Steve Popper: Josh Hart vs. Victor Wembanyama could be a deciding NBA Finals matchup for Knicks-Spurs
The Knicks' Josh Hart speaks after practice at the MSG training facility in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Sunday. Credit: Newsday/Kendall Rodriguez
GREENBURGH — On paper, it’s almost funny, assessing a matchup that might be the most vital to the Knicks’ hopes of earning their first NBA championship since 1973.
On one side it is Victor Wembanyama, affectionately and understandably known as “The Alien,” a 7-4 center with the skills of a guard.
And on the Knicks’ side, there is Josh Hart.
So you see what we mean by funny. Even Hart might have seen the humor, joking, “I don’t know, that’s the only unanimous defensive player of the year, so that’s a pretty good sign for me, right? That means I’m a pretty good basketball player.”
Hart certainly is that, a key piece in the Knicks’ success this season and in the turn in the fortunes of the franchise since he arrived in New York. But Wembanyama is in every argument as the best player in the game and maybe already is being viewed in historical terms at just 22 years old and three seasons into his career.
Hart is a glue guy, overlooked at times when judging the Knicks’ chances. First, always first, is Jalen Brunson, who is the All-Star and only representative on the All-NBA squad this season (even if it was second team, unlike Wembanyama, who was first team and on 99 of 100 ballots for that slot).
It’s Karl-Anthony Towns or OG Anunoby, maybe even Mikal Bridges, who again has used the postseason to quiet the questions about the draft capital cost to acquire him.
There are plenty of reasons to believe that the Knicks can and will win this series.
But Hart is a player who began the season on the bench as Mike Brown tried to implement his ideas into the organization. It took 15 games, some heart-to-heart talks between the coach and player, and an open admission from Brown that he had been wrong and didn’t realize what Hart meant to the team.
Even Hart told Newsday at the time, “I’m definitely an acquired taste.” Even the fans who have seen him bleed through games, diving on the floor, fighting for loose balls, have filled social media with cries for him to be pulled from the lineup.
It didn’t take long for Brown to begin comparing Hart to Andre Iguodala, a key piece of four Golden State championship teams — including two when Brown was there as an assistant coach.
“I’m human. It takes me some time,” Brown said during the Cleveland series. “ . . . [Hart] does so many little things that don’t show up in his boxscore . . .
“He does so much more — start with the versatility that he gives us defensively that, you know, you have to — starting with me — be careful to not dismiss it. And then on top of that, because he’s so impactful as a connector, got to give him probably more leash than anybody else. You know, I got to let him go be him and get out of his way.
“And, you know, that’s hard sometimes as a coach because you’re looking at X’s-and-O’s and you want everything to be perfect. You’re looking at the boxscore, you’re looking at this. With Josh and Andre, all that [expletive] that should be thrown out the window because those dudes are winners.
“It’s easy for me to say because I have the utmost confidence in the world for him. He’s a gamer. When you have guys that are gamers, they do stuff that people don’t think he can do any time. And he knows the work that he puts in, we know the work that he puts in, and his confidence is not going to waver.”
It certainly won’t all be on Hart. Anunoby likely will get the defensive assignment on Wembanyama and the Knicks must contend with the trio of high-energy guards the Spurs put on the floor. But if Hart can hit shots or initiate the offense, drawing Wembanyama away from the rim, it will create opportunities for his teammates.
“Any time a team does that, like Cleveland — Cleveland put their big on Josh, and Josh won us a game doing it,” Brown said.
“I’ll tell you, Josh works very, very hard on his shooting and playmaking because he knows that he gets guarded by centers, and my message to Josh is let it fly, let it fly, let it fly, because we believe in it. And he’s won us — not only did he win us a game against Cleveland, but he’s won us a handful of games during the course of the year.
“So we know that they’re probably going to come in and put their center on Josh, and if Wemby’s down the floor and that ball gets swung to Josh, first of all, he’s a great decision-maker. But secondly, if he’s open, his feet are set, we want him to let that thing fly.”
Sometimes it’s hard to remember just what Hart has done for the Knicks, particularly when those things don’t show up in the boxscore, or at least don’t show up in huge scoring nights. But the ability to orchestrate the offense, to defend an array of different types of players and just the constant bursts of energy, as if he’s still got a badge to earn on his Eagle Scout schedule, are invaluable to the team — maybe even more against a team with young players who have jumped out of the gate for huge starts in postseason games.
“I go into the game and I play the game the way the game needs me to play,” Hart said. “If that’s shooting and scoring, cool. If that’s rebounding and defending, cool. I don’t value what I do based on other people’s game plan or what the boxscore says.
“For me, it’s shoot the ball with confidence. Or be quick to make other plays — dribble handoff, stuff like that. If [Wembanyama] is down the floor, that’s my ability to get JB open looks, ‘Kal open looks, KAT open looks. It’s not different in terms of anything I’ve seen before. I’m comfortable making those plays.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
