Josh Hart denies Knicks players-only meeting
Knicks forward Josh Hart is denying reports that the team had a players-only meeting following Monday night’s disappointing loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
“We didn’t have a players-only meeting. You’re all hanging out,” Hart said after the Knicks broke free of a slump to beat the Brooklyn Nets by a franchise-record 54 points on Wednesday. “We didn’t have a players-only meeting. I don’t know who said it, who did all this, but we didn’t have a players-only meeting.”
A report from ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne details a players-only meeting called by team captain Jalen Brunson after the Knicks lost the ninth of their last 11 games to the Mavericks on Monday. Hart said the report was greatly exaggerated.
“We talked, but it wasn’t anything big. So it dragged on. We didn’t have a players-only meeting,” he said. “We know what we have to do. We made things clear yesterday in film and practice and today in walkthroughs. We know we didn’t play up to our abilities, but we’re going to continue to play for this win.”
Hart said the team needs to do some soul-searching and look in the mirror if it wants to avoid having its season derailed following the Knicks’ loss to the Mavericks.
“We all need to do some soul-searching,” he said. “Right now, we’re playing embarrassing basketball. We’re not performing well on the offensive end. Defensively, we’ve been terrible. We’ve been terrible defensively all year.”
Brunson said the team did some of that soul-searching between games, but noted they had a long road ahead to right their wrongs after a New Year’s streak dropped them in the win-loss column.
“Just staying together, talking about it, supporting each other, worrying about the little things on the field – not just the stats, but what’s not on the stat sheet. What really makes the difference in close games and can break teams apart. So that’s what we need to continue to focus on,” he said. “We just had to stay focused and get back to who we are and that’s a good start for us, but we have to keep pushing on this.”
