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Evan & Tiki

Josh Hart’s Status Looms Over Knicks Closeout Night

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2988 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Knicks have a chance to close out their series, but Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber zero in on the biggest question before tipoff: whether Josh Hart’s lower back issue could keep him from playing. They explain why Hart’s value goes far beyond the box score and why his defense, toughness, and energy make him such a crucial piece for New York. The conversation also digs into Philly’s lack of belief in the Sixers, Knicks fans’ lingering frustration with Reggie Miller on the broadcast, and the strange dead zone of the NFL offseason after the draft. Then things take a hilarious turn as Evan’s scorecards spark a debate about odd collections, leading to Tiki revealing his stash of old Playboy magazines.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The major question before tip-off, we've already answered what channel it's on, it's on ESPN, but the major question before tip-off is the status of Josh Hart.

0:09.1

Now remember, it was in the fourth quarter with about trying to get my brain right on this.

0:14.1

Six, seven minutes to go?

0:15.6

Six, seven.

0:16.8

Damn it, I didn't mean to do that.

0:18.7

When Josh took the tumble, went to the locker room and never came back with what they're calling a lower back issue.

0:25.3

And so Josh is currently on the injury report as questionable. And Josh Hart, forget the stats, because the stats don't tell the story, has been very valuable in this series.

0:34.4

I thought early on in this series defensively against Jalen Johnson,

0:38.0

and I think recently in the way he shut down C.J. McCollum. So Josh has been a Swiss Army knife

0:43.1

when it comes to his defense in this series. It is a blow to not have Josh Hart. I would still

0:48.9

have confidence that they would take care of business tonight without him, but I can't just

0:53.3

say it's a no biggie. Of course, it's a biggie. He's a hell of a player. But I also find it really hard to believe he's not going to play. Yeah, he seems like a gamer, even if something is bothering him a little bit, even if he's uncomfortable and even if that disrupts him offensively a little bit, his energy is worth it as long as he's not compromised. And again, they didn't say what the injury was. It's a back issue. So lower back, like what does that mean? Yeah. So lower back could be, yeah, I just need some heat to warm it up. I just need to stretch a little bit. Or it could be like a disc problem. It could be huge, man. Which would be devastating, but I don't think it's that. I think he plays through it. Yeah, I would fully expect him to play through it. Now, you have the chance to be conservative if you're the New York Knicks because you got a game seven in your back pocket. You'd like to win tonight. If you don't win tonight, I think most of us around here would be very surprised, but we would also have a huge level of confidence of them winning game seven. It would just suck to have to play a game seven. Who wants to screw around? I meant this point to you yesterday, I wouldn't be nervous about losing a game seven, but I'd be nervous about what could happen in a game seven, whether it's an injury, whether it's just something crazy. Right. Get off to a terrible start, whatever. Anything can happen when it's a close out for both sides. Absolutely. And I think the same thing goes tonight for the Celtics, who are down in Philadelphia, trying to close out the 76ers. And we have a guy who works here. He was a big Celtic fan, the legendary Ray Martel. And Ray just told me, and this should not be a surprise to any Nick fan, which is why you should be saying let's go Sixers. Ray is driving down to Philly tonight to go to the Celtic Sixer game, and he told me how much he paid. And there's no market for the game. 30 bucks. Really? 60 bucks. Oh, wow. There's no market for the game. 30 bucks. 60 bucks. Oh, wow.

2:34.9

There's no market for the Sixers in Philadelphia.

2:52.0

What is the wrong with 76er fans? They don't believe in the team. They're excited about the Flyers. Simple. I wish I knew Ray was going. I would have brought my Ronde-Bau jersey. Usually ends well when you do that, done it. He would do that. He's got other ways to piss off the Philly fan.

2:52.0

He's got other, just being from Boston, you would think it would be enough or being a Boston

2:56.2

sports fan would be enough.

2:57.9

But there is no juice in Philadelphia for the Sixers.

3:00.8

And we knew that from two years ago, because a part of why we made our trip down to Philadelphia

3:05.4

is I bought tickets for Tommy in the revolutionary row and it was more than

3:10.7

60 bucks, but it wasn't a lot.

3:12.2

It wasn't prohibitive.

3:13.6

It was not prohibitive.

...

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