This summer, doctors gave Josh Hart the news that he required a joint replacement, which would prevent him from ever playing again.
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TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Josh Hart will not undergo previously expected surgery on his right ring finger. Instead, he will play through the pain for the rest of his career, he said Thursday.
The injury that forced the New York Knicks wing to play with a splint for all of the 2025-26 season now requires a “full joint replacement,” an operation that would end his NBA career, Hart explained.
“You can’t have the banging, repetitive (motion),” Hart said after a team practice. “Grabbing a rebound, palming it, shooting, catching the ball, doing all that: You can’t do that. So, if I did a joint replacement, then I wouldn’t be able to play.”
Hart is 31 years old, is fresh off an NBA championship and, of course, is not done playing. He will continue to protect the jagged ring finger on his right hand the same way he did a season ago, wearing a splint or wrapping it whenever he plays.
Hart suffered the injury during the 2025 Eastern Conference finals, when the Knicks faced the Indiana Pacers. He underwent offseason surgery after the series, but aggravated the finger while guarding Knicks wing Mikal Bridges during an inter-squad scrimmage that summer. Hart said at the start of last season that the plan would be to play for all of 2025-26 while wearing protective gear on his finger, then to undergo a second surgery to fix the issue come the offseason.
This summer, doctors gave him the news that he required a joint replacement, which would prevent him from ever playing again.
“I guess it’s either wrap it till I retire (or) cut it off,” Hart said. “I guess that’s the other option. So that’s really the only alternative: either joint replacement, let it go, or amputation.”
The fourth finger on Hart’s right hand looks like an M.C. Escher painting, one bone pointing in one direction, another veering in another with the top one at a diagonal again.
“Josh, he’s a handsome man,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said. “But that finger is uggglyyy.”
It leads to discomfort, too.
At the beginning of last season, Hart said there were times when his hand would go numb while playing. The injury also affected a nerve.
“Some days, it’ll be good. Some days it’ll hurt to catch the ball,” Hart said. “It varies. I wish I could tell you when I wake up, what’s gonna be good, what’s gonna be bad. Some days it’s good, like a regular functioning finger; and other days, it hurts to just close my hand, to make a fist.”
In spite of the injury, Hart posted the best-shooting season of his career in 2025-26, most notably nailing a career-high 41 percent of his 3-point attempts during the regular season. His effective field-goal percentage, a statistic that accounts for the value of 2-pointers versus 3-pointers, was the best of his career, as well, all while his injury, as he put it, “deteriorated.
“The joint and the bone and everything,” Hart said. “That’s what it will be. So I’ll do (the joint replacement) probably when I retire. Hopefully I can make (my finger) straight. It’s a little off-center if y’all didn’t realize. So I’m hoping after that joint replacement, it can get a little straighter.”
Hart is eligible for an extension with the Knicks. On media day, he said he “didn’t think it will get done.” The Knicks are scheduled to pay him $43.3 million over the next two seasons, including a team option for $22.4 million for 2027-28.
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Fred Katz is a senior NBA writer for The Athletic. Follow Fred on Twitter @FredKatz
