Meet Knicks Star Josh Hart's Parents, Dad Moses and Mom Pat

The New York Knicks player was raised by his mom and dad in Silver Spring, Md.

NEED TO KNOW

• Josh Hart was raised by his parents, Moses and Pat Hart, in Silver Spring, Md.
• His father was a chef, while his mom was a waitress
• Moses is also the nephew of New York Yankees legend Elston Howard

Josh Hart's parents, Moses and Pat Hart, raised their son to have a strong work ethic.

The two welcomed Josh on March 6, 1995, and raised him in Silver Spring, Md., alongside his brother, Moses, and his sister, Aimee, according to USA Basketball.

Moses helped instill in Josh a love of the Boy Scouts. While he isn't an athlete himself, Moses always told his son to keep fighting — something Josh has brought to the 2026 NBA Finals, where he and the New York Knicks are taking on the San Antonio Spurs.

"He didn't want me to be someone who gave up, or quit,” Josh recalled to The Athletic in March 2022 about his dad. “And it was all because I had the body language of giving up. That was the kind of person, and father, he was and is. And it helped me establish that never-give-up mentality."

Here's everything to know about Josh Hart's parents, Moses and Pat Hart.

Moses was a chef and Pat was a waitress

Moses was a chef at a catering company in the Washington, D.C. area, according to Fox Sports. Pat was a waitress at the Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md.

As of 2017, Moses was retired, and Pat was planning to quit her waitressing job, per WUSA9. After Josh signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, he posted on X, "My biggest dream is to make sure my parents never have to work again," according to the outlet.

At the time, Moses and Pat were considering moving to St. Louis to take care of Pat's father. However, according to an October 2023 Haute Living interview, they were considering relocating to Hoboken or Jersey City, N.J., to be closer to Josh and his wife, Shannon, and their two kids.

Moses is the nephew of Yankees catcher Elston Howard

Moses is the nephew of a baseball legend: Elston Howard, the first Black player for the New York Yankees. Howard was a part of the team that would win six World Series championships.

Elston died in 1980, 15 years before Josh was born. However, Josh still “used him as a role model," he told NBC Sports Philadelphia in April 2016.

"The first Black player to play for the Yankees," he continued. "The character that he had is something that I try to resemble. Dad was always telling me stories about when he used to go to the ballpark and watch him play and just learn from him. It's someone that I look up to, someone that I always wished I was able to meet."

Their family home burned down in a fire when Josh was 15

During the summer before his sophomore year in high school, Josh was away at Boy Scout camp when his childhood home burned down from an electrical fire, per Fox Sports.

The family lost nearly everything — Josh was left with "the clothes on my back," he told the outlet. Despite the traumatic event, Josh told The Athletic that his "parents never complained."

"My dad was a chef, my mom a waitress — two blue-collar, hard workers — and they lost everything," he told the outlet. "Yeah, I lost my clothes and some things, but they lost everything too and had the pressure of providing, putting food on the table, making car payments … and they weren't complaining. That put things in perspective for me."

According to Fox Sports, after the fire, Josh moved in with a friend while his parents lived in a hotel. The family eventually moved into a two-bedroom apartment.

"We just kept our head down and pushed through. You pick up the ashes and keep moving," he told the outlet. "Yeah, it was a hard time. But you have family, and you all push through it together — no matter your situation."

Josh credits his dad with his "never-give-up" attitude

Moses instilled an attitude of resilience in his son from an early age, teaching him not to quit when things get hard.

"I told him, 'I don't care if you're losing by 20 points — you go all out. You continue to play hard. You give it your all. Because if you can't do that, you don't play,' " Moses recalled to Fox Sports. "I just wanted to instill him at a young age that you play hard for the team. You don't pick and choose when you play hard."

That manifested in Josh's involvement in the Boy Scouts. After starting at age 5, Josh briefly stepped back from the organization in high school to focus on his academics and basketball, but later returned to become an Eagle Scout — the highest rank possible.

“I promised [Moses] that I would finish it, and he held me to that promise,” Josh told Vice Sports in March 2017. “He made sure I was gonna be a man of my word.”

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