Josh Hart has built a reputation as the Knicks’ resident prankster, but Jose Alvarado just turned the tables on him with one perfectly timed comeback.
The exchange started after Hart jumped on X to relive his nearly disastrous missed layup late in New York’s historic Game 4 comeback against San Antonio. Hart wrote, "I really smoked that lay," and from there, he and Alvarado started tossing around the kind of “what could have been” jokes only teammates can get away with.
Hart took it a step further by suggesting that if New York had not gone on to win the title, the point guard might never have landed his new three-year, $14.38 million deal with the club. His line: "We changed your broke life."
Alvarado didn’t let that sit there. He fired right back by pointing out exactly how much was hanging in the balance when Hart missed the lay-in, writing, "we change yours because boy if we didn’t win that game lmao. Life would of been different."
That miss is still impossible to forget for Knicks fans. The wide-open fastbreak ended with the ball hitting the back iron and falling into the hands of De'Aaron Fox, a moment that sent stomachs dropping across New York before the team eventually finished the job.
Hart, for his part, already seemed fully aware of how close that play came to becoming a franchise nightmare. During a live recording of the Roommates Show in late July, the 31-year-old said, "If we didn't win and I missed that layup in Game 4 I swear y'all still would not have seen me to this day," and added that the next time anyone would have seen him would have been opening night of the 2026-27 season.
Even now, the Knicks are treating that sequence as part of the story of their championship run rather than a scar. Jalen Brunson, who was named Finals MVP, said the miss captured what the entire title push was about.
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