Mikal Bridges’ LeBron-esque block with less than one second remaining in the game propelled the New York Knicks to a two-point victory at Madison Square Garden tonight. But the 28-year-old still got trolled after the contest by his teammate and long-time friend, Josh Hart.
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Bridges played like he had a point to prove today against his former team, putting up 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists, shooting 9-of-17 from the floor and 4-of-7 from deep. Hart lauded his former Villanova teammate’s crucial performance against the Brooklyn Nets, especially his clutch block against Dennis Schröder.
“He [Mikal] gave us good energy offensively, defensively. People are trying to put pressure on him to be perfect. The beauty of Kal is that he’s gonna go out there and find ways to impact the game…we’re happy for him,” the Knicks forward said in a locker room interview.
But he had to conclude his applause with a little bit of a roast. “Got traded for five 12-graders, so we good,” Hart added.
Josh Hart talks about Mikal Bridges’ impact on the game:
“We’re happy for him. He got traded for five 12th-graders, so we’re good” pic.twitter.com/mTEhjqEDUS
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 16, 2024
Well, the 29-year-old is not entirely wrong. Bridges got traded to New York for Bojan Bogdanovic, Shake Milton, and five future first-round picks. The timeline of the picks span from 2025 to 2031. So a 12th-grader who just graduated could technically join the Nets through the 2025 NBA Draft after spending the ongoing year in college.
However, Bogdanovic and Milton certainly won’t be pleased with the remark.
But Hart is quite well-known for trolling his friends and teammates. The banter and chemistry between the three ‘Nova Knicks’ on the team, Jalen Brunson, Hart, and Bridges, has translated to on-court success as well. We got to see a nice tandem between two of the three members of the 2016 National Championship squad in tonight’s game.
After Schroder gave Brooklyn a 1-point lead with less than 12 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, Brunson tipped the scales once again with a clutch three-point shot from the left flank. However, Schröder soon marched down the ground to level the score in the dying seconds of the game.
After a brief hesitation at the three-point line, the German star went for a drive to the basket to take the game to Overtime. However, Bridges chased him down before swatting away his lay-up attempt on the glass as the buzzer went off.
The Knicks improve their record to .500 after tonight’s victory. But they will have to get used to each other’s game quickly if they want to replicate last season’s success in the Eastern Conference. But the way Bridges and his Nova teammates are playing, the terrain ahead doesn’t seem to be too harsh.
