Getty Mikal Bridges #1 of the Brooklyn Nets.
Before Mikal Bridges was traded to the Brooklyn Nets for Kevin Durant in February, he had a pretty public dispute with his ex-Phoenix Suns teammate, DeAndre Ayton. Ayton and Bridges were jawing at each other so intensely that they had to be physically separated by Suns head coach Monty Williams.
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Following his trade to the Nets, Bridges joined the “Point Forward Podcast” to discuss his viral altercation.
“That s*** hurt me too ’cause [Deandre Ayton] is one of my best friends. I was so locked in and I was so pissed off because we were losing. I was trying to tell him to do this and that, and not thinking about his situation being the No. 1 pick and getting a lot of hate for no reason,” Bridges said.
“The world looking at that, seeing me yelling at him always looking at that and saying ‘He’s the problem.’ I wasn’t thinking that at the moment but after the game I felt that. After coach talked, I apologized in front of everyone. I was (expletive) tearing up because of that. That’s my best friend, and at that moment I was embarrassing him.”
Cam Johnson Sounds off Following Nets Elimination
After losing Game 4 to the Philadelphia 76ers on April 22, the offseason has officially begun for the Nets as they continue to pick up the pieces left behind from the Durant, Kyrie Irving era. Step one of that will be bringing back some of their main players from this past season.
That will start with forward Cameron Johnson, who Brooklyn acquired from Phoenix in the Bridges deal. Johnson will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, which allows him to sign a deal of his choosing with another team. At that point, Brooklyn will have to decide whether they want to match his offer sheet or let Johnson walk in free agency.
However, that entire process could be bypassed if the Nets initially offer Johnson a deal that he deems feasible. Following Brooklyn’s elimination, Johnson raved about his short time with the Nets, saying that he would take his experience in Brooklyn over the last three months into “serious consideration” when evaluating his decision.
“Like I said, the people in this organization, I believe are very, very high-quality people. Everything from the front office to the coaching staff to performance staff to equipment staff, to chefs. I think our chefs are freaking incredible,” Johnson said of his time with the Nets.
“And that is not lost upon me. I take that into very serious consideration and, you know, I don’t assume that that’s the case everywhere. I think there’s a special group of people here and that’s, probably, the main thing that I take away from this end-of-season push.”
Cam Johnson Gets Candid on Nets Future
Johnson has proven to be one of the better wing players in the NBA today. In the 25 games he played with the Nets this season, he averaged 16.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game. In the playoffs, he elevated his play even more averaging 18.5 points and shooting a scorching 42.9 percent from the three-point line.
Needless to say, Johnson’s services won’t come cheap. He turned down a 4-year, $72 million extension offer from the Phoenix Suns before he was traded in February. Although Johnson has a big decision looming this summer, the star wing says he is still evaluating his options.
“I have to do some evaluation on that front, you know? I’ve been pretty locked into the season and not necessarily looking too far ahead because it is a big unknown,” Johnson added.
“But I’ve talked to the people here a little bit, in terms of how the season went and what the future could look like.”
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Nets’ Mikal Bridges Sounds off on Suns Star Amid Playoffs: ‘That S*** Hurt Me’