Josh Hart made no secret about wanting his fellow Villanova Wildcat in orange and blue at some point in time.
Now, it’s a reality.
On Tuesday night, the Knicks completed a blockbuster trade by acquiring Nets guard Mikal Bridges for Bojan Bogdanovic and multiple draft picks in a deal that sent shockwaves throughout the NBA.
But for Hart, who was on the 2016 Villanova squad that won the national title with Bridges Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo, had seemingly been laying the groundwork for getting his buddy on the Knicks for quite some time.
On July 1 last year, Hart not-so-subtly recruited Bridges in a post on X.
“Yo @mikal_bridges hit my phone bro,” Hart wrote.
And in September, Hart had a follow-up post.
“Yo @mikal_bridges hit my phone. Want to run something by you real quick,” he posted.
In February, Hart and Brunson had Bridges on their “Roommates Show” podcast that they host together, and while Bridges was answering a question, Hart took off his white hoodie to reveal a Knicks shirt, which elicited laughs from everyone in the room.
After Hart posted on Instagram two weeks ago about his time on ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Finals, Bridges had actually flipped the script on the courting.
“Come to the Nets?” Bridges commented.
Nevertheless, Hart was having none of it.
“@mikalbridges are you ok?” Hart replied back. “If they have you hostage just blink and we’ll save you.”
On Tuesday night, it all came back full circle, and Hart harkened back to his posts on X from 2023.
“YOOOOO @mikal_bridges FINALLY HIT MY LINE!!!!!” he wrote.
While Heat star Bam Adebayo called out Hart and Brunson for perceived “tampering,” Hart was having none of it.
“Let us celebrate in peace!” Hart wrote with a crying laughing emoji.
And they seemingly did celebrate, having a video chat that included Hart, Bridges, DiVincenzo and Brunson on Tuesday night.