The New York Knicks are back in the gym, and the mood around training camp is mostly good. The champs look locked in, the core is back and the parade buzz has barely cooled off. Still, one detail keeps catching the eye at practice.
It sits on the right hand of the player who is the building block of the team's chemistry, and it has followed him for more than a year now. Josh Hart finally gave a clear answer about his damaged right ring finger, and it is not the update Knicks fans were hoping for. Knicks reporter Kristian Winfield shared Hart's comments from Thursday's media session on X.
"The only option for my finger at this point because of how damaged it is is a full joint replacement, and with a joint replacement you can't have the banging or the palming rebounds. So if I got the replacement, I wouldn't be able to play," Hart said. "The only alternative is joint replacement, let it go, or amputation," he added.
So Hart is living with it. He plans to keep the finger taped through the rest of his career and look at a fix once he retires. Hart hurt the finger during the 2025 playoffs and had a procedure on it that July.
He then hurt it again before camp and played all of last season with it wrapped. It barely slowed him down. Hart shot a career-best 41.3% from three and did a bit of everything as the Knicks won their first title since 1973.
Earlier this week, he posted on X that it will stay wrapped until he retires, just so he could stop getting asked about it. Hart is 31, his extension talks are still going, and his toughness is a big part of who this team is. The Knicks need that finger to hold up for one more title run.
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