This Saturday, Nets winger Mikal Bridges will play his first playoff game as his team’s No. 1 offensive option. Opposite ? There will be the Philadelphia 76ers, namely the team from his hometown, but also the team that drafted him before transferring him in stride, to his greatest regret at the time. A series not really like the others therefore for Mikal.
Mikal Bridges will wear the away team jersey tomorrow, but he will feel right at home inside the Wells Fargo Center.
Born in Philadelphia, a big fan of the Sixers of Allen Iverson and Andre Iguodala during his youth and passed by the famous University of Villanova (in the suburbs of the city) with which he won two NCAA championship titles, Mikal has Philly in his blood. So inevitably, when he is on the floor of the Sixers hall tomorrow for Game 1 of the Playoffs, the new Nets star will be particularly keen to shine in front of faces he knows well.
“There will be a lot of people that I know in the stands. I don’t know how many people, but there will be a lot of people cheering me on and cheering on the Sixers as well. So it’s going to be fun.”
– Mikal Bridges (via le New York Post)
Yes, it’s going to be fun, but let’s not forget that in a parallel universe, Mikal Bridges could have defended the colors of his hometown tomorrow instead of facing him.
Remember in 2018. The night of the Draft in Brooklyn, Mikal is selected by the… Sixers in tenth position. An ultra-promising kid from Philly, who trained in the city of brotherly love until winning two college titles with Villanova, and whose mom then worked for the Sixers as vice president of human resources, comes to be selected by his heart team, the team of his hometown. In short, the loop is complete. And then…
Sources: Philadelphia is trading Mikal Bridges to Phoenix for Zhaire Smith.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 22, 2018
And then Mikal Bridges is traded a few minutes later to Phoenix against – drum roll please – Zhaire Smith and a 2021 first-round draft pick. It’s a real dream come true for Mikal.
“I was very upset. My dream was to be selected in the Top 10 of the Draft. I was drafted in the Top 10, but I was pissed. I couldn’t control my emotions, I was so angry. All the guys were going out to celebrate their draft selection, I stayed in my hotel room. […] I needed several days to recover.”
Instead of staying home to participate in the Process, Mikal Bridges therefore had to cross the country to join Arizona and one of the most slammed teams in the NBA at the time (the Suns remained on a season at 21 victories).
For a long time, the pill was hard to pass for Bridges, but with the rise of the Suns and their fine progress under the Phoenix sun, Mikal managed to get past it. He established himself as one of the best defenders in the League, a pure two-way player, and even got to taste the NBA Finals with Phoenix in 2021. All this before taking another step with Brooklyn – 27 points and almost 5 rebounds on average for the Nets since his transfer at the deadline – in the last few weeks.
Now, something tells us that he is preparing something special for this first round of the Playoffs against the Sixers. To put it more directly: the hour of revenge has come for the kid from Philly.
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Sources texte : New York Post / Podcast Point Forward
Mikal Bridges didn’t enjoy his draft night after the Sixers traded him
“I was pissed off…I couldn’t control my emotions…After everyone went out, I’m in my hotel room, like, F**K this.”
(Via @pointforward )
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) April 14, 2023
