Mikal Bridges could not escape it.
The intense scrutiny on him, given the five first-round picks the Knicks traded to the Nets to acquire him. The immense pressure to live up to the price the Knicks paid.
The heavy criticism when fans felt he was underachieving and not worthy of that price.
“I got a phone,” Bridges said after practice Wednesday. “Even if I don’t want to see it or anything, it’s always there. That’s just life. People talk about anything and that’s all right, you just gotta go about your business. People can think however they want to think, I just know that I’m gonna work hard and try to be the best teammate that I can be and best player that I can be and continue to try and help win as much as I can.”
A championship should put to bed any debate over the trade. It should validate the deal, given how important Bridges was throughout the playoffs. It should bring long-awaited — and much-deserved — recognition from fans.
“F–k them picks” became a rallying cry among those fans after the championship regarding the Bridges trade, one he even repeated after they clinched the title, saying, “You talking about f–k them picks? F–k ’em … I’m still here.”
It feels like entering his third season with the Knicks, fan sentiment around him should be at an all-time high. But does he actually now feel fully appreciated by Knicks fans?
“I don’t know,” Bridges said. “I’m not sure about that. Can just say that I’m appreciative of fans. If I see them when I’m walking my dog or something like that, just a lot of nice things to say. That’s foremost, kind of more like a human on human interaction, just very nice and grateful to be in this position. I don’t need to feel like there’s validation and there’s like, ‘OK, now he can…’ No, I hold myself accountable at all times.”
Looking back, Bridges has an important perspective about the scrutiny and the pressure and the criticism. They weren’t pleasant, but he is not bitter.
He believes they brought out the best in him.
“That’s the thing that I do love about this organization and the fans, even though some might be a little more crazy than others, they want the best out of you,” Bridges said. “I never take that for granted. I talk to myself a lot when I go through a lot of things and I got people that help me as well, but that’s one thing that I do take from it, is that they get the best out of me. When I’m struggling and I know I gotta be better, I can’t hide from it sometimes — even though I know internally, the people let me know as well. As much as you get frustrated about it, the only thing it does is drive me and I continue to try and get better. I’m always appreciative of it.”
Bridges may not necessarily say so himself, but having proven his critics wrong and with tangible evidence of a championship to illustrate his worth, there could be a freeing feeling where there is less weight on his shoulders.
He has already helped deliver the prize that was mandated when the Knicks gave up so much for him.
Perhaps it can bring out an even better version of Bridges. Maybe it can help Bridges elevate to an All-Star level for the first time in his career.
“It definitely can be freeing,” coach Mike Brown said Wednesday. “It can definitely help with the validation that every human being looks for in life or in whatever they do. But at the end of the day, everybody has a short-term memory. It’s ‘what can you do for me lately?’ Nobody can ever take that away from any of us because we were all a part of it. But if you want to stay on top, it’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna be even harder. …There’s gonna be more scrutiny. And that scrutiny might even be at a higher level.”
Nobody knows scrutiny better than Bridges.
“I think,” Bridges said, “we all still have something to prove.”
