{"id":706895,"date":"2026-06-16T06:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T06:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/706895\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T06:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T06:03:08","slug":"from-high-school-standout-to-nba-champion-josh-harts-former-coach-looks-back-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/706895\/","title":{"rendered":"From High School standout to NBA Champion: Josh Hart\u2019s former coach looks back"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (7News) \u2014 When the New York Knicks<\/a> finally captured an NBA championship Saturday night, Eric Singletary had already lost his voice.<\/p>\n

Like millions of basketball fans across the D.C. region and beyond, the Sidwell Friends School head boys’ basketball coach was glued to his television for every game, every possession, and every pivotal moment of the Knicks’ title run. <\/p>\n

But for Singletary, this championship felt personal.<\/p>\n

Knicks guard Josh Hart, one of Singletary’s former players at Sidwell<\/a>, played a vital role in helping New York end its 53-year championship drought.<\/p>\n

“You never dream that any of your players will make it to the pinnacle of their career,” Singletary admitted to 7News Sports Natalie Spala. “But I’m just so excited for him, obviously his teammates and his family, and obviously Quaker Nation over here at Sidwell is beaming with pride.” <\/p>\n

From his relentless hustle to his leadership on the court, Singletary said Hart embodied the same qualities that made him a standout in high school. <\/p>\n

“The management did a great job of putting the pieces together at that level to make it work,” Singletary said. “I think Josh is one of those centerpieces on the board that is selfless. He’s a servant leader, he wants to serve his teammates and he does that with just giving relentless effort. He probably has one of the best motors in the world.” <\/p>\n

Singletary takes deep pride in being a part of the village that helped propel Hart to an NBA title. <\/p>\n

“I think that’s the hallmark of being a coach. Being able to speak life into young players, especially in high school,” he said. “So, just to see the manifestation of all his hard work; and then the mental work that you put in as a coach sometimes — not just the x’s and o’s — just the time you spend with these young men and their families, I think this is the culmination of that.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (7News) \u2014 When the New York Knicks finally captured an NBA championship Saturday night, Eric Singletary had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-706895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}