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One month ago, I was certain the New York Knicks had made an irrevocable mistake with the Mikal Bridges trade. It would be remembered as the deal that changed the landscape of NBA trades forever, and the tragic end to the Villanova Telenovela.
Buried in the sands of time, there exists an unpublished trade retrospective that I submitted the morning of April 25, also known as the day the Knicks began the most dominant stretch in NBA Playoff history. I do not believe in jinxes or karma or anything of the sort, but if I did… let’s just say this was suspicious timing. To quote from the lost files:
“The problem is that Bridges is basically the sixth or seventh most important player on the team, behind Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and perhaps even Mitchell Robinson. He also makes $150 million to be a decent three-and-D wing, and cost all their draft capital — money and picks that could have been spent on a different player cough cough Giannis Antetokounmpo cough cough. Sure, the Knicks don’t actually need him to take 15 shots per game, but they’re paying him (and paid for him) to. Meanwhile, he’s pretty much putting up peak Bryce Sensabaugh numbers in 32 minutes instead of 23.”
None of that was wrong at the time. But Bridges, sensing a disturbance in the force, activated destroy mode and flipped every switch he had to propel New York Knicks to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999. His play has been the difference between the faltering Knicks team that struggled with the Atlanta Hawks and the one that has not lost in a month. Sure, it would have been more embarrassing if we had actually gone through with publishing the piece, but I’m exposing its existence here and now so, erm, yeah.
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It’s worth noting that I wasn’t the only one who thought the Bridges trade was a disaster. He was benched in April, and his own teammates and coaching staff were having to defend his play publicly as recently as March. Stephen A. Smith was beefing with Josh Hart over it. Now? I am retrofitting a column that suddenly “became wrong” even though I mostly stand by the original…
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Publish date : 2026-06-01 15:16:00
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