Insane Josh Hart quote after Knicks-Sixers puts pressure on Phillies fans

As a small, South Jersey youth, raised by Pennsylvanians, I'm no stranger to the harsh truth that all Philly sports fans know: a life of heartbreak. With each year of hope and belief that this could be the year sports fans around the world say, "Philly is the new Boston," the teams we love so desperately seem to hear our pleas, and purposefully throw our love and well-wishes to the wayside.

With another disappointing year for the Phillies in 2025-2026, and a cinematically bad end to their season last October against the Los Angeles Dodgers, all fans quickly turned to the Eagles to see if perhaps the reigning Super Bowl champs could alleviate the city's spirit.

And thanks to a messy offensive year, a myriad of injuries, and an offensive coordinator who treated each game like his first day on the job, the Eagles' season ended very similarly to that of the city's baseball team: excruciatingly, after exiting in the Wild Card round at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers.

Much like the changing of the seasons, so too does the loyalty of Philly sports fandom shift, as most Eagles and Phillies fans then turn to either their respective winter sports: basketball or hockey, and somehow both the Philadelphia 76ers and the Flyers made postseason berths, bringing much-needed buzz back to the city after abrupt ends to the Phillies' and Eagles' runs earlier in the year's sports season.

And after the blessings the sports gods bestowed upon the city of Philadelphia, they so quickly tooketh away. After a thrilling regular season, finishing third in the Metropolitan Division, the Flyers moved on, clinching a playoff berth for the first time since 2020. They then defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, infusing life back into the comatose city's sports fandom. Now, just two days after elimination, it somehow still isn't getting easier to bear the fact that the talented, young core was no match for the Carolina Hurricanes, who swept them in the second round.

So all eyes, with the reluctance of every fan who knows all Philadelphia sports teams in depth, then turned to the Sixers. After a red-hot start to the 2026 season, the Sixers finished the regular season with a 45-37 record and earned the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

The first round went extremely well! The second ... did not.

Knicks' Josh Hart ragebaited Philly sports fandom after sweeping the Sixers

"I used to think Philly was a sports town, I don't know if it is anymore," New York Knicks shooting guard Josh Hart said to reporters from SNY after his team's 144-114 Game 4 win over the Sixers. While Hart doesn't immerse himself in the Philly sports fandom daily (at least, not since leaving Villanova), his semi-true words should affect every last fan of any of the four major Philadelphia sports teams.

Now the seasons of time have turned the clock from the cold bitterness of winter sports back to the best time of year: the warmth of baseball season. Coming into this season, it was no secret that a lot is riding on the Phillies' performance in 2026.

Another offseason with blatant holes being unaddressed, and a front office that seems more focused on how to make a profit than how to uphold the traditions of Phillies baseball, left several scorned Phillies fans to expect a "show-me" season, with no true changes to the team's core, other than the shedding of Nick Castellanos.

Hart's words are essentially the summary of what's happening in the Philadelphia sports world these days. Times are getting hard, and much like the Jersey Shore after Labor Day weekend, the fair-weather fans who have joined the fold since 2022 are starting to flee the scene, leaving behind just those of us who have been around long enough to remember the heartbreak of the 2011 National League Division Series.

With the window of championship opportunity closing around the aging core of this Phillies team, the 2026 season has been deemed a "make or break" one for the club; this we know. What we don't know is what will come of this group if the end goal both the team and fans have in sight doesn't happen, especially after Rob Thomson's departure from the team.

But we, the fans, can cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, we can trust that the Phils are playing with every ounce of desire to bring the World Series back to Philadelphia and to enjoy embracing our reclaimed underdog status along the way. As a wise All-Pro Eagle, dressed as a Mummer, once said, "We're a bunch of underdogs, do you know what an underdog is? It's a hungry dog...hungry dogs run faster."

In the marathon of a baseball season, these hungry dogs are salvating to play October ball, with meaning, once again. But until then, we the fans have to shoulder the greatest burden known to man: rooting on the Philadelphia Phillies to win their third championship.

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