Mikal Bridges says he was removed from comfortable when the Phoenix Suns chosen him within the 2018 NBA Draft, recalling that his disappointment was seen even throughout the post-draft images.
“Media, photos, you’ll be able to see it, bro. I had a faux smile. I couldn’t even smile,” Bridges mentioned on the Roommates Present. “I used to be actually mad as hell. I used to be so pissed.”
Bridges mentioned he didn’t have a good time after the draft, as an alternative going immediately residence and to mattress as a result of he was sad with the place his NBA profession seemed to be headed.
“I didn’t even exit after the draft. I went residence, went straight to mattress,” Bridges mentioned. “Like, what am I purported to be comfortable for? I used to be mad at myself at that time.”
The response got here earlier than Bridges in the end spent his first 4½ NBA seasons with Phoenix, the place he developed from a rotation wing into one of many league’s most sturdy two-way gamers. He appeared in all 82 video games as a rookie in 2018-19 and once more in every of the 2021-22 and 2023-24 seasons.
His manufacturing rose steadily with the Suns. Bridges averaged 8.3 factors as a rookie, then reached 13.5 factors whereas taking pictures 54.3% from the sphere and 42.5% from three-point vary in 2020-21.
He adopted that with a career-high 14.2 factors per recreation in 2021-22 and completed second in Defensive Participant of the 12 months voting whereas incomes a spot on the NBA All-Defensive First Workforce. Bridges additionally began all 82 video games that season, averaging 34.8 minutes per night time.
Phoenix traded Bridges to the Brooklyn Nets in February 2023 as a part of the Kevin Durant deal. He averaged 26.1 factors in 27 video games with Brooklyn after the commerce, a significant enhance from his 17.2-point common in 56 video games with the Suns that season.
Bridges was later traded to the New York Knicks, the place he has remained one of many NBA’s most dependable gamers. He performed all 82 video games in each 2024-25 and 2025-26, averaging 17.6 and 14.4 factors, respectively.
The Knicks went 53-29 throughout the 2025-26 common season, ending third within the Jap Convention earlier than defeating the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the NBA Finals to win the franchise’s first championship since 1973.
Throughout eight NBA seasons, Bridges has performed 638 of a potential 656 regular-season video games and made 571 begins. His profession averages stand at 14.7 factors, 3.9 rebounds and a pair of.9 assists whereas taking pictures 48.5% from the sphere and 37.1% from three-point vary.
What started with Bridges leaving the 2018 draft upset in the end became the muse of a profession that included a Defensive Participant of the 12 months runner-up end, 638 consecutive-caliber appearances and an NBA championship.
