In 2023, Brooklyn Nets wing Mikal Bridges joined "The Roommates Show" with former Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart. The wing opened up about his experience playing in the NBA Finals, a series that his Phoenix Suns lost after starting out with a 2-0 lead.
"I remember going up 2-0, thought we was good....We over here like, man, it's light. It's the East...They ran up four straight, I just couldn't believe it," Bridges told his former, and future, teammates.
Five years later, Bridges is the only starter on the New York Knicks with NBA Finals experience. And he hasn't let go of the burns Giannis Antetokounmpo left him with. Tied 1-1 with the Atlanta Hawks, the wing described the Knicks as being "down" in the series. And immediately after winning Game 1 over the San Antonio Spurs, he told media that "it's 0-0."
It's clear Bridges learned a lesson from his first time on the league's biggest stage, and doesn't want his Knicks making the same mistake. The mindset has spread throughout the locker room, with Karl-Anthony Towns referring often to their "0-0 mentality," and it's making more sense by the day why the Knicks sacrificed so much to acquire this particular Villanova product.
Bridges spreading "0-0 mentality" to Knicks shows part of his value
For the second time in his career, Bridges has been integral to a team's run all the way to the NBA Finals. Counting college, it's the fourth. The wing has been objectively excellent on both ends of the court, boasting a 58.3% postseason field goal percentage after Game 1 against the Spurs — and a hit-list flush with some of the league's best scoring guards.
Bridges' defense on Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, Donovan Mitchell, and James Harden has impressed. It's astounding that he plays in every single game, and crazier that he's been this efficient on offense. Even then, his most important contribution to the Knicks' dominance thus far might just be the ways in which he's influenced their mentality.
Head coach Mike Brown told reporters all season that facing adversity would force his team to develop the traits that would inevitably define them. While the coach was mostly referring to the adversity the team faced this season, it doesn't quite matter where the lesson came from — so long as it's been learned.
The Knicks don't have to care that one of Bridges' more valuable career lessons came in a different uniform, from that loss to Antetokounmpo's Bucks in 2021. They can just be grateful that one of their core players learned, the hard way, that the NBA doesn't afford contenders the opportunity to take their feet off of the gas.
They can ironically thank Antetokounmpo, a superstar they've been tangled in rumors with since last summer. Now, they have a superstar of their own in Jalen Brunson. And they have the perfect supporting cast around him.
That's thanks to players like Bridges, who help prove their championship-level approach off of the court is key to New York's ability to play at a championship level on it.
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