Knicks Guard Josh Hart Rips Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle Over Officiating Complaints

Mike McDaniel | May 10, 2024

May 8, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) celebrates in the fourth / Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

New York Knicks guard Josh Hart ripped Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle for his complaints about the officiating in the Eastern Conference semifinals series that New York leads 2-0.

The Pacers filed a formal complaint with the NBA, submitting 78 different calls to the league office from Games 1 and 2 which they believed were incorrectly officiated.

Hart thinks all the talk about the officiating is disrespectful to the Knicks after how they have played over the first two games of the series.

"Rick's saying whatever he feels. It has nothing to do with us," Hart said at shootaround on Friday, via Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. "But at the end of the day, I think it's pretty disrespectful to us. Because at the end of the day, we're out there competing and playing at a high level. It's not about officiating. It's not about anything like that. For him to discredit how we're playing, I feel like that's pretty disrespectful."

Josh Hart calls Rick Carlisle’s comments “pretty disrespectful to us.” pic.twitter.com/2yBHPZeoOJ

— Stefan Bondy (@SbondyNBA) May 10, 2024

Carlisle took aim at Hart directly following Indiana's Game 2 loss, citing a play in which Hart appeared to push Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton in the back on a third quarter play. Haliburton has been dealing with back spasms in the playoffs.

"If you look, I hit the ball," Hard said. "Might I have bumped him a little bit? Yeah, I'm running at full speed. He's running full speed and he's in front of me. I'm trying to make a play on the ball."

There is plenty of animosity between the two teams, which is sure to reach a crescendo in Game 3 on Friday night, which is a must-win game for the Pacers to avoid falling into a deep 3-0 series deficit.