Kobe Bryant made an appearance at a giant warehouse in the middle of Downtown L.A. on Wednesday night to help introduce the first ever NBA 2K16 Road to the Finals Championship. The competition featured two teams of the five best players who battled for a $250,000 prize. Rick Fox and Paul George — the 2017 cover player — joined Bryant in announcing the competing teams. Fox also dished out a few fun questions to Bryant and George before the game began.

Bryant said he had never been to an eSports event before, but he has been on the cover of NBA 2K before (in 2010), and he’s on it again this year for the Legend Edition. Plus, the 37-year-old says he has developed a strong interest in the video game world, especially because of its “great relationship” to storytelling. His appearance wasn’t as random as it may sound.

Once he was done chuckling through questions with Fox and George in front of an audience waiting to see which team of gamers would take home a quarter of a million dollars, Bryant spoke to For The Win about how retirement has been treating him so far, what his thoughts are on eSports and what advice he would give to free agent Kevin Durant.

FTW: How has retirement been for you?

Kobe Bryant: Retirement’s been great for me. I’m focused on the next thing and enjoying that. I get up every morning, and I’m excited to get to it. It’s been good.

FTW: John Black said the morning after the game, that you had woken up really early, gone to the gym, got in the office by 8:30, is that still something you’ve kept up?

KB: 8! (laughs) Yeah, yeah. I love everything I’m doing. I’m very, very fortunate to be able to say that. It’s always been a great fear of playing the game is will you be able to love the next thing as much as you love playing. Fortunately for me, the answer is yes.

Lakers spokesman John Black told us he heard from Kobe’s people that Bryant worked out early this morning and was at his office by 8:30 a.m. — Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) April 14, 2016

FTW: It sounds like the transition for you has been smooth. Has it felt smooth or have you had any moments where you’re itching to play?

KB: No, no, I haven’t felt any urges whatsoever. It’s hard to really describe, and it’s really hard to understand. I sincerely love, love being in there as much as I love playing basketball. It may be hard to understand, but it’s really true.

FTW: What’s been your favorite part of retirement?

KB: It’s the learning, the ability to have great mentors, muses that I can talk to about the profession, learn from, to be able to get on the phone with them and talk to them about certain projects, certain iconic stories that they’ve created and understand how they created them and why and what can I learn from them. That’s really exciting.

FTW: There was an AP story that came out and said you’ve been speaking with Spielberg and a lot of the giants in the movie industry, but have you called people from other facets of the business world, as well?

KB: Yeah, I’ve been really fortunate to have really great mentors throughout my career, which have nothing to do with basketball. Anna Wintour, Arianna Huffington, Mark Parker, Jony Ive, to be able to have access to them, to speak to them — just speak, not necessarily about business in particular, just nature and people and culture and things like that.

FTW: You joked around in an interview with Cabbie Richards on TSN that you were going to create a profile and play Halo. Have you played video games since retiring or is that something you’d like to do?

KB: Sometimes. I haven’t really had much time yet, but I’ve really been focusing on the gaming world and how it relates to storytelling because there’s obviously a great relationship between those two. The lines are becoming more and more blurred everyday, and so I’ve been paying very close attention to the future of that industry.

FTW: What’s your stance on eSports and has that changed? Recently, ESPN has been getting into it, it’s now seen more of as a legitimate sport whereas before it was viewed as just video games and not a real sport.

KB: I think people are really interested in watching people problem solve. It doesn’t matter what industry. People are very fascinated by that — seeing the struggles people go through and how they overcome it. I think this was just a matter of time before it caught fire. To be able to sit and watch a performance on TV and watch how the gamers are figuring out those challenges amongst themselves, you can’t help but be interested.

FTW: Would you consider getting involved in eSports like Rick Fox and A-Rod and Shaq, who have started investing?

KB: It depends, depends if the right opportunity comes along, and I feel like it’s something that we should invest in, and if it’s something we feel like we could add value to, then yeah, that’d be something that we’d consider.

FTW: Have you been following the playoffs?

KB: A little bit, I watched Game 7 the other night. I’ve been able to catch games here and there, certain moments of things. I’ve been following enough.

FTW: Do you have an NBA Finals prediction?

KB: I don’t really do predictions. I’m more curious to see how tactical, how they solve each other’s problems. They each pose a threat to the other in different ways. I’m curious … to see what the tactics are. After I see Game 1, Game 2, probably after the first half of Game 1, I could pretty much make an educated guess.

FTW: You spent your whole career with the Lakers, Kevin Durant is facing free agency, do you have any advice for him on how he should approach that decision?

KB: Yeah, I mean, you know, you’ve just got to look at it holistically. What does he want out of his career, what opportunities present themselves, even I — when I was a free agent — I did my due diligence, I looked at every opportunity and I left no stone unturned, so you have to vet those things. I was just very fortunate things worked out for me in Los Angeles, but he certainly needs to look at every opportunity and make the right decision for himself — keeping in mind his fan base in Oklahoma, as well.

FTW: About the 60-point game you had, I’ve briefly talked with a few athletes like Rob Gronkowski and Richard Sherman and Buster Posey, they’re all amazed…

KB: My Body Armor guys!

FTW: Yeah, that’s exactly why I asked them… they said they were all still amazed and watched from home. Has that sunk in for you how crazy that was? I know out there (during the NBA 2K event intro) you said you still can’t believe it.

KB: I can’t, it’s just where is this happening? If you write this into a script, you have to rewrite it because the ending is just — no, it’s not believable, you have to rewrite the script. I’m kind of still in shock about the whole thing, but just extremely thankful for this career — for it to end in front of the same fans who watched me in my first game in Los Angeles. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

FTW: Would you ever consider getting a Snapchat?

KB: No, not really because … it’s five seconds right?

FTW: It’s 10 seconds. It’s pretty short.

KB: 10 seconds, I guess they updated it. Well, maybe. I haven’t really spent that much time on social media lately because I’ve always been busy, but never say never. Maybe one day I’ll do it because the guys are amazing — the founders of Snapchat. Brilliant, brilliant, I’m a big fan. If I could figure out a way I could creatively do certain things on there

FTW: You could add little filters.

KB: Yeah, if you could do something fun. Twitter’s really easy for me. I’m a natural smart aleck, so it’s very easy for me to tweet certain things. Snapchat I’m sure could be the same thing if I could sit down and think about it.

Bonus Question: If you could be the star of your own video game, what would you name it?

https://vine.co/v/iYBiPFVhdTx