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Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson celebrate after winning the NBA Finals during Game Five.
Credit: Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty; Jesse D. Garrabrant /NBAE via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Josh Hart reflects on the Knicks’ chaotic, champagne-soaked locker room celebration after their first NBA title in 53 years
- Hart shares a quiet moment with teammate Jalen Brunson, reflecting on sacrifices made to achieve their championship dream
- The Knicks guard emphasizes the importance of hydration and wellness as the team prepares to defend their title
Josh Hart expected champagne, cigars and plenty of celebrating after helping lead the New York Knicks to their first NBA championship in 53 years. What he didn’t anticipate was the state of the locker room once the party was over.
“The aftermath, that locker room was probably the nastiest thing I ever seen,” Hart, 31, tells PEOPLE exclusively of the festivities. “They smelled so bad. I smelled like beer, champagne, cigars. Oh my gosh, that was horrible.”
Hart and his teammates got the celebrations rolling in San Antonio on June 13 after the Knicks downed the Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, 94-90. By the time the festivities began to wind down, the 6-foot-5 guard says spilled champagne and beer had coated the floor from wall to wall, making it difficult to even walk through the locker room.
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Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart celebrate after winning the NBA Finals.
Credit: Jesse D. Garrabrant /NBAE via Getty
“I honestly indulged in the celebration, and after that I was like, ‘Dog, I need to get away and shower,’” Hart says with a laugh on July 24, when he and his wife, Shannon, joined Vita Coco in New York City to launch the inaugural Pit Stain Pit Stop. “Everyone’s celebrating in our locker room. I’m in a coach’s locker room showering and getting myself together. But it was fun. The locker room was chaotic.”
Meeting the moment under intense pressure defined this memorable Knicks playoff run.
“It was a lot of emotions,” Hart says of hearing the final buzzer on June 13. “Obviously excitement. Kind of relief, honestly,” he says.
“There’s a lot of pressure wearing a Knicks jersey. A lot of people don’t talk about it,” he adds. “At that point, that jersey felt extremely light.”
Nearly two months removed from that championship-clinching game, Hart still recalls the moment he and teammate Jalen Brunson digested they had won a title together.
“We were just sitting there,” Hart recalls. “He has a trophy, and we’re sitting there like, ‘Bro, we really did this.’”
“It’s something that we’ve always dreamed about,” adds Hart, who won an NCAA title alongside Brunson, 29, at Villanova in 2016. “It’s something we’ve all been working toward.”
“Obviously he sacrificed... financial stuff... when I opted in, I had to sacrifice some of that financial stuff. So it was just like, bro, this is what we’ve sacrificed for... physically, mentally,” he continues.
As the Knicks prepare to defend their title, Hart has become even more intentional about recovery, wellness and hydration — something he didn’t fully appreciate when he first entered the league in 2017.
“When you’re 21, 22, you think you can just kind of do whatever,” Hart says. “There was a lot of late nights playing video games. It was really just eating anything. Burgers, shakes. Yeah. It was just everything.”
Experience has completely changed Hart’s perspective.
“I think everyone always thought wellness, recovery and all that was just nutrition and sleep,” Hart says. “Now we’re starting to understand the full spectrum — not just nutrition, not just sleep, but hydration.”
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That approach, he says, will be just as important as the Knicks begin their quest for another championship.
“The goal and the dream is to repeat,” Hart says. “We know we have to continue to work, continue to get better... making sure your body’s right... hydration... getting yourself mentally and physically prepared.”
Read the original article on People
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