Josh Hart saw where ESPN slotted him among the top 100 players for 2026-27 and did what he always does, which is make the joke before anybody else gets the chance. That is the New York Knicks news of the morning, and it is the healthiest reaction anyone in this league has had to a list in a long time.
I don't have his exact placement in front of me yet, and I'm not going to guess at it. Doesn't matter much. The number was never the story. The story is a guy who has built an entire NBA career out of doing the work that surveys are bad at measuring, shrugging at a survey.
Why the New York Knicks news here is Hart's reaction, not his rank
Think about what these lists actually reward. Shot creation. Usage. Highlight gravity. The stuff that shows up in a thirty second clip. Now think about what Hart does for a living: rebounds from the wing against bigger men, takes the charge nobody volunteers for, absorbs the minutes load when a rotation gets thin, hits the corner three when the defense forgets about him because it is busy worrying about someone else.
There is no column on a ballot for that. So he gets taxed every September. He knows it. He's been the guy who gets taxed since he came into the league as a late first round pick, and he has outlived roughly every projection anybody made for him.
Self-deprecation as armor. It works.
The rest of the league is not taking list season this well
This is the part that makes Hart's shrug stand out. The same release has the league in a mood. The reporting called LeBron James' landing spot jarring, which is a word you do not usually attach to him. Devin Booker took his lowest ranking in seven years and still sits inside the top 20, which tells you how good the top 20 has gotten. Anthony Davis dropped 26 spots into his Washington chapter, and that is the kind of fall that follows a player around all season. Tyrese Haliburton made the top 20. Austin Reaves climbed to No. 37 after Los Angeles handed him four years and $185 million to be a real second option.
| Player | Where the list put him | The wrinkle |
|---|---|---|
| Austin Reaves | No. 37 | Up, and freshly paid: four years, $185 million |
| Tyrese Haliburton | Top 20 | Held his place among the game's best |
| Devin Booker | Top 20 | Lowest ranking in seven years |
| Anthony Davis | Down 26 spots | Most to prove of anyone on the board of names |
Five stories, five different flavors of grievance, and the Knick is the one cracking jokes.
checked the almanac: hart and jalen brunson won a national title together at villanova in 2016, the kris jenkins buzzer-beater, and both of them eventually ended up playing basketball in new york. college teammates finding each other again in the world's loudest gym. the league does that sometimes and it never stops being strange and good.
What comes next for Hart
By the time camp opens, none of this exists. What exists is a role question, because it always is with him: how many minutes, alongside whom, starting or closing or both. Hart has spent his New York run being the answer to whatever the rotation was short of that night, and the honest read is that his value has always shown up in a seven game series rather than a preseason poll. Playoff basketball shrinks rosters and rewards exactly the things he does. That is when the list looks silly.
What I'm watching next is simple. Whether the minutes load stays this heavy on a wing who is not getting younger, and whether Davis, who has the most to answer for on this release, comes out of camp looking like a man who read his ranking and took it personally. One of those two guys is going to make ESPN redo the math.
My money is on the one who laughed.