Josh Hart remembers the exact moment he knew he had found the one.
It was December 2018, and the Lakers were playing against the Clippers in Los Angeles. During the game, Mr. Hart, who played for the Lakers then, was pushed to the ground by Tobias Harris of the Clippers — and no foul was called. Frustrated, Mr. Hart asked the officials for a call and was swiftly ejected.
Still fuming, the second-year guard left the court and returned to the locker room. When he checked his phone, he saw a text from his high school sweetheart, Shannon Phillips, who was watching the game from the stands.
“I think she just texted me ‘Woosah’ or something like that,” Mr. Hart, 30, recalled, referencing a term used as a reminder to relax and take a deep breath. “I just started laughing.”
“And I was like, OK, this is my person. Even when I’m as mad as I am right now, it still calmed me down,” he said.
Now entering his fourth year with the New York Knicks, who will open their regular season at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, Mr. Hart is known for his passion on the court. He’s the one yelling at the refs and putting his body on the line, diving for loose balls and hustling to the basket for an offensive rebound. As a fan favorite who holds the Knicks’ franchise record for triple-doubles in a season, he motivates his teammates with his grit — and his jokes. He is the heart and soul of the team.
At home in Harrison, N.Y., he’s the same steady force for his wife of four years and their two-and-a-half-year-old twin sons.
“The same intensity he has on the court, he brings right home,” said Ms. Hart, a registered nurse who took his last name. “He’s very supportive of everything I do: nursing school, sports, kids, pregnancy.”
“If she likes it, I love it,” he said.
Balancing game nights, life on the road and family responsibilities — all while dealing with injuries — is not easy. He couldn’t do it without Ms. Hart, 30, whose tough love keeps him accountable.
During a preseason game in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Mr. Hart sustained a back injury, and he’s working toward playing in the season opener on Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I’ll be kind of hard on him: ‘Do what you’re supposed to do to get your back better,’” she said.
Ms. Hart rides with him to every home game at the Garden. Afterward, they often grab dinner, exploring new restaurants around the city, fully accepting that boisterous Knicks fans will be around wherever they go. Their favorite? 4 Charles Prime Rib, a cozy steakhouse in the West Village, where they recharge and keep basketball talk to a minimum.
“After every loss, Shannon has to deal with me coming out of the locker room moody,” Mr. Hart said. “But she’s always there for me, whether it’s good games, bad games. She’s always there to pick me up, to help me out — whether it’s taking more of a load off my plate in terms of parenthood, or scheduling and making sure everything works.”
Ahead of the season opener, the Harts reflected on their journey together and how they make their relationship work with their busy schedules.
From High School to the N.B.A.
Mr. Hart never tried to be the class clown in high school, but he always made Ms. Hart laugh.
In 2010, he was the new kid in the 10th grade at Sidwell Friends School, a prep school in Washington, D.C.
“Everyone was like, Who is this kid?,” Ms. Hart recalled. “He would show up to class 30 minutes late, walk into the classroom, take off his backpack, lean back and close his eyes and go to sleep in front of the teacher — like the most ridiculous things I had ever seen.”
They became friends, but in the 11th grade they started thinking about each other romantically. One night in October 2011, Mr. Hart, who is from Silver Spring, Md., texted her, “Do you like me?”
A couple of weeks later (on 11/11/11), he asked her out officially at the Fox Den, the campus cafe.
“He was sitting there so nervous, like trembling,” Ms. Hart, who is from Greenbelt, Md., recalled.
“I was nervous I had to cut off the rest of the roster,” he joked.
After graduating in 2013, Mr. Hart went to Villanova to play basketball, while Ms. Hart played soccer at Rutgers before transferring to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, her junior year.
They saw each other on weekends, living their scruffy college lives and spending time with each other’s teams. His Knicks teammate Jalen Brunson was his senior-year roommate — the two now co-host “The Roommates Show” podcast.
But college wasn’t without its ups and downs.
“We won’t lie, during college we had breakups,” Ms. Hart said. “We were on and off.”
“That helped us learn and grow,” she added. “We always ended up back together. We knew in the end what it was going to be.”
After Villanova, Mr. Hart joined the Lakers in 2017. While he played in Los Angeles for two years, Ms. Hart studied at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, flying cross-country every two weeks using his Delta credits.
In 2020, she began working as a nurse in orthopedics and sports medicine at a hospital in New Orleans. “I just love being around people and helping people all day,” Ms. Hart said. That year, he proposed, and in 2021 they were married in Miami.
Parenthood and the Knicks
Mr. Hart played for the New Orleans Pelicans and the Portland Trail Blazers before being traded to the Knicks in February 2023 — his fourth team in five years. That May, their twin sons, Hendrix and Haze, were born, and Ms. Hart paused her nursing career.
They moved to Westchester, N.Y., last summer, close to the Knicks’ practice facility in Tarrytown. Most days at home are spent lounging in the family room with their sons.
On a Tuesday night before the season opener, Hendrix and Haze, two social and enthusiastic toddlers, watched a few scenes of “The Lion King” before Ms. Hart guided them to their miniature dining table for dinner.
Keeping their sons active is a priority — whether it’s park outings, museum trips or playtime in their revamped basement, complete with a jungle gym, drum set and bumper cars. And in September, the twins even walked in a New York Fashion Week show, with a little assistance from their dad.
“We don’t want them to be iPad kids,” Mr. Hart said.
Game Time
Though Ms. Hart attends every home game, she usually only travels with her husband for long trips to cities like Los Angeles, Boston or Chicago. If it’s a city nearby, she’ll bring the boys. (She went to Salt Lake City once and never went back.) When Mr. Hart is on the road, they reconnect and unwind with a good bottle of wine when he returns — usually with their own label, Seven Harts.
“Making time — not trying to find time — but making time for each other,” he said, even if it’s a quick coffee run after dropping off their sons at school, is how they maintain their relationship during the season.
In the off-season, Mr. Hart is in dad mode. “We’ve been together every single day since June 1 of this year,” he said. (The Knicks’ playoff run ended on May 31.)
But with the new season ahead, he knows there’s about to be a big change. During the season, he has a rigid schedule, but he tries to make the most of every moment that he is home to spend time with the twins and to be present, even if it means dozing off in the playroom.
This season, Ms. Hart is excited to return to nursing and to get closer to other Knicks WAGs (wives and girlfriends) and “building more of a family feel in New York.”
“Things that keep me grounded are probably family and friends,” she said. “I’m the one that’s usually home alone or by myself more.”
For Mr. Hart, prioritizing spirituality and family has been keeping him grounded. He has been on a gospel and country music kick and will surely introduce his teammates to Bailey Zimmerman and Luke Combs.
“I’m a country man,” he said. “We gon’ live in Nashville soon, down South.”
“That’s not happening,” Ms. Hart responded.
Sadiba Hasan reports on love and culture for the Styles section of The Times.
The post The Heart of the Knicks, and His Home appeared first on New York Times.
