SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – JUNE 03: Josh Hart #3 of the New York Knicks and Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs compete for a loose ball during the fourth quarter in Game One of the 2026 NBA Finals at Frost Bank Center on June 03, 2026 in San Antonio, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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There’s a version of Game 1’s box score that makes Josh Hart look like an offensive liability. Three points on five shots in 27 minutes. In the words of any basketball fan, all Hart did was work on his cardio: running up and down the court without actually doing anything.
But look closer at Hart’s game and there’s a wait, what? moment.
Hart led all players in rebounds (15), assists (6), and steals (4), was a game-high plus-22 on the floor, and didn’t turn the ball over once. With Victor Wembanyama patrolling the paint, those 15 rebounds weren’t just a hollow stat; those vital boards made sure the Spurs never got the ball back. The Knicks were outscored by 12 points in the 21 minutes Hart spent on the bench. They won the minutes he played by 22. Hart also became the first player since Larry Bird in the 1986 Finals to record a 15/6/4 line in a single Finals game.
Aside from his teammates, coaches, and die-hard Knicks fans, those critical contributions can become invisible.
The narrative of Game 1 understandably belonged to the heavy hitters: Jalen Brunson wore the cape with a clutch 30-point night, and Karl-Anthony Towns delivered a steely, aggressive 18 and 12 performance. When they touch the ball, everyone notices. For Hart, his blue-collar efforts and the small details that make his teammates great require the average fan to look beyond the box scores and highlight reels.
“You know, you look at Josh Hart’s line being 1 for 5 from the field, and the guy had 15 rebounds and four steals, and he made some unbelievable defensive plays and he helped us tremendously in transition,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown told the media post-game. “So, heck of a job by Josh.”
The NBA’s Connector Role That Champion Teams Need
It takes a specific set of players to win a championship. Not just stars, but the connectors who make the stars possible. Hart is that player. He lives in the margins, doing the things that don’t show up on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays of the month but do end up anchoring the score sheet. He’s the reason Brunson gets a clean look. The reason Towns doesn’t have to rebound alone. The reason the defence holds when the Spurs are going on a scoring tear. Most players have one role. Hart is a multitasker.
It’s no secret that the 31-year-old has had to come to terms with playing a team-first role. It was reported by media that after going through a teething period earlier this season when he was spending time on the bench, he went home and asked himself, do I suck?
Once he moved past the ego and knew what his place in the Knicks’ system looked like, he made the connector role his own. He was clear on what that looked like: he wants his teammates to reach All-Star heights. “To make sure JB and KAT are in the right situations, to find them when they’re open so they don’t gotta work so hard,” Hart said. “To make sure Mikal [Bridges] and OG are playing well, getting open shots, getting good shots.”
How Josh Hart Embraced Gritty Imperfection
Essentially, what Hart has decided to do this year is embrace gritty imperfection and be okay with the stat line. And not just be ok with it, but make it his identity. A few weeks back you might recall his post-match presser with Towns and his take on modern basketball analytics. “They’re lamp posts to a drunk person. You can lean on them, but it won’t get you home,” he told the room. As a coach, sometimes you just have to let your players play ball. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Hart seems to be thriving being able to execute the small details.
The reality of the modern NBA is that everyone is expected to hunt their own bucket, even if you’re a jack-of-all-trades. That’s what places Hart in a rare group of the NBA’s best hybrid players. Against Cleveland in Game 2 he dropped 26 points, and throughout the season he had nights of 33 points against the Pacers and 26 points against the Celtics. This year Hart logged 21 regular-season games—out of the 66 games he played in total—scoring fewer than 10 points. In this playoff run, he’s failed to reach double digits six times. Yet, the most telling metric is that in every single one of those single-digit playoff games, he finished with a positive plus-minus: including three games where he was a plus-20 or better.
The one thing I keep coming back to is that every championship team in recent memory has had a Josh Hart-type player on their roster. The Golden State Warriors had Draymond Green during their dynasty runs. Green averaged just 11 points but was a defensive brute when he was on the floor. In 2023, Denver’s Bruce Brown became that versatile connector, averaging nine points so that Jokić could just be Jokić. The Celtics had Jrue Holiday. And the Thunder had Cason Wallace. Both diving on loose balls and sacrificing their own game to free up star players.
Ask any NBA player and they’ll tell you they always want the ball in their hand if they had a choice. No one likes to sacrifice their own numbers, but when you start to dig into how much those roles actually impact championships, the selfless player is often the reason a title happens at all.
“That’s just who he is,” Jalen Brunson told the media after Game 1. “He’s always been that way. I can’t explain it. He just has a knack for doing things like that, and in crucial times, as well. It’s a credit to who he is as a player.”
Hart’s first steal of the fourth quarter led to a running layup by Brunson that put New York ahead 92-86 with 6:34 remaining. His final steal led to Brunson’s 15-foot jumper with 38 seconds left that sealed the victory.
But the play before that truly defines Hart’s own version of chaos ball. It happened with 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter when Hart stripped Wembanyama of the ball, fell on the hardwood, got up, and dished the ball to Brunson.
Whatever the Knicks need in Game 2, Game 3, or the rest of the series, you know Hart will find ways to disrupt whatever schemes the Spurs are cooking up. And if he gives New York this version of himself every game, the Spurs don’t look like they have an answer for it.
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