‘I finally found a home’: How Josh Hart became the heartbeat of the New York Knicks
There are several reasons the Knicks are back in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years. Hart, a do-it-all guard who epitomizes the team's ethos, is one of them.
NEW YORK — As the Knicks clung to a two-point lead with about one minute to play Sunday night, Josh Hart maneuvered through traffic under the basket to grab the rebound that denied the Indiana Pacers a chance to tie or take the lead.
Forty seconds later, Hart flew in from the perimeter to get his hands on another board, banging his knee on the court after an Aaron Nesmith bump on the way down.
And with 2.6 seconds remaining, Hart secured the rebound that all but secured the Knicks’ improbable rally from 20 points down to win, 106-100, and avoid a 3-0 series deficit that probably would have broken this magical playoff run.
Those clutch moments in Indianapolis arrived on a night when Hart had been taken out of the starting lineup for the first time all season — a move he had suggested to his coach long before Sunday, he shared after the game — but played every minute of the fourth quarter. The former Villanova standout made a massive contribution in that final period without taking a shot, totaling five rebounds, two assists, one steal, and a 4-of-4 mark from the free-throw line.
“Doing what Josh does — everything,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “The thing that I love about Josh is the unselfishness.”
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There are several reasons the Knicks are back in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years. Fellow former Villanova star Jalen Brunson is the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year and, in just his third season in New York, has already started cementing himself as a franchise legend. In the last 16 months, the Knicks have beefed up their roster by trading for All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and stout two-way wings OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, the Philly native and third “‘Nova Knick.”
But, at the risk of making a cringeworthy pun, the do-it-all Hart epitomizes the Knicks’ ethos. And an effort similar to his fourth quarter will be required for New York to even this series, 2-2, in Tuesday’s Game 4 and, ultimately, take down the relentless Pacers to advance to the NBA Finals.
Nobody in the league played more minutes per game during the regular season than Hart (37.6). He set the Knicks’ franchise record for triple-doubles in a season (10 and counting), including one in the series-clinching Game 6 against the defending-champion and rival Boston Celtics that Thibodeau called “inspiring.” Hart boasts that uncanny knack to corral rebounds as a 6-foot-4 guard, keeping offensive possessions alive or pushing the pace to the opposite end. And he has an oft-hilarious, always-candid personality blended with that on-court ferocity, which caused fans attending a recent taping of his Roommates podcast to holler that they would riot if he was ever traded.
“Off the court, I don’t know what he’s going to say,” Towns said earlier this season. “And on the court, I don’t know what he’s going to do.”
That impact comes after growing up in the Washington area, and learning that competitiveness from his parents, Moses and Pat. And after a Villanova career that began as a bench player who needed to improve his shot and practice habits, before blossoming into an All-American and national champion. And after beginning his NBA career as a journeyman, before relishing his place inside basketball’s mecca while surrounded by family and former college teammates.
“I finally found a home,” Hart said. “I think my biggest thing is, I’m not going to say I didn’t feel wanted at other places, because I did. But the way I’m embraced by the city, the coaching staff, organization, it‘s just different.
“I feel like I embody that blue-collar mentality of the city, that never-quit mentality.”
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The first time Jay Wright watched Hart play, the legendary Villanova coach was inside the gym to scout a different prospect. Stanford Robinson was a top-100 recruit and terrific scorer who eventually signed with Indiana. But the reason his AAU team was winning, Wright determined, was because “this kid Hart is getting every rebound. He’s making every play. He’s making the right pass.”
So Wright went to Hart‘s high school, Sidwell Friends, to make a formal evaluation. Naturally, Hart “[got] into a scrap, like he always does,” Wright quipped, and barely played because of foul trouble.
“But I just thought,” Wright said in a recent phone conversation, “in the end, ‘You know what? Got to go with our gut and just offer him a scholarship.’”
Throughout the recruiting process, Wright and the Villanova staff got to know the son of a short-order cook and a waitress, who had all endured a significant house fire. And the teenager whom then-associate head coach Baker Dunleavy watched pull a plastic baggie of Mike and Ike candy out of his sock during a water break at practice, a sign that Villanova would need to “retrain some habits.” And the player whose father would not permit him to commit to the Wildcats until he completed his requirements to become an Eagle Scout.
“Josh is just an incredibly authentic person,” said Dunleavy, who is now the general manager of Villanova’s men’s and women’s basketball programs.
Once on campus, Hart sometimes forced coaches to halt defensive drills in practice. He would figure out how to generate the steal or stop, Wright recalled, but would too often veer from the concepts they were trying to instill.
“We’re not getting what we want out of the drill, because he just wanted to win,” Wright said. “Which we loved, but he could outsmart the drill to win it.”
That was Hart‘s everyday competitiveness in action. Bridges half-jokingly called Hart a “bully” during their early days as college teammates, though Dunleavy viewed the dynamic more as an eager-to-prove Bridges “annoying” the more established Hart. Donte DiVincenzo, another former Wildcats and Knicks teammate, said he and Hart regularly “butted heads” during practice like “two brothers fighting trying to be the best they can possibly be.”
“I know a lot of my competitive juices come from him,” said DiVincenzo, who is currently in the Western Conference finals with the Minnesota Timberwolves. “Because he challenged me.”
Still, Wright and Dunleavy acknowledge that Hart‘s habits and routine lacked discipline. Developing that would be especially required in the quest to tweak Hart‘s shot form, when bringing the ball too far behind his head resulted in a too-flat trajectory. Smoothing that release through daily reconstruction was “not a fun process” for Hart, Dunleavy said. But by his senior season, he made more than 40% of his three-point attempts, complementing the confidence he always had to launch.
And the constant hustle remained. The accomplishment that most “embodied” Hart, Dunleavy said, was that he won the 2015 Big East Tournament Most Outstanding Player award as a sophomore reserve. His best individual performance arrived two seasons later against Notre Dame, totaling 37 points and 11 rebounds to set up a season when he led the Big East in scoring (18.7 points per game) while also averaging 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists. That March, Hart‘s game-winning putback off a Kris Jenkins miss beat Seton Hall in the Big East tournament — and illustrated the nuances that make him an elite rebounder.
“Knowing that Kris was going to take that shot, when I didn’t even know that Kris was going to take that shot,” Wright recalled of Hart. “He knows the game. He knows where rebounds are coming off, but he knows the guys on his team so well.”
By the end of his Villanova career, Hart had become the program’s first player to win the Julius Erving Award for college basketball’s best small forward. He was a champion. He had been both a locker room “clown,” according to Wright, and a player who respected the program’s businesslike reputation.
And Hart‘s game-day intensity during the Wright era was perhaps only matched by Kyle Lowry’s, the coach concluded.
“They’d always be on the edge of taking the competitiveness a little bit too far — in a good way,” Wright said. “ … But even to this day, you mention something to [Hart], he’ll say, ‘I got you.’ That‘s all you need to hear. You know he takes it in a very humble, intelligent way.”
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After four seasons immersed in Villanova’s stability, Hart found the beginning of his NBA career was the reverse.
He played for three teams — and five head coaches — in five seasons. Those teams — the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Portland Trail Blazers — never posted a winning record. And while in Portland, Hart acknowledged he felt mentally burdened by constantly leaving his then-pregnant wife, Shannon, on the opposite side of the country from where they first met in high school.
“That‘s why I didn’t have a good year,” Hart said on the Roommates podcast. “So to all my Portland people, I’m sorry I didn’t play well. That‘s my excuse. I was just so worried about her when I was gone.”
Hart was then traded for a third time, to the Knicks, in 2023. Thibodeau said they expected Hart to immediately bring energy and toughness, hallmarks of the coach‘s old-school style. Hart also could be a complementary offense initiator and play multiple positions, eventually elevating himself into the starting lineup. He continued to work on his shooting, hiring renowned private coach Mark Ramljak.
He was the quintessential role player for the Knicks’ resurgence.
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During last year’s first-round playoff series against the 76ers, Hart was a menace who gobbled offensive rebounds and buried timely three-pointers. Early this season, he piped up when a hitch in Bridges’ shot was heavily scrutinized by outsiders, saying “get your damn apology forms out. I’ll be taking them next game” when his teammate went off for 41 points in a Christmas Day win over the San Antonio Spurs. In January, Hart said his body felt “exquisite” before a home game against the Toronto Raptors but then quipped, “Time to go play 40 [minutes] and then y’all [the media] complain” as he left the locker room.
And when asked which part of his all-around game he has been most pleased with this season, Hart paused in front of a locker-room scrum before saying, “My role on this team is to be a servant for these guys.”
“To make sure JB [Brunson] and KAT [Towns] are in the right situations,” he continued. “To find them when they’re open, so they don’t got to work so hard. To make sure Mikal and OG are playing well, getting open shots, getting good shots. And making sure these guys reach their goals and their accomplishments and get All-Star love and those kinds of things.
“I think I’m most happy that those guys are playing well. That‘s something I want to continue to do.”
By the end of the regular season, Hart had defined his own production as “good” and “solid” during a live taping of the Roommates show. Brunson immediately corrected his teammate and friend, emphasizing “it‘s definitely a career season” after Hart set marks for rebounds (9.6 per game) and assists (5.9 per game). When asked how long he thinks Hart‘s triple-double franchise record will stand, Brunson said, “One year — when he breaks it next year.”
Wright concurs with his former point guard. After watching Hart compile 17 points, 18 rebounds, and 11 assists in a January home game against the Sacramento Kings, the coach said that was the best he had ever seen Hart play.
“He has developed into such an incredibly high-level, intelligent basketball player amongst the best of the best in the NBA,” Wright said. “And it‘s really an aspect of his energy, his competitiveness, and his basketball IQ. …
“He’s just the ultimate winner. He can figure out what is needed to win a game, and he’s got the ability to do it.”
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Two nights before a Jan. 10 game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Hart overheard Brunson referring to that matchup as “a big one” during a media scrum.
“How big is it?” Hart said, as Towns shot Hart a look from the opposite side of the locker room. “I’m talking about the game! Be mature!”
“You?!” Towns countered.
Those everyday exchanges are why, when asked about their favorite wacky Hart stories, teammates often cannot pinpoint just one. But this moment could wind up being a hilarious and serendipitous dash of foreshadowing, with a Finals matchup against the Thunder within reach.
It took beating the upstart Detroit Pistons, and upsetting the Celtics, for the Knicks to get here. After losing Games 1 and 2 at home to the Pacers, winning this razor-thin Eastern Conference finals series will be a challenging task.
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But although the stakes have heightened, Hart typically moves through his same pregame routine.
He will walk in and out of the Madison Square Garden locker room carrying a Knicks-branded box of popcorn. He will step onto the storied court wearing his earbuds, balancing his phone on the basket stanchion before beginning his shooting routine. Before Game 1 against Detroit, he shared that he started by listening to Rod Wave, “and then I go gospel.”
After Wednesday night‘s warmup, Hart went down a line of courtside viewers, offering hugs and handshakes before heading back to the locker room to finish preparation for Game 1 against Indiana. He kissed Shannon twice. Then one young onlooker approached Hart and slipped him a blue box of candy to be added to the stash already forming on his locker’s upper shelf.
Perhaps that interaction illustrated why Hart believes he has found his NBA home in New York. And his Sunday arc — from unselfish non-starter to game-clinching rebounder — reinforced why he is so important to these Knicks.
“Sometimes guys never find the right fit,” Dunleavy said. “It‘s just been really cool to see Josh find that perfect scenario for him, where he can be the best version of himself on a championship-level team.”