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By the time Mikal Bridges leaned toward his phone Monday morning, a navy fitted with a yellow brim sitting high on his head like he was 21 again somewhere deep in a draft-night after-party, eyes heavy and a glass of brown liquor raised during the stream, the Knicks’ first NBA title celebration in 53 years had stumbled from Flyfish Club on the Lower East Side onto Instagram Live.
Bridges had slept little, if at all. Championship weekend was still going strong, clearly, and the live feed became a venting session for everything attached to his first ring, from the jokes and laughs to the rambling bits, the relief and the pressure finally leaving his shoulders.
The Atlanta Hawks got a shoutout for helping light the fuse under his playoff surge. Sonny, Bridges’ 10-year-old Labrador retriever, got a floor-level serenade, then trotted away. Ariel Hukporti’s birth certificate caught a stray. Bridges proclaimed Jalen Brunson the GOAT, big head and all, and pushed for a statue outside Madison Square Garden, something no Knick has ever had.
Knicks president Leon Rose got his flowers for changing the franchise’s culture. Owner James Dolan got a request for a new practice facility in Manhattan, one easier for players to reach. And somewhere mixed in his rant, there was also a warning: The Knicks, Bridges said, were primed for another title run.
Letting it all spill in front of his 610,000 followers, Bridges said every word with his chest. Brunson, watching from wherever he was roughly 36 hours after being named NBA Finals MVP, had seen enough.
His old college teammate had to be stopped.
“Somebody take Mikal’s phone,” Brunson wrote on X as clips from Bridges’ chaotic stream spread across social media. It was Brunson’s first post in months.
There was also a story about Chris Paul. Bridges said his former Phoenix Suns teammate sent him a Nets football helmet after the Kevin Durant mega deal sent him to Brooklyn, telling him, “People play football in the East” and turning Bridges’ first New York stop into a troll job.
Nobody’s laughing harder than Bridges now.
Paul had the prank. Bridges has the ring.
Who won the championship after-party is still up for debate.
“I’m still here,” Bridges said after Game 5 of the Finals.
Seconds after the final buzzer sounded Saturday night in San Antonio, Bridges lingered on the floor, swallowed by the celebration, his face giving way before words could reach the moment.
Five years ago, he stood two wins from a title with Phoenix before the Milwaukee Bucks won four straight. Afterward came the Nets, where he was asked to front a reset after the Big 3 era collapsed. Then came the Knicks, who paid a massive price to bring him across the river and asked him to fit beside Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart.
Now Bridges is a champion. The NBA’s ironman still hasn’t missed a game. And the price the Knicks paid no longer feels like his burden to carry. So, if Bridges wants to get a little unfiltered, a little sentimental and perhaps a little cheesy on Instagram Live two days after winning his first title, he’s earned that right.
“All-time great IG Live,” Towns co-signed Monday afternoon on X.
Which, objectively, it was.
The ring didn’t explain the behavior. It validated it. In Brooklyn, that kind of ending always felt theoretical.
The Nets weren’t foolish for moving him. They got an unprecedented haul in return, and for a team still searching for its next franchise anchor, the package was worth taking. The Knicks paid anyway because Bridges made more sense with a contender than atop a rebuild. His job in Brooklyn became too large for his game. Not because Bridges lacked talent or work ethic, but because his best basketball has always come next to stars, not in place of them.
Bridges was respected in Brooklyn. What he found with the Knicks was something more complete: the right role, the right stakes and the power of friendship, a Captain Planet kind of synergy that sounded ridiculous until it started winning at the highest level. Phoenix was the last place where, to borrow Brunson’s phrase, the vibes had felt this immaculate.
The Villanova connection obviously helped. So did a locker room that never seemed to ask Bridges to be more than himself. Hart rounded out the trio with Brunson and Bridges, and it would have been a quartet if Donte DiVincenzo hadn’t been included in the Towns trade. But Towns became beloved there, too. Bridges fit into that room without needing to own it. You could see it in the way the Knicks moved, covered for each other and celebrated each other.
Bridges had some rough nights this season. He went through a post-All-Star slump that brought the old questions back, bottomed out with a scoreless night against the Los Angeles Lakers, then opened the Atlanta series giving skeptics exactly the kind of silence they were waiting for.
Whenever his shot went cold from deep, fans and so-called experts suddenly became shooting coaches, picking apart a form that had already carried him to a 41-point Christmas at the Garden and a 35-point night in Boston this season.
But if the rough nights fed the doubt, the better ones explained the belief. There was the Atlanta clincher, when he finally punched back with 24 points on 10-for-12 shooting. There were the efficient nights against Philadelphia, the steady start to the Eastern Conference finals, the 20-point Finals response in San Antonio.
The Knicks never abandoned him when the shot came and went, in part because Bridges’ value never lived only in the jumper. His defense, the thing that made him matter long before the trade price followed him to New York, still traveled. More often than not, he showed up. In the end, they brought out the best of him.
Even the friendship came with a running count. Bridges and Brunson had already won two national championships together, one more than Hart. Now Bridges and Brunson had won three championships together, one more than Hart again, unless you want to start counting the NBA Cup and ruin the bit.
So, when Bridges was asked after Game 5 what it meant to win it all with Brunson, his old Wildcats running mate, he went straight to the bond.
“J.B., I don’t know. I’ve known him for so long. I know how much he works, how good of a person he is, how good of a basketball player he is. I’m just grateful to be on his side again,” Bridges said. “That’s really how I put it. I know how much he works and how much he wants to win. Just grateful to be in this position, to be with him and try to go out there and win.”
That sums up Bridges’ place in all of this. Dominating the room was never the assignment. Knowing where to stand in it was. He embraced that role about as well as anyone could, averaging 13.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists across 19 appearances during the Knicks’ postseason run while shooting 55.9% from the field, 36.5% from 3-point range and 92% at the free-throw line.
Bridges followed, filled the gaps and lived with the scrutiny. Knicks fans spent parts of the season measuring every miss against the cost of the trade. Bridges heard it all and never ran from it.
“They keep pushing me and if they strongly believe that we have a chance every year and if they strongly believe I have a chance to be better, I’m already thinking about that,” Bridges said. “I appreciate the tough love. I know some fans might be a little bit crazier than others, but the ones that truly care, and want me to be better, don’t stop now. Just keep pushing me.
“I know sometimes I’ll struggle, this and that, but just know I’m going to keep working. If they keep egging me on and talking a little s–t I’m pretty tough, I’ll be all right.”
The last question Bridges fielded on Saturday brought him back to the picks. Even in the early hours of his now-legendary championship bender, he tried to answer with grace. Hukporti, sitting next to him, seemed to think Bridges was being far too modest.
With a bottle of Armand de Brignac Champagne in his hands, Hukporti turned the conversation away from what the Knicks gave up and toward the player they got. He said the part Rose and Dolan had already spent five first-rounders to prove.
“Man, we got him out of Brooklyn!” Hukporti said. “Look at him now… F-k them picks!”
Continue reading...
Bridges had slept little, if at all. Championship weekend was still going strong, clearly, and the live feed became a venting session for everything attached to his first ring, from the jokes and laughs to the rambling bits, the relief and the pressure finally leaving his shoulders.
The Atlanta Hawks got a shoutout for helping light the fuse under his playoff surge. Sonny, Bridges’ 10-year-old Labrador retriever, got a floor-level serenade, then trotted away. Ariel Hukporti’s birth certificate caught a stray. Bridges proclaimed Jalen Brunson the GOAT, big head and all, and pushed for a statue outside Madison Square Garden, something no Knick has ever had.
Knicks president Leon Rose got his flowers for changing the franchise’s culture. Owner James Dolan got a request for a new practice facility in Manhattan, one easier for players to reach. And somewhere mixed in his rant, there was also a warning: The Knicks, Bridges said, were primed for another title run.
Letting it all spill in front of his 610,000 followers, Bridges said every word with his chest. Brunson, watching from wherever he was roughly 36 hours after being named NBA Finals MVP, had seen enough.
His old college teammate had to be stopped.
“Somebody take Mikal’s phone,” Brunson wrote on X as clips from Bridges’ chaotic stream spread across social media. It was Brunson’s first post in months.
There was also a story about Chris Paul. Bridges said his former Phoenix Suns teammate sent him a Nets football helmet after the Kevin Durant mega deal sent him to Brooklyn, telling him, “People play football in the East” and turning Bridges’ first New York stop into a troll job.
Nobody’s laughing harder than Bridges now.
Paul had the prank. Bridges has the ring.
Who won the championship after-party is still up for debate.
“I’m still here,” Bridges said after Game 5 of the Finals.
Seconds after the final buzzer sounded Saturday night in San Antonio, Bridges lingered on the floor, swallowed by the celebration, his face giving way before words could reach the moment.
Five years ago, he stood two wins from a title with Phoenix before the Milwaukee Bucks won four straight. Afterward came the Nets, where he was asked to front a reset after the Big 3 era collapsed. Then came the Knicks, who paid a massive price to bring him across the river and asked him to fit beside Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart.
Now Bridges is a champion. The NBA’s ironman still hasn’t missed a game. And the price the Knicks paid no longer feels like his burden to carry. So, if Bridges wants to get a little unfiltered, a little sentimental and perhaps a little cheesy on Instagram Live two days after winning his first title, he’s earned that right.
“All-time great IG Live,” Towns co-signed Monday afternoon on X.
Which, objectively, it was.
The ring didn’t explain the behavior. It validated it. In Brooklyn, that kind of ending always felt theoretical.
The Nets weren’t foolish for moving him. They got an unprecedented haul in return, and for a team still searching for its next franchise anchor, the package was worth taking. The Knicks paid anyway because Bridges made more sense with a contender than atop a rebuild. His job in Brooklyn became too large for his game. Not because Bridges lacked talent or work ethic, but because his best basketball has always come next to stars, not in place of them.
Bridges was respected in Brooklyn. What he found with the Knicks was something more complete: the right role, the right stakes and the power of friendship, a Captain Planet kind of synergy that sounded ridiculous until it started winning at the highest level. Phoenix was the last place where, to borrow Brunson’s phrase, the vibes had felt this immaculate.
The Villanova connection obviously helped. So did a locker room that never seemed to ask Bridges to be more than himself. Hart rounded out the trio with Brunson and Bridges, and it would have been a quartet if Donte DiVincenzo hadn’t been included in the Towns trade. But Towns became beloved there, too. Bridges fit into that room without needing to own it. You could see it in the way the Knicks moved, covered for each other and celebrated each other.
Bridges had some rough nights this season. He went through a post-All-Star slump that brought the old questions back, bottomed out with a scoreless night against the Los Angeles Lakers, then opened the Atlanta series giving skeptics exactly the kind of silence they were waiting for.
Whenever his shot went cold from deep, fans and so-called experts suddenly became shooting coaches, picking apart a form that had already carried him to a 41-point Christmas at the Garden and a 35-point night in Boston this season.
But if the rough nights fed the doubt, the better ones explained the belief. There was the Atlanta clincher, when he finally punched back with 24 points on 10-for-12 shooting. There were the efficient nights against Philadelphia, the steady start to the Eastern Conference finals, the 20-point Finals response in San Antonio.
The Knicks never abandoned him when the shot came and went, in part because Bridges’ value never lived only in the jumper. His defense, the thing that made him matter long before the trade price followed him to New York, still traveled. More often than not, he showed up. In the end, they brought out the best of him.
Even the friendship came with a running count. Bridges and Brunson had already won two national championships together, one more than Hart. Now Bridges and Brunson had won three championships together, one more than Hart again, unless you want to start counting the NBA Cup and ruin the bit.
So, when Bridges was asked after Game 5 what it meant to win it all with Brunson, his old Wildcats running mate, he went straight to the bond.
“J.B., I don’t know. I’ve known him for so long. I know how much he works, how good of a person he is, how good of a basketball player he is. I’m just grateful to be on his side again,” Bridges said. “That’s really how I put it. I know how much he works and how much he wants to win. Just grateful to be in this position, to be with him and try to go out there and win.”
That sums up Bridges’ place in all of this. Dominating the room was never the assignment. Knowing where to stand in it was. He embraced that role about as well as anyone could, averaging 13.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists across 19 appearances during the Knicks’ postseason run while shooting 55.9% from the field, 36.5% from 3-point range and 92% at the free-throw line.
Bridges followed, filled the gaps and lived with the scrutiny. Knicks fans spent parts of the season measuring every miss against the cost of the trade. Bridges heard it all and never ran from it.
“They keep pushing me and if they strongly believe that we have a chance every year and if they strongly believe I have a chance to be better, I’m already thinking about that,” Bridges said. “I appreciate the tough love. I know some fans might be a little bit crazier than others, but the ones that truly care, and want me to be better, don’t stop now. Just keep pushing me.
“I know sometimes I’ll struggle, this and that, but just know I’m going to keep working. If they keep egging me on and talking a little s–t I’m pretty tough, I’ll be all right.”
The last question Bridges fielded on Saturday brought him back to the picks. Even in the early hours of his now-legendary championship bender, he tried to answer with grace. Hukporti, sitting next to him, seemed to think Bridges was being far too modest.
With a bottle of Armand de Brignac Champagne in his hands, Hukporti turned the conversation away from what the Knicks gave up and toward the player they got. He said the part Rose and Dolan had already spent five first-rounders to prove.
“Man, we got him out of Brooklyn!” Hukporti said. “Look at him now… F-k them picks!”
Continue reading...
