EMIRATES NBA CUP

December 16, 2025

Josh Hart

New York Knicks

Championship Postgame

New York Knicks 124, San Antonio Spurs 113

Q. Banner, no banner?

JOSH HART: Man, I don't know. Y'all decide that. Someone's going to be mad whatever we do, so... I'll let them figure that one out.

Q. On the celebration, Coach Brown was doing a lot of hiccuping. I don't know what it's like in that locker room right now.

JOSH HART: My stomach has been going crazy the last couple days. I'm on that agua today.

Q. Josh, do you know when was the last time this team won the championship? Do you know how many years?

JOSH HART: A very long time. I don't want to remind everyone of that. But a long time.

Q. Actually 52 years.

JOSH HART: Thank you [smiling].

Q. Next time you can see Spike on the court of MSG, any words you want to say to him?

JOSH HART: No, nothing really. Obviously just we always appreciate him coming out and showing love. He's obviously at every game at MSG. He's at a lot of road games. That's our guy. We appreciate him. We love him. That holds true.

Q. Josh, banner or not, for you guys to win something like this, face teams like you did, challenges, what does that mean? What do you think it could mean to you guys going forward?

JOSH HART: It's important. Whenever you're able to win something, obviously that's what you want to do. But I think we were able to handle adversity very well. I think Mike snapped at us a couple times, we were able to respond to that. That start of the fourth quarter was amazing by those guys. I think we were down five. Next thing you know we're up six or eight or whatever it was.

I think being able to go through adverse situations this early in the season is going to pay dividends later.

Q. How are you feeling physically?

JOSH HART: Yeah, I got hit in the knee. Man, I'm always hurting. Always one thing or another with how I play [smiling]. I'm always banged up, but I'm good.

Q. Josh, people feel how they feel about the Cup. At the end of the day 30 teams had a chance to win it and only one did. For the psyche, equating that to an NBA championship is a little different, but can that play a role down the line for you guys, too?

JOSH HART: I don't know. I'll let you know down the line.

But I think for us, we're competitors. No matter if it's a Cup, a Finals, Game 48, whatever it is, we want to go out there and we want to win. That's the kind of team that we have. That's the character that we have. It doesn't matter where we are. As long as we're stepping on that court, we're playing basketball, we want to win.

Q. Tyler in the semis and again today comes in and plays real significant minutes in the fourth quarter. He's someone that his role has gone up and down throughout the year. What have you seen from him and his mindset when he wasn't playing as much and then in the last couple days?

JOSH HART: Yeah, I mean, he's always been working on his game. He has been staying in the gym. He's been staying ready. I think he really started picking it up in game I think when we played in Charlotte. Defensively he brought physicality, was able to get in and blow-up screens, blow-up DHO's, switch on guys, get stops.

He just continues to build and build and build off that. He's the reason why we got the lead I think to start the second quarter against Orlando. Big assists, then a steal and assist. Today with the effort that he had whenever he was out there.

If you're a rookie, if you're a young guy, you appreciate the game, you should be looking at what he's doing and how he's finding his ability to get on the court and stay on the court. You should model yourself off of that.