Mikal Bridges was ‘mad as hell’ when the Sixers traded him on draft night
Bridges was traded from Philadelphia to Phoenix for Zhaire Smith and a first-rounder in 2018.
Mikal Bridges is from Philadelphia. He won two national championships at Villanova. His mom worked for the Sixers. When he was available at No. 10 for the Sixers to draft in 2018, it felt like the perfect fit — for about a half hour.
After selecting him with the 10th-overall pick, the Sixers, in one of the team’s most infamous draft day decisions, traded Bridges to the Suns on draft night for Zhaire Smith and a 2021 first-round pick (that was later sent to the Clippers in the Tobias Harris trade). Bridges blossomed into one of the NBA’s best defenders and rising stars, and Smith played just 13 games with the Sixers.
On the Roommates Show, a new podcast featuring former Villanova and current Knicks teammates Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson, the Brooklyn Nets forward told his story from that fateful draft night in 2018. He said he walked into the draft thinking he would get picked at 9 by the Knicks or at 10 by the Sixers, and after the Knicks drafted Kevin Knox, he started to get excited.
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“I’ve been looking at the Sixers since we were in college,” Bridges said. “That last year, how we won, how I was playing, I was like, ‘I’ll fit right into this team. They need 3-and-D, I’m cool.’ I put the hat on, I’m getting emotional, I go through the whole Philly media with my hat on. I’m sitting there knowing everybody since they’ve been [covering me] since high school, college, I know everybody in there.”
Bridges said he left his phone behind at his draft table, and as he went over to take draft night photos, one of the Villanova staffers escorting him around started whispering, and Bridges knew something was off.
Right after he got dealt, his first thought was for his mom, who worked for the Sixers.
“My first reaction was like, ‘Damn, I know my mom’s sick,’” Bridges said. “First thing I thought of when I got traded.”
He said he was was stunned to be traded to Phoenix, and said he hadn’t spoken to the coach, general manager, or owner during the draft process. Bridges said he learned later that the Suns made one call to Villanova coach Jay Wright a day before the draft. The only people he knew on the team were Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton, who’d just been drafted there No. 1 overall.
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“Phoenix?” Bridges said on the podcast. “I knew nothing about Phoenix, and I knew they were weak as hell. I come from a championship team, I’m supposed to be a piece built to win. I was hot … Media, pictures, you could see it, I had a fake smile. I couldn’t even really smile, I was mad as hell. Coach Wright actually stopped and talked to me at the end of it and was like ‘Honestly, you did a great job, with that happening, keeping a good face.’
“I was lucky I kept it professional, because I was so [angry]. I didn’t even go out after the draft. I went home and went to bed. What the hell was there to be happy for?”
But Bridges said once he got to Phoenix, he was able to settle and feel better about himself, and it ended up being the best thing that could have happened to him.
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“I went to Phoenix early morning, and it took me like a day when I got to Phoenix at night, when I got drunk at TopGolf and opened up to myself and was like, ‘You went top ten, bro; let that [expletive] go. Obviously you wanted to go to this place or this place and it didn’t work out. But who gives a damn? You’re at this spot that you never thought you’d be … be grateful.’”
Bridges went on to spend the first four-plus years of his career with the Suns before being dealt to the Nets at last year’s trade deadline.