Coming off a breakout season (career-high 20.2 points per game), Hornets star Miles Bridges will be looking to cash in this summer as a restricted free agent. But first, he’ll have to do some damage control after inexplicably posting an Instagram story that appeared to show the 24-year-old consuming a substance commonly known as lean, a recreational drug combining codeine (usually in the form of cough syrup) with soft drinks like Sprite and Mountain Dew.
Bridges was also seen holding a joint, which would have been a much bigger deal several years ago when the NBA still tested for marijuana. While players are now free to smoke to their heart’s content (assuming they’re in a state where weed is legal), they can still be tested for “drugs of abuse,” namely cocaine, methamphetamine and opiates, including codeine.
Later, Bridges appeared to make light of the situation, tweeting “pink lemonade” with an upside-down smiley emoji, though the post has since been deleted.
Whatever was in his cup (Twitter wasn’t buying his “lemonade” explanation), it’s not a good look for Bridges, who, the last time we saw him on an NBA court, got ejected from Charlotte’s Eastern Conference play-in game against Atlanta, then hit an unsuspecting fan with a mouthguard he hurled into the crowd.
Absent the structure of an NBA season with regularly scheduled games and practices, the offseason can be a dangerous time for players, especially in the age of social media, where a career-threatening PR crisis is only 280 characters away.
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