Josh Hart Clears Air on Knicks Reported Players-Only Meeting

The New York Knicks have been reeling the last few weeks, with all the positive momentum created earlier in the season and from winning the NBA Cup going down the drain.

Losers in nine out of their last 11 games, it was time for the team to look themselves in the mirror and figure things out on the court. A matchup with the Brooklyn Nets is exactly what the doctor ordered for an ailing squad.

After losing to a short-handed Dallas Mavericks team in embarrassing fashion on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Knicks responded against their crosstown rivals. They put a historic beatdown on the Nets, winning 120-66 and setting a franchise record for largest margin of victory with 54 points.

It certainly looked like New York responded to the reported players-only meeting that their captain, Jalen Brunson, called following the 114-97 loss to the Mavericks, in which they trailed by as many as 30 points.

Josh Hart has strong response to reported players-only meeting

Jan 14, 2026; Sacramento, California, USA; New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) reacts after a play during the third quarter against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center. | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

However, Josh Hart pushed back on the notion that a player's meeting was held. He admitted that there were discussions held between teammates, but was adamant, saying that calling it a players only meeting was over the top.

“We didn’t have a players-only meeting,” Hart said, via Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “Y’all dragging that. I’m just saying we didn’t have a players-only meeting. I don’t know who said it, who did all that, but we didn’t have a players-only meeting. We talked but it wasn’t like, some .... thing. That got dragged. We didn’t have a players-only meeting.”

Josh Hart says the Knicks did not have a players-only meeting after Monday's loss:

"We talked, but it wasn't like some thing. That got dragged. We didn't have a players-only meeting." pic.twitter.com/8j4ILaNBmA
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) January 22, 2026

The reports of a players' only meeting that Hart is pushing back against were shared originally by Ramona Shelbourne of ESPN. She shared comments from Brunson and revealed some of what was said during the meeting.

“After the game Jalen Brunson called a players-only meeting for all the guys in that locker room and said, ‘Guys, we gotta stop looking to the coaching staff for answers. We gotta stop looking elsewhere. The answers to what is wrong with us right now are right in this locker room. Gotta look in the mirror,’” Shelburne said on ESPN on Jan. 20. “It was a longer meeting. A lot of people had something to say about what was going wrong.”

Whatever occurred with teammates between the loss to Dallas and the game against Brooklyn, it looks to have worked. The Knicks played their best all-around game in weeks, stifling the Nets defensively and scoring with ease on the offensive end.

Are tensions rising for the New York Knicks? 🤔 @ramonashelburne gives us an inside look on what happened after their loss against the Mavericks 👀 pic.twitter.com/1MDEIk0pwG
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) January 20, 2026

It was the exact kind of performance that fans and everyone in the organization had been waiting to see. However, how it is being portrayed and conveyed by the media is something that has irked Hart.

Karl-Anthony Towns was asked something similar, but he didn’t respond directly about whether there was a meeting or not. He shared that the losing streak helped everyone get on the same page that was needed to blow out Brooklyn.

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