New York Knicks’ Josh Hart defends Tom Thibodeau from ‘unfair narrative’ | Sporting News

After the New York Knicks flamed out of the playoffs amid a pile of injuries to key players, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was criticized for seemingly over-working his team.

Indeed, because the Knicks were short-handed, the remaining healthy players had to play big minutes.

Nobody knows this more than Josh Hart.

The Knicks forward led the NBA in minutes in the second half of the regular season and played massive minutes in the playoffs, including 10 straight quarters without a rest over three games. Hart himself suffered an abdominal strain that limited him in Games 6 and 7 of the second-round series against the Indiana Pacers.

However, while appearing on Ryan Clark’s “The Pivot Podcast,” Hart defended Thibodeau against those criticisms, saying Thibodeau does not over-work the Knicks.

“I think sports in general, once you get a label, it’s almost impossible to change that label, to change that narrative,” Hart said. “It might have been like that in Chicago or Minnesota, wherever [Thibodeau] was, but since my year, year-and-a-half I’ve been [in New York], it be light. It be chill. We probably went live six or seven times this whole season during practice.

“Most of the time it’s more mental. It’s more, alright we’re running through these plays … it’s more the mental part where you have to lock in when you practice. It’s not really physical. We’re not really running up and down, we’re not really doing much.”

Hart said that he hates practice and has been surprised at how lightly the Knicks practice.

“I think [Thibodeau] got an unfair narrative that kind of follows him around,” Hart said.

When asked about playing the full 48 minutes of a game in the playoffs, Hart said Thibodeau frquently checked on him to see if he needed to come out of the game to rest. Hart said he would shrug off Thibodeau in those moments, saying he would ask out if he needed a break.

Hart also called many of the Knicks injuries “freak incidents” that had nothing to do with Thibodeau’s coaching.

“We got seven, eight healthy players, and you’re mad at the dude for playing six,” Hart said. “It’s like, as you know, sometimes the seventh, eighth, ninth guy, they’re not ready yet … So it’s like, you gotta go with who you know and who you trust.”

Hart and Knicks players have frequently defended Thibodeau against such criticisms throughout the season. When Thibodeau was voted as the coach players least want to play for in an anonymous poll by The Athletic, Hart called players “soft.”

Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo also brushed aside such criticisms, saying players who aren’t in the Knicks locker room don’t know what’s going on.

If the Knicks are able to re-sign OG Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency this summer, they’ll have a loaded roster, and Thibodeau should have a much easier time balancing the minutes.