He was a national player of the year contender, now he’s got A’ja Wilson’s back

As the NBA’s Twitter account put it, game recognizes game.

Josh Hart was a first-round NBA draft pick for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2017 and averaged 7.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game in his rookie season after winning an NCAA championship with Villanova in 2016. He’s also been one of the best players in the NBA’s annual summer league in Las Vegas, averaging more than 20 points per contest to lead the Lakers to the semifinals.

And before one of his games in Vegas recently, he showed up wearing a No. 22 jersey for the Las Vegas Aces, the city’s new WNBA team.

South Carolina fans know that number and jersey to belong to A’ja Wilson, the Aces’ No. 1 draft pick this spring and one of the greatest athletes to ever compete at USC.

Wilson and Hart have been friends for seven years now, he told the Las Vegas Review Journal, and on Saturday afternoon, Hart sent out a tweet asking where he could get his friend’s jersey. The Aces quickly responded, telling him they were available at Mandalay Bay, where the team plays.

The very next day, Hart was clad in black and gold.

“You seen what she does,” Hart told the Review Journal. “She’s way beyond her years. Obviously she’s a rookie but she’s really kind of taken the WNBA game by storm.”

Wilson took to Twitter to thank Hart for his support.

“Thanks homie you’re the best,” she wrote.

And from the sound of it, Hart won’t be the only young NBA star with Wilson’s jersey for long — his former Villanova teammate Jalen Brunson, now with the Dallas Mavericks, chimed in to say he wanted one too.

This story was originally published July 16, 2018 at 3:29 PM.