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Josh Hart Earns First Ejection of NBA Preseason for Chucking Ball After Getting Hurt

Liam McKeone

Josh Hart was ejected from the Knicks' first preseason game against the Sixers.
Josh Hart was ejected from the Knicks' first preseason game against the Sixers. / NBA
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The NBA preseason kicked off on Thursday with the Knicks and Sixers facing off in Abu Dhabi as part of the league's international preseason contests. It took almost no time at all for the exhibition contest to become eventful.

Early in the second quarter New York do-it-all forward Josh Hart crashed to the floor after grabbing a defensive rebound and appeared to be injured. There was no obvious contact that would have caused anything but Hart hit the ground regardless and stayed down for a few minutes in some pain. Upon hitting the floor Hart chucked the basketball into the stands, presumably in frustration.

That act earned him an ejection, the first of the NBA preseason.

Hart was able to walk back to the locker room.

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It was an unfortunate sequence for the Knicks. Hart is a fan favorite and critical to how the team plays. Every contender needs at least one player who is willing to do the dirty work every minute they are on the floor and Hart fits that description to a T. No role is too small for him to embrace and the lineup combinations his skillset allows new head coach Mike Brown to use grants New York important versatility.

Hopefully it's nothing serious and Hart can laugh with his teammates about getting ejected less than one half into the new NBA season.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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