter of what game we were going to play that day, whether it was Madden or 2K or FIFA, we were basically on the sticks a lot,” he said.

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      He added, laughing, “It was pretty much a six-, seven-hour marathon there.”

      Even when the two eventually stopped bunking together, they still occasionally played online. “It was good fun,” said Norwood. “We’re best of friends, but at the end of the day, we love to trash talk, we definitely let each other know, ‘I got the win this time.’”

      We also had to ask: If players (and not just in the PBA, but all around the world) shoot hoops for a living, what’s the appeal of doing it inside a video game?

      “I think it’s a way to keep that competitive edge,” surmised Gabe. “I think it’s hard for a lot of athletes to turn it off. Once you leave your workplace, whether it’s the gym or the court or the field, when you get home and try to unwind, it’s hard to completely remove yourself from it. So I think a lot of players are drawn to sports games, especially games like NBA 2K, for that reason.

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      “You stay locked in.”

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      PHOTO: (Right) Gabe Norwood/Instagram
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