What a long, strange return trip it’s been for Bridges
PHILADELPHIA >> For about an hour last June, back when his team was still content to build a winner with the highest possible draft choices, Brett Brown was certain he had his next great small forward. For about an hour, during the draft, he had it figured in his mind, how Robert Covington would start, and how his newest acquisition would provide similar energy, scoring and defense, first as a reserve, ultimately as an All-Star-level player.
For about an hour, Brown couldn’t believe it: He had just drafted Mikal Bridges. The perfect fit, at the perfect spot, setting up the perfect story.
“You couldn’t make it up,” Brown was remembering Monday, before a game against the Phoenix Suns. “You just couldn’t make it up, the coincidence of him winning the national championship just up the road, and the fact that he could play and is good people and was like extended family.
“To me, it was a nobrainer.”
Brown was acting as general manager during the draft, and when the Sixers were picking at No. 10 overall, it would be his call. So Bridges it would be, the scoring forward from Villanova by way of Great Valley High. His mother, Tyneeha Rivers, even worked for the Sixers in, yes, the human resources department.
A valuable new resource indeed …
“The perfect backup to Cov,” Brown recalled. “He’s an NBA three-man. He can shoot. He’s good people. He guarded. His mom is a huge part of our organization.” And then?
Then, the Sixers went “star hunting” … and have yet to stop. The Suns, who’d already made Deandre Ayton the top overall pick, were determined to add Bridges, too. So they offered the Sixers Zhaire Smith, who was the No. 16 overall pick, and an unprotected first-round pick for Bridges. And how many times in one night was Brown expected to turn down one of those no-brainers?
So, the trade was made, with Bridges going about as far away as he could from the Wells Fargo Center, where he’d played his senior season at Villanova, and still be in the NBA. In so many ways, he was in the big leagues.
That was Bridges back in the Center Monday, preparing to do what he’d usually done in the place and win a game. And he knew that, upstairs, his mom had arranged for a crowd of his friends and family to be situated in a comfortable suite, where they could root for the Suns in peace.
And that was him, during warmups, taking one look to the rafters, where a row of banners hang, commemorating Villanova’s many basketball successes, and remembering how he’d helped win not one national championship, but two.
“Yeah,” he said, smiling. “I did see that. It was nice to see. It was a lot of work to do that, and we put it in for the team. I was happy to see it.”
Bridges started seven games for the 2016 NCAA champions, averaging 6.4 points. But two years later, he’d start 40, average 17.7 points and be one of four Wildcats to be snagged within the first 33 picks of the draft.
His Villanova career zipped by quickly. His Sixers career set a record for brevity.
“At that time, I was just happy overall because I got drafted,” he said. “Now, I am in a good spot. I am enjoying my time. And I am just loving it here.”
In Phoenix, he has been about what Brown expected him to be with the Sixers. He backs up Trevor Ariza at the three-spot, and was averaging 7.7 points and 1.6 rebounds. When Ariza needed the last two games off for personal reasons, Bridges started in his place. Ariza was back Monday, but in an effort to match up physically with the Sixers, Suns coach Igor Kokoskov kept Bridges in the lineup in the backcourt. He took the place of former Sixer Isaiah Canaan.
“It’s good to be back,” Bridges said. “I played for years at ‘Nova in this gym, and it’s just really cool to be back here and see my family and friends. It’s been good. It’s just new. And I am liking it.”
Bridges, who recently scored 16 points against Sacramento, had earned the opportunity.
“Everybody here has been helping me through this whole process,” he said. “This is my first year in the league. And they are making me better.”
He could prove to be great. As the No. 10 overall pick in a draft, the Suns should expect nothing less. The Sixers, to be sure, expected that.
“I look at him now,” Brown said. “He’s averaging 20 minutes a game. He’s averaging seven points. He’s started. He’s a player. And he’s good people. And what I am seeing him play like now doesn’t surprise me. It doesn’t surprise me.”
When Brown rolled the “star hunting” explanation into his draft-night maneuvering, he was sincere, even if it took a while to land Jimmy Butler. But some teams are in a certain stage. Others, like the Suns, are rebuilding with young players. That’s fine with Mikal Bridges, even if he has had to perform some chores that he might not have had at Villanova.
“Well, sometimes I have to get them towels and stuff,” he said of the Suns’ veterans, explaining the culture of a rookie in an NBA room. “But that’s about it. It’s not bad.”
As for Monday, he was just climbing into a No. 25 Suns uniform and preparing to walk onto a familiar floor.
“I have been waiting for this,” he said, “for my whole life.”
If necessary, one unusual hour at a time.