Mikal Bridges now plays for the Brooklyn Nets, but his career didn't start there. Bridges started off his career with the Phoenix Suns, but it looked like he was going to play elsewhere at first. When Bridges fell to #10 on draft day, it looked like he would he starting off his career with the Philadelphia 76ers. Bridges is from Philadelphia, and he also went to college at Villanova, which is in Philadelphia. The 76ers ended up immediately trading Bridges to the Suns, and he wasn't too happy about it.
Obviously, after growing up in Philadelphia and going to college at Villanova, it would've been a dream come true for Bridges to play for the 76ers. Before the trade happened with the Suns, Bridges was feeling good.
“Well I thought I was going to go nine to Knicks… And once I saw him [Kevin Knox] went to nine, I was like, okay, I'm getting picked 10,” Mikal Bridges recently said during an appearance on the Roommates Show presented by Playmaker HQ. “My agent was sitting at the table. He just got hyped quick, because you know before the pick happens. He banged the table and I was like, okay, see the guy's walking over. So I got my hat on and I was like, I've been looking at the situation since we were in college, bro. I'm like, ‘oh, I'll fit right into this team three and D, I'm cool.’ You know what I'm saying? Put the hat on, getting emotional. I go through the media, I go through the whole Philly media with my hat on and I'm sitting there knowing everybody because they've been since high school, college. I know everybody in there…Answer all the questions and get done, don't have my phone. Katerina…she worked in the office at Nova. She was actually escorting me where to go and I remember I was geeked up, just got done media and I was about to go take pictures.”
Shortly after that, Bridges' mood changed as he realized that he was going to be going to the Suns. He wasn't very familiar with the organization, and it's pretty far from Philadelphia.
“Then I see her and somebody else kind of whispering, talking to each other,” Bridges continued. “So now I’m just looking like ‘what’s going on’ and they’re like ‘i think there might be a potential trade with you in Philly.’…They were like Phoenix. Phoenix! I don’t know the coach, I don’t know the GM, I don’t know the owner. Only person I know about Phoenix is Book [Devin Booker]…That’s all I know. I knew nothing about Phoenix except they was weak as hell….I was really mad as hell. Coach Wright actually stopped and talked to me and was like, ‘Honestly, you did a great job with all that, that happening and keeping a good face and blah blah blah.’ I kept it professional but I was so pissed….”
At the end of the day, Bridges realized that it was silly to be upset after being a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft. He went and played for the Suns for the next five seasons.
“Went to Phoenix early morning,” Mikal Bridges concluded. “Then it took me a day when I got to Phoenix that night when I got drunk in top golf where I opened up to myself, it was like, bro, you went top 10. Let that shit go. Obviously you wanted to go to this place or this place and it didn't work out. Who gives a damn? You are at this spot that you never thought you'd be. You know what I'm saying? I always thought League one day, but top 10 is, it is crazy to think I'm be grateful. So I was like be grateful. So it took me get that tequila in my body to talk to me, talk some sense in my mind. But then after that, then Phoenix was the greatest thing that happened to me.”
Everything worked out for Bridges with the Suns. Now, he is with the Nets, and he is much closer to where he grew up.
Follow Us
Subscribe