Knicks' Josh Hart fires back at Rick Carlisle's 'disrespectful' comments about the officiating
The Knicks’ Josh Hart drives past the Indiana Pacers’ Obi Toppin during the first quarter of Game 2 of the second round of the NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
INDIANAPOLIS — Quit complaining.
That, in essence, is the message the Knicks' Josh Hart had for Pacers coach Rick Carlisle Friday, adding that the way Carlisle was riding officials was “disrespectful.”
After being ejected late in the fourth quarter of the Pacers' Game 2 loss on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, Carlisle complained that there had been an imbalance of calls from the officials and then went on to file a complaint to the NBA office with 78 disputed plays in the first two games of the series, both losses.
Among those missed calls Carlisle was frustrated over was when he felt Hart shoved Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton in the back in front of an official in the third quarter of Game 2 and no call was made. “Give New York credit for the physicality that they’re playing with, but their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized time after time," Carlisle said after Game 2.
The league announced on Friday that Carlisle was fined $35,000 for those postgame antics, and at the morning shootaround before Game 3 Hart made it clear that he was not happy with the accusations.
"I don’t even know what to say,” Hart said, referring to the Haliburton play. “If you look, I hit the ball. Might I have bumped him a little bit? Yeah, both of us are running at full speed and he’s in front of me and I’m trying to make a play on the ball. Rick’s saying whatever he feels, that has nothing to do with us.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s pretty disrespectful to us because we’re out there playing the game and competing at a high level, it’s not about officiating or anything like that. So for him to discredit how we’re playing, I feel like that’s pretty disrespectful.”
Hart also took issue with Carlisle’s accusation that big market teams get all the calls.
“That’s so stupid bro,” he said. “We’re gonna say that the big market always wins, but the Knicks haven’t won a chip in 51 years, so obviously that doesn’t hold much weight. I think that’s pretty idiotic. At the end of the day, it’s who's playing the best.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
