Mikal Bridges has come a very long way since being drafted No. 10 overall in the 2018 NBA Draft. Right now, he's spearheading a rather unexpected playoff run for the Brooklyn Nets following his mid-season blockbuster trade from the Phoenix Suns. It now feels like a lifetime away since Bridges had a roller coaster of emotions during the night of the draft.

By his own admission, Bridges was absolutely elated after being picked in the Top 10 of his draft class — something that he never even dreamed about as a young kid. The icing on the cake was that he was drafted by his hometown team, the Philadelphia 76ers. Everything changed for him, though, the moment he learned that the Sixers had decided to trade him to the Suns just moments after drafting him:

I was pissed off,” Bridges said on a recent episode of the Point Forward podcast. “My whole life I wanted to get drafted, I didn't think Top 10 ever. … I went Top 10 and I was pissed off. I couldn't control my emotions. I was so mad. Even after everybody went out, I'm in my hotel room, like, ‘F**K this.' I was hot. … That night I was pretty pissed off.”

The Sixers decided to send Bridges to the Suns in exchange for Zhaire Smith and a future first-round pick. Mkial did not see it coming, and as he expressed above, he was extremely disappointed with the surprising turn of events.

That's now water under the bridge for Mikal Bridges, though. Right now, he's focused on the Nets and their upcoming playoff series against incidentally, Joel Embiid and the Sixers. This should be an interesting series, to say the least.