https://youtu.be/ANT5zGZrsKQ
Here’s a question for you: does Josh Hart still play Fortnite? Is that still a thing?
Back when Hart was on the Lakers, he connected to a new segment of NBA fans, that being the segment of NBA fans who also like to play battle royale shooters and who probably also do that “flossing” dance in real life. For a young shooting guard who doesn’t have much star power from a “basketball talent” point of view, you gotta grab the scraps of notoriety where you can get them, and for Hart, that notoriety was achieved by being an NBA player who also streams Fortnite.
My understanding is that Fortnite is not as big as it once was. I don’t hear people talking about it like I did a few years ago. Certainly, that’s not a big deal for me, since I sucked at Fortnite despite repeatedly begging Hart to coach me so that I could be good at it. I didn’t even know how to build those crazy structures out of wood and stuff that you see everybody else building. All I would do is walk around until I got shot at, and then I would run away while looking for a place to hide. I would have preferred to interact non-violently with my fellow Fortnite players, but that wasn’t really an option if you wanted to win the match. That seems like a flaw in game design to me.
Anyway, Fortnite doesn’t have the same cultural currency that it had, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Hart moved on to some hot new game. Now that he’s on the Pelicans, he has to fight that much harder to stay relevant. Playing for the Lakers, you’ll always be relevant and talked about, even if you don’t have a Twitch stream on the side. Not so in New Orleans. Maybe he should stream while wearing as few clothes as possible and target the female market.