Josh Hart turned in his best game of the 2025-26 NBA season on Sunday, scoring 14 points with 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal in the New York Knicks’ 128-116 win over the Chicago Bulls. It was the kind of performance that fans have come to expect from Hart since his arrival in Manhattan: energetic and physical, with contributions coming on both ends of the floor …
… and one that, from the sound of it, the ninth-year veteran sorely needed.
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“For me, I’m just going through some adversity myself, both physically and mentally,” Hart told reporters after the win.
Some of that adversity struck during the Knicks’ first preseason game, when Hart suffered a back injury that kept him out of New York’s opening night win and appeared to hamper him at times through his first four appearances of the season. Some of it, though, traces back even further — to an ongoing issue with the ring finger on his shooting hand, stemming from an injury he sustained during the Knicks’ run to the 2025 Eastern Conference finals.
Hart underwent a procedure aimed at resolving the issue back in July, but said at Knicks media day that he’d “kind of re-aggravated it” and would need to play with a splint on his ring finger. After a frustrating start that saw Hart miss 15 of his first 19 field-goal attempts of the season, including nine of his first 10 3-point tries, Hart told Fred Katz and James L. Edwards III of The Athletic that he’s dealing with a “nerve injury” in that shooting hand that extends beyond just one finger:
The affliction affects the fourth finger on his shooting hand the most, but feeling is also going in and out of his middle and pinky fingers, not just on the court but also in daily life tasks. […]
During a scrimmage at the team’s practice facility and with Hart on defense, Mikal Bridges drove to the hoop. Hart reached for the ball and felt an ache. It turned out he would require another surgery.
Hart said the operation would keep him out for three months. So, instead of getting the surgery done immediately, the 30-year-old has opted to play through the injury. Doctors told him he could delay the procedure until after the season without incurring much long-term risk.
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After going 5-for-10 from the floor in the win over Chicago, Hart told reporters that the affected nerve “hasn’t fully gotten back to what it was before.”
“There’s a little bit of tingling, a little bit of numbness in part of my hand,” he said. “Hopefully at some point, that nerve will get back [to normal]. Hopefully sooner rather than later. But right now, you know, it’s just a process.”
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Continuing through that process, and getting Hart comfortable and right — or as comfortable and right as possible while dealing with numbness in your dominant hand — is critical for a Knicks team that entered the season with designs on making its first NBA Finals appearance since 2000.
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Hart started all 77 games he appeared in, playing an NBA-leading 37.6 minutes per game, posting career highs in rebounding, assists and steals, and logging a Knicks franchise record nine triple-doubles as one of Tom Thibodeau’s most trusted lieutenants. With Thibodeau’s firing and subsequent replacement by Mike Brown, Hart’s role has changed, as Brown has moved him to the bench in favor of starting either a center next to Towns (Mitchell Robinson, Ariel Hukporti) or a 3-point-shooting guard next to Brunson (Deuce McBride, Landry Shamet), resulting in a drop in minutes.
But given what Brown wants these Knicks to be and how he wants them to play, Hart — a player who provides an instant injection of pace in transition, timely off-ball movement and incisive cutting playing off attention-grabbing All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, and complementary playmaking and multipositional defense — remains a vital piece of the puzzle for Brown, and for New York’s hopes of meeting or exceeding its lofty expectations.
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How often Hart is physically able to give the Knicks what they need this season will remain to be seen. Nights like Sunday, though, offer not just hope, but proof, that it’s possible — that the difference-maker New York needs Hart to be is still in there, waiting to come out.
“My biggest thing was going out there and playing with energy, playing with joy,” Hart said after the game. “Not playing frustrated or mad or anything. Just getting back to being myself.”