I'm not sure that they did. They're holding up the NBA as a good stand-in for the average sport/league pair (I think they could've picked MLS, MLB, the English

I'm not sure that they did. They're holding up the NBA as a good stand-in for the average sport/league pair (I think they could've picked MLS, MLB, the English Premier League, Bundesliga or NHL and observed a similar result) saying that the mean age of active players there is the same as the mean esports age of retirement. So already we can see that it's a bit of a surprising outlier. Then the point is driven home by comparing with (in their eyes) one of the most physically demanding sports/leagues - the NFL - where players apparently still retire a little later than esports people It's maybe clumsily presented, but it does demonstrate how esports is a peculiar case that doesn't necessarily follow expectations.