MILWAUKEE — Josh Hart said it was “ridiculous” that he was ejected for his inadvertent head kick on Friday against the Bulls, explaining that it was beyond his physical capabilities to make that type of maneuver.
“Obviously I’m off balance. My leg is going up before I even look at him,” said Hart, who returned to the lineup Sunday to log 37 minutes with nine assists and nine boards to help the Knicks to a 122-109 win over the Bucks. “But give credit to [referee] Scott Foster for thinking my athletic ability is so great that I was able to make that decision to kick him in a split second.”
Hart was stripped by Javonte Green at the end of the first quarter and was midair before his leg swung and hit the Bulls player across the face.
Hart was then tossed by Foster, and it cost the Knicks as they were killed in the rebounding battle.
Hart suggested there was discrepancy in what Foster told him and his explanation to a pool reporter after the game, when the veteran official said “intent is not a criteria” for a Flagrant 2.
“Obviously sucks — it being taken out of my control. Flagrant 1 I think it probably should’ve been, something that was accidental,” Hart said. “But I’m not sure what he was thinking because he was later like, ‘Oh, intent doesn’t matter.’ … But then he told me I looked at him and kicked him which obviously implies that I intended to. I’m not sure what his thought process was. Because it was kind of two different stories. So it is what it is.”
Hart suggested that Flagrant 2 calls should be determined by the NBA office in Secaucus to establish consistency.
“If you say I looked at him and kicked him, it gives you the assumption of, you made the decision to do that. I don’t think I even had time to make that decision. So I thought it was ridiculous,” Hart said. “I don’t know if that rule is up to interpretation so hopefully if it’s a ruling like that to where a player is getting kicked out the game hopefully they can change that from the refs on the court who might have a different involvement in the game to people in Secaucus where it’s just a handful of people where the consistency is there. Isaiah [Hartenstein] got his head taken off two games before that [by OKC’s Kenrich Williams] and that was a Flagrant 1.”
Bucks coach Doc Rivers called Hart “the heart of the team” and the player didn’t dispute an expert opinion.
“He’s the doctor, so I guess so,” Hart said.
Bojan Bogdanovic had one of his best nights as a Knick after being listed as “questionable” on the injury report with a sprained left wrist.
The forward dropped an efficient 15 points in just 17 minutes, helping the Knicks navigate important minutes at the start of the fourth quarter without Jalen Brunson.
“He can score the ball,” Tom Thibodeau said of Bogdanovic. “So that’s huge for us.”
Alec Burks, who arrived with Bogdanovic from Detroit at the trade deadline, was removed from the rotation, however.
He logged a healthy DNP on Sunday.
