PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Great Valley High School alum, two-time Villanova national champion and Phoenix Suns starter Mikal Bridges is two wins from adding another title to his impressive basketball career.
Bridges scored 27 points on 8-for-15 from the floor and 8-for-8 from the foul line (in the fourth quarter!) in 38 minutes in the Suns' 118-108 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"[Mikal] is just a winner," Suns superstar veteran and future Hall of Famer Chris Paul said. "He's a winner. When we won the Western Conference Finals, I looked at him and had a flashback of him being at Villanova. I remember him winning a championship there."
Bridges won two championships there as a role player off the bench in 2016 and then as one of the main stars in 2018.
Sixers fans will remember, some of them begrudgingly, that Bridges' path from Malvern to the Main Line appeared to be turning toward his his hometown team on South Broad Street. The 76ers, in whose human resources department his mother, Tyneeha Rivers, worked at the time, drafted him with the 10th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
For a moment, it was quite the story, but Bridges was a Sixer for less than an hour. Former head coach Brett Brown, who was also the interim general manager at the time, traded Bridges to Phoenix for Zhaire Smith (no longer with the 76ers) and a 2021 draft pick that general manager Elton Brand eventually flipped for Tobias Harris later that season.
Brown admitted it was a very difficult decision but one he thought was best for the organization.
Smith's time in Philadelphia was troubled by injury and a very serious allergic reaction. Current President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey traded Smith to the Pistons for Tony Bradley prior to the 2020-21 season. Detroit let go of Smith, who was most recently on the Memphis Grizzlies G-League affiliate. Brand signed Harris to a max contract, which some Sixers fans believe he has not performed to the level of. The Sixers fired Brown after they were swept in the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs.
Now Bridges is helping the Suns in their attempt to win their first NBA Championship.
The Sixers haven't won a title since 1983, and they last time they played past the second round was 2001. Before that, you have to go back to 1985.
"People will still try to label him as a 3-and-D guy," Suns superstar Devin Booker said, "and I've told you guys multiple times that's not even close to his game … If teams wanna try to make him be the one to beat 'em, he'll do it."