Josh Hart called the Lakers to apologize after criticizing team

Josh Hart didn’t appear to have taken being traded all that well, and especially showed frustration at the way he found out he was a part of the deal that brought Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers while sending him, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Back in September, Hart made headlines by throwing some incredible shade at the Lakers on his podcast during a chat with Ball:

Ball: “Lithuania was very depressing. I went there to go visit (my brothers), I wouldn’t do it again... You been there?”

Hart: “I’m not going there.”

Ball: “It’s like hella gloomy, nobody smiles, it’s like everybody just hates that they’re there. I’m like ‘damn.’ I had to get out of there, bro.”

Hart: “Sounds like L.A.”

Ball: “Nah, it’s definitely not L.A.”

Hart: “No, I’m not talking about the city.”

Ball: “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

Co-host Matt Hillman: “What are you talking about bro?”

Ball: “I don’t know what he’s talking about... Next question. Cut that part out.”

Hillman: “We’re gonna edit this part out, so you might as well just tell us.”

Hart: “I was going to say the Lakers organization (laughs).”

Hillman: “Oh, shit. Miles, cut.”

Once that clip hit social media, Hart tweeted out that his comments weren’t about the Lakers as a whole, but about Rob Pelinka one person.

According to Hart, though, that clip was never supposed to actually air — as was suggested by Hillman literally saying “we’re gonna edit this part out” — and he told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN that his comments weren’t meant to be taken seriously:

“When my sarcasm, that wasn’t supposed to be in that -- it was supposed to be cut -- was in there, I called some of the people in the [Lakers] front office, I called some of my teammates that I had and made sure they knew that none of this stuff was about you guys,” Hart told ESPN on Sunday night.

”I loved my time here. I loved my time here and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. I love Laker Nation. They show so much love, so much support.”

Apparently, the new definition of sarcasm is “stuff you said that you didn’t think would be public but now is and has consequences you now want to separate yourself from.”

Hart went on to say what exactly he was actually bothered by, though if this was indeed sarcasm as Hart said, then he wouldn’t actually have been bothered. The math on this is pretty convoluted. Still, Hart didn’t specify who was the person who actually upset him with the Lakers, although he did double-down on his claim that he didn’t know he was traded until he found out on Twitter:

”Obviously, sometimes things happen quickly,” Hart said. “But I mean, you have of a gist of if something’s going to happen. At least that day or something. So just reach out.

“You know in this league, this is a possibility. Like ‘Hey, you’re going to get an all-world player [Davis], I get it. ... Cool. No hard feelings.’

”But all you want is just like a heads-up, or even -- when the deal is final -- to get a call or even get a call just the same day and not find out on Twitter, and not get called, days later.”

While Hart’s issue here makes perfect sense and we’ll never know what it feels like to have your current workplace trade you to a completely different city, my question here is fairly simple: How can you act all that surprised that you were included in a trade that was rumored about for upwards of a year? It wasn’t like the Davis trade come completely out of left field or something.

At the end of the day, though, the trade did happen. Hart is in New Orleans and the Lakers have moved on to the tune of the best record in the NBA. Whether or not Hart still has any kind of issue with anyone in the organization doesn’t really matter at this point.

The Lakers will be in New Orleans Wednesday night for Davis’ first game there since being traded. The scene will probably be pretty hostile, but according to Hart, he won’t partake in any vitriol spewed towards his former organization — unless his explanation for all this was sarcasm, too.

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