Steve Popper: Even with a mangled finger, Knicks' Josh Hart showcases his value

GREENBURGH — Josh Hart held up his shooting hand, putting his mangled ring finger on display, smiling as he joked, “I mean, it’s not the prettiest to look at. So, I mean, I would love to have a straight finger. But, you know, it works.”

It’s hard to imagine that it does — or that Hart can smile as he shows off the damage done.

Finger injuries are a routine problem in basketball, but Hart’s has progressively gotten worse.

And he has managed to not only play through it but produce.

While the celebrations were going on this summer, Hart had planned to have the finger surgically repaired. He originally injured it in the 2025 playoffs, had surgery and injured it again in scrimmages before last season. He played through pain at times and avoided pain at other times only because the finger had lost all feeling.

Hart planned to repair it again with a procedure he had put off during the season, but the option presented by doctors proved to be too much.

“The only option for my finger at this point, because of how damaged it is, is a full joint replacement,” Hart said. “With a joint replacement, you can’t have the banging, grabbing a rebound, palming it, shooting, catching the ball, doing all that. You can’t do that. If I did a joint replacement, then I wouldn’t be able to play. So I guess it’s either wrap it until I retire or cut it off. I guess that’s the other option. That’s really the only alternative: either joint replacement, let it go or, I guess, amputation.

“With how it deteriorated, the joint and the bone and everything, that’s what it’ll be. So I’ll do that [surgery] probably when I retire. Hopefully they can make it straight. It’s a little off center. So I’m hoping after that joint replacement, it can kind of get a little straighter.”

It’s the reality that sometimes gets lost in the parade and the parties, the work that a professional athlete puts in to get on the court or the field. Even for an organization that built a starting five that has been one of the most balanced in the NBA, salary constraints have become the next rival. But Hart still seems underrated in his importance.

Maybe nothing highlights that more than the crooked finger, an embodiment of his willingness to do all of the dirty work on both ends of the floor even though there is no escaping the constant pain.

“I’ll tell you what,” Mike Brown said. “Josh, he’s a handsome young man. But that finger is ugly. So I don’t look at it. But it adds to his toughness. Josh is a tough son of a gun, man. I can’t even watch when he [shakes his hand], because I’m just like, oh my gosh, I can’t imagine having a finger like that.

“But it just shows who he is. He’s tough but, more importantly, there’s a dedication there to wanting to be a great shooter, and you’ve got to put it into work. And he puts in the work, even though his finger’s bothering him. And even though it’s a little crooked, he’s putting in the work to get it right.

“Pete [Patton, the Knicks’ shooting coach] and the rest of the coaches are helping him out, and it shows that he can shoot at a high level with the dedication he has in the first place.”

So when you hear Hart talking about a desire to get his contract extension taken care of — he’s eligible to have it done now, even while he is under contract for the upcoming season and with a team option for the following season — it’s understandable that he feels he’s given everything he has to the organization.

“Some days, it’ll be good. Some days, it’ll hurt to catch the ball,” Hart said. “It varies. I wish I could tell you when I wake up what’s gonna be good, what’s gonna be bad. Some days it’s good, like a regular functioning finger. And other days it hurts to just close my hand, to make a fist.

“I think people think money is everything. And for me, obviously, you want to be compensated fairly for your performance and all that, but at the end of the day, just because you get paid, [are] blessed in a position to get paid well and take care of our families, [it’s not like] we’re not humans at the same time.

“I’m sitting here thinking my knees are aching a little bit, but I want to leave the game and be able to run around and play with my kids when they’re, you know 10, 11, 12-plus. So that wear and tear, it’s significant to a certain point. If you’re in this league for 14, 15, 16 years and you see some of these guys that are older, they got limps, knees are barking, those kind of things.

“So I think that definitely gets overlooked. But that’s also why I don’t think I’ll play till I’m 40.”

Hart will turn 32 this season. And while in the preseason you might see little of the starters who led the team to its first title in 53 years, when the bell rings on Oct. 20 against the 76ers, you know he’ll be on the floor, giving all he can.

Hart talks often about playing his part and serving the other four starters. The finger might be the best evidence that what he provides is just as important to the Knicks’ title hopes as the star power around him.

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.