In a span of 50 seconds late in regulation of the New York Knicks’ overtime victory against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, Josh Hart forced a jump ball, recorded a steal, dunked and passed a man open for a 3.
It was a potentially game-saving series of events. It was an order of operations that, along with a little extra time, allowed the Knicks to keep a weird season from being a little weirder. It was a team making its own luck. It was Hart being Hart.
“What can you say about Josh?” New York head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “He willed that game at the end. The hustle plays, they saved the game for us.”
Hart won’t be an All-Star this season, and he’s fine with that. If you ask him, he’d rather his toes touch the sand somewhere tropical during the All-Star break. However, if the NBA wants that specific product to be better, maybe it should ask Hart and a few others to cut from the same cloth to participate. What’s the worst that can happen? Players will be forced to play hard? What a shame that would be.
In New York, a strong case could be made that on a star-studded, top-heavy roster Hart has been the most consistent. Before every game, you can pencil in his stat line — or at least be somewhere in the ballpark. In 41 games this season, Hart is averaging 14.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.5 steals all while shooting 56 percent from the field and 36.9 percent from 3.
No player in NBA history who is 6-foot-8 or shorter has ever averaged at least 14 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a steal while shooting above 50 percent from the field and 35 percent from 3. Hart is on pace to do that, and he’s only 6-foot-4. Read that again. The only players to ever record those minimums over a whole season are Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokić and Larry Bird.
Hart is on the doorstep of elite company.
“I just want to find a way to impact the game,” Hart said after recording his fifth triple-double of the season. “That’s the biggest thing for me. I don’t get plays called. I’m not needed to go out there and score 20, 25 points per game. I have to find ways to impact the game, and my ways of impacting the game are rebounding … I need to be better defensively … and making those energy plays.”
Hart’s game might not be flashy, but it’s productive. There may be few highlight-reel-worthy plays, but he’s part of the reason the Knicks are on national television every night. He’s a winner. He always has been, even when a team he was on wasn’t winning. You know those types of players when you see them.
Hart considers himself a “servant” to the other four players he starts with. His role, in his eyes, is to make life easier for them. He does that. However, he undersells himself a bit. Hart provides the characteristics that New York fans have grown to love — through the highs and lows — in their basketball players. He brings the scrappiness. He provides steadiness. And, in turn, the Knicks earn legitimacy as a tough team.
Playing alongside those who Hart looks to serve makes life easier for him, too. Good players look better playing with good players. With that, though, not all good players are willing to do what Hart does. Not all good players are capable of reading the game like he does.
To insinuate that he’s a product of his environment would be unfair. On many nights, he’s the one pumping life into it.
“He impacts the game, man,” Philadelphia guard Tyrese Maxey said of Hart. “I had no clue he had a triple-double, like not even a little bit. Now that I’m looking at the stat sheet, he had 17 rebounds. No one else on their team had double-digit rebounds. …When you get the ball out of Jalen Brunson’s hands, and it goes to (Hart), he’s going to make the right play almost every single time. He’s difficult. He’s difficult to cover, especially when you have that type of team and type of shooting around it.
“He does a really good of, when he gets rebounds, pushing the pace. You’re so worried about Jalen Brunson, so worried about Mikal (Bridges), so worried about OG (Anunoby) and, when he’s playing, (Karl-Anthony Towns) because they can shoot so (Hart) can punch gaps and get layups. Then as soon as you start helping off the other guys, he’s making the right reads.”
Every successful team has a player like Hart — the low-maintenance offensive player who creates luck with hustle and does the dirty work. Those players are probably the most critical pieces to a winning organization behind the superstar(s). They’re connectors. They bring it all together.
In most cases, though, that player just isn’t usually a power forward in a point guard’s body.
(Photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
