Josh Hart believes Knicks fans will find a way to get tickets in Detroit

GREENBURGH — With the dates now set the Detroit Pistons have carefully sold tickets to their first postseason games since 2019, trying to either limit sales to Knicks fans, or as they have insisted, to keep them out of brokers hands.

But it’s easy to see what the Knicks believe is at play.

“After Philly last year, I don't blame ‘em,” Josh Hart said of the Pistons efforts to restrict ticket sales to their local audience. “New York, they have the best fans in the world. That’s the one thing that's different about this fan base is how they travel. It's cool to see the difference.

“I was in L.A. and the Lakers have one of the biggest fan bases in the world. There are Lakers fans everywhere. So it's tough to see how they travel, because there's just so many fans anywhere in the country.

"But then seeing the Knicks fans, you see and you hear everything about everyone's traveling and getting tickets and flights and those kind of things. So it's really cool to see that. And knowing Knicks fans, they're going to find a way to get those tickets. So I know they're not really too stressed. The only way for them not to get those tickets is if the owner buys a couple thousand tickets.”

That last comment was a reference to the Philadelphia 76ers owner Michael Rubin, who purchased a block of tickets for Game 6 of the opening round last season after Knicks fans had staged a loud takeover of the Wells Fargo Center in Game Four.

Rubin tweeted at that time, “Josh Harris, David Blitzer, @david_adelman and I just bought more than 2,000 tix for Sixers Game 6 — we absolutely CANNOT let Knicks fans take over our arena again!!! Giving them to first responders, health care professionals and other local Philadelphia-based organizations once we know they’re legit Sixers fans and not impostors!”

The Pistons tried to prevent anyone other than local fans getting the tickets with Ticketmaster’s site for the ticket purchases including a message that read:

"To better serve local fans looking to attend the playoff games at Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Pistons are restricting tickets sales to customers located in Michigan and in certain parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario, Canada, as determined by the Pistons and subject to change. A customers eligibility to purchase tickets for this game is determined by the credit card billing address utilized for the transaction. Orders by customers with a billing address outside the restricted sales area will be canceled without notice, and those customers will receive a refund”

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.