Throughout the postseason, the NBA awards players with many different honors like the league’s Most Valuable Player or Defensive Player of the Year. However, not all accolades are as prestigious, but still have strong value amongst athletic competitors.
Knicks guard Josh Hart is one of these players who deserve recognition this campaign, as he’s been named the NBA’s Minutes Champion, after averaging 37.6 minutes per game this season. As we have become accustomed to by the New York star, he received the news with humor.
“Minutes champion?” the 30-year-old captioned his photo of the trophy on an Instagram story, as his coach Tom Thibodeau has trusted him with the most playing time any other athlete has received this competition. “Guess I got my cardio in this year.”
Josh Hart receives his “minutes champion” award from the NBA 🤣 pic.twitter.com/pkkrBsxbpp
— KnicksMuse (@KnicksMuse) May 13, 2025
He also became the first player from the Manhattan club to top the league with minute averages since Julius Randle achieved this five years ago, also with 36.7. The veteran has averaged 30.4 minutes for his career and 37.25 minutes per contest during his team’s first four games against the Celtics.
Despite being 3-1 in the series against Boston, and looming close to their first conference finals appearance in 25 years, the New York guard doesn’t want to jinx it. “I was actually telling everyone to get off the court. I was like, it’s nothing to celebrate,” Jalen assured at the Madison Square Garden.
However, there really was a lot to celebrate, as four Knicks players ended with at least 20 points. Despite having a slow start, the All-Star produced an 18-point effort in the fourth quarter. “There was a lot of miscommunication,” said teammate Mikal Bridges.
“Later in the game, we did better, and they were making a lot of tough shots. We can live with that. But early, you can’t let that happen on [defense],” he then added, noting how the Celtics exploded with 9-of-14 on 3s in the first quarter for 39 points.
