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Josh Hart Reveals His Full Circle Moment, From Hiding Candies in College to Turning It Into an NBA Pre-game Meal: “I Was Like a Little Fat Kid”

Published 12/15/2023, 11:20 AM EST

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USA Today via Reuters

Josh Hart is a hustler on the defense and despite standing only 6’4, he can pull down some mean rebounds. This 28-year-old rebound machine from the Knicks has a profound love for Mike & Ike candies that dates back to his high school days when it started as a pre-game ritual and lasted all through college, and now the NBA.

Josh joined Villanova University in 2013 as a freshman, where he was the Big East Rookie of the Week three times. Now, a father of twin boys, Josh recalls how his guilty pleasure would lead him to hide his candies away from his Coach Jay Wright during his time at Villanova.

Josh had to be sneaky with his candies

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As with every coach ever, Coach Jay was also a strict disciplinarian when it came to diet, and Josh was well aware of this. However, his love for the candies made him find loopholes to work around this. Josh recalls during an interview with the NYPost, “I’d dump a box of Mike & Ike in my parka. Because if they ever saw me with it, they’d make me throw it out…..So I had to sneak it and hide it. Like I was like a little fat kid.” One would imagine that after all these years, Josh would’ve gotten tired of the candies.

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That would be a very wrong assumption because even after ten years, he admits to still resorting to Mike & Ike’s as his pre-game meals, always seen with an entire pack of his delicious goodies in the locker room before games. For instance, during their recent game in Utah, he made an Uber Eats order of Mike and Ike’s to the locker room before the game. If that’s not adorable enough for you, you’d be interested in what his teammate has to say about his habit.

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Big baby Josh

Jalen Brunson, 27, knows very well that his teammate needs his candies before games and he likens this behavior to that of a child, playfully, he said about Josh, “He’s still two years old. Loves candy. He’s older than me, but it’s like having a little brother.

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All this candy-eating has repercussions, as we all know, and Josh admits that he did have to deal with cavities and root canals in the past because of his habit. In fact, he had been warned about keeping the candies away for a while in 2020. Yet he didn’t. The consequences weren’t pretty, and he had to undergo a root canal. The things you do for love, right?

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Written by:

Tsuktibenla T Jamir

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Tsuktibenla T Jamir is an NBA author at EssentiallySports. Armed with a Masters in Journalism from the prestigious Delhi School of Journalism, this Nagaland native combines her academic prowess with her passion for the game to craft compelling narratives that bring the NBA to life. She finds immense joy in dissecting the journeys of the athletes who make the game larger than life.
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Edited by:

Saumya Khanduja