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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Liam McKeone

Josh Hart Repeatedly Denies Report of Knicks’ Players-Only Meeting After Demolishing Nets

Josh Hart Knicks Nets Giannis Antetokounmpo Jalen Brunson Bucks ESPN NBA Ramona Shelburne Mavericks

The Knicks righted the ship on Wednesday night and set a new franchise record in the process.

Losers of four straight heading into last night’s home game against the Nets, the orange and blue absolutely demolished their cross-town rivals. New York beat Brooklyn 120–66; the 54-point margin of victory is the Knicks’ largest in franchise history. Not only that, but the Nets’ 66 points scored marks the fewest points scored in an NBA game since 2016.

It was a beat down of epic proportions and exactly the sort of victory the floundering Knicks needed. It’s also notable the win came after reports of a players-only meeting led by Jalen Brunson in which the star point guard challenged his teammates to step up following nine losses in 11 games. However, do-it-all forward Josh Hart took a second after Wednesday’s win to push back on that narrative repeatedly.

“We didn’t have a players-only meeting,” Hart said. “Y’all dragging that. I’m just saying we didn’t have a players-only meeting. I don’t know who said it, who did all that, but we didn’t have a players-only meeting. We talked but it wasn’t like, some .... thing. That got dragged. We didn’t have a players-only meeting.”

On Tuesday, one day after the Knicks lost to a shorthanded Mavericks team by playing what Hart labeled “embarrassing” basketball, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported Brunson called a players-only meeting.

“After the game Jalen Brunson called a players-only meeting for all the guys in that locker room and said, ‘Guys, we gotta stop looking to the coaching staff for answers. We gotta stop looking elsewhere. The answers to what is wrong with us right now are right in this locker room. Gotta look in the mirror,’” Shelburne said on ESPN Tuesday afternoon. “It was a longer meeting. A lot of people had something to say about what was going wrong.”

Hart was visibly frustrated by the categorization of what they talked about after that Dallas loss. His strong denial corroborates that.

Interestingly, one of his teammates didn’t take the chance to do the same. Karl-Anthony Towns was asked a similar question about the impact the players-only meeting had on the locker room. He didn’t respond directly but instead said that losing four straight games got everyone on the same page in the way they needed.

Regardless of how official the discussion was between the players the Knicks got back on track Wednesday night. They’ll be looking to build momentum with a trip to Philadelphia to play the 76ers on Saturday.

More NBA on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Josh Hart Repeatedly Denies Report of Knicks’ Players-Only Meeting After Demolishing Nets.

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