The popular dating reality TV show “Love Island” (more specifically “Love Island USA”) is back for Season 8.
And in this season’s iteration of the show that’s streaming on Peacock, there’s an NBA connection to the Phoenix Suns.
Yes, really.
“Love Island” involves a cast of single contestants (Islanders) living in isolation at an island retreat in Fiji. The contestants aim to couple up and find love connections, with competitive games, twists and turns along the way. The father of one of those contestants this year is a retired NBA player who played for a number of teams, including the Suns.
Who is Aniya’s NBA player dad on ‘Love Island’ Season 8?
In the latest season of “Love Island,” one of the women contestants is Aniya Harvey (@aniyaharvey02 on Instagram). In one of the earlier episodes of the latest season, Aniya discusses her former NBA player father with another contestant, saying that he played for the Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic and Suns.
Only the most hardcore of Suns fans are likely to guess who that is from the show’s clues alone, but Aniya is the daughter of former NBAer Donnell Harvey, a 6-foot-8 lefty swingman who played 205 NBA games across parts of five professional seasons.
Harvey, who played college ball at the University of Florida with the Gators, was drafted in the first round (22nd overall) in the 2000 NBA draft by the New York Knicks.
He was traded by the Knicks on draft night to the Dallas Mavericks for a package that netted New York left-handed guard Erick Strickland.
Harvey played 36 games for Dallas before again being traded in February 2002 in a massive seven-player deal. Harvey, Tim Hardaway, Juwan Howard, a 2002 first round pick and cash were sent to the Nuggets in exchange for Nick Van Exel, Avery Johnson, Raef LaFrentz and Tariq Abdul-Wahad.
Harvey went on to sign a free-agent deal with the Magic in September of 2003, but he was traded again three months later to the Suns for a 2004 second-round pick (Antonio Burks was later selected).
In 36 games played (seven starts) with the Suns, Harvey averaged 3.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.4 personal fouls per game. He converted 47.3% of his field goals while playing 12.2 minutes per contest for Phoenix.
His NBA career would fizzle from there, eventually landing with the then-New Jersey Nets where he played only three games during the 2004-05 season. That would mark the end of his playing days in the NBA.
At the time of writing, his daughter Aniya Harvey has more than 91,000 Instagram followers. An athlete in her own right, Aniya played collegiate volleyball at Florida Atlantic University.
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