Josh Hart doesn’t give a you-know-what about Paul Reed’s talk right now.
The Philadelphia 76ers big man Reed went viral this week for his shade at the New York Knicks, whom the 76ers will be facing in the first round of the playoffs. Reed said the 76ers wanted to draw the Knicks, calling the Knicks an “easier” matchup for them. You can read his full comments here.
On Friday, the Knicks forward Hart was asked by reporters about Reed’s comments and gave a profane response.
“I don’t give a f–k about what he said,” said Hart, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. “I don’t care.”
While his delivery was a little blunt, Hart has the right idea here. The Knicks should not be concerning themselves at all with the efforts of the lower-seed 76ers to rile them up. The 76ers will do all that they can to try to throw the Knicks off their game and steal one of the first two contests at Madison Square Garden, so the Knicks have to stay focused on the task at hand.
With the Milwaukee Bucks ailing and the Boston Celtics on the other side of the bracket, this may be the Knicks’ very best opportunity to make their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000. If the Knicks take care of business, the opportunity for trash talk of their own (which Hart did plenty of during the regular season) will follow.
