FASHION

You wouldn’t think someone that makes TikTok content about video games and gets recognized online by musician Lil Yachty would be an FGCU basketball player. Except it is.

Senior men’s basketball player Dakota Rivers has enjoyed success on the court over his three seasons at FGCU. With 383,800 followers on TikTok, he’s had his fair share of success off the court as well. Putting the two together, Rivers is considered one of the most interesting personalities on the FGCU men’s basketball team.

Rivers began playing basketball in eighth grade and played throughout high school. During the most important months of basketball in his senior year, Rivers slightly tore his quadricep in his left leg, putting his collegiate career in jeopardy.

“That was the worst time to get hurt,” Rivers said. “At that time, a lot of colleges were deciding to pull back on my scholarship offers and they were taking away a lot of the opportunities I had.”

After recovering from his injury, one of Rivers’ coaches invited back every college coach that had offers on the table to see him play. Rivers says he ended up with 20 to 25 Division I scholarship offers but chose FGCU because they never turned away from him.

“I decided to choose FGCU out of all of them because they never pulled back on me,” Rivers said. “They still believed in me. They believed my potential was still there and they knew even when I came back from my injury, I’ll be a lot better than I was before, which I was.”

When looking back on his injury, Rivers believes it helped more than what it hurt. He said he was able to learn more about his body and how to be better prepared for training in college.

“I learned a lot more about my body with the injury,” Rivers said. “I’m stretching a lot more, lifting a lot more and making sure my body is held in the best shape as possible when I got into college so, that was the best thing. Honestly, the injury hurt a lot, but it definitely helped more than hurt.”

In 2020, Rivers started making TikTok videos after one of his friends introduced him to it. As of Feb. 2023, Rivers has gained 383,800 followers and amassed 17.4 million likes on the platform. His username is @dakotarivers.

“I made my first TikTok in 2020 and it was something really crazy,” Rivers said. “It was just