Watch: Ecstatic Stephen A. Smith whoops and cheers for Knicks after Mikal Bridges trade
The New York Knicks moved to acquire Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday and one of the individuals who was quite happy with the deal was sports media personality and long-time Knicks fan Stephen A. Smith.
Bridges was traded to the Knicks for a package that included Bojan Bogdanovic, four unprotected first-round picks and one protected pick. The deal would see him reunited with Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo.
The development left Smith, host of ESPN's First Take, extremely happy, believing it was a step further in the right direction for the Knicks. He took to X and posted a video expressing his excitement over the Mikal Bridges deal.
Smith said on the post:
"I like this move by the New York Knicks. He's young, he'e energetic, he's seasoned, he defends and he fits right into the culture of the New York Knicks. And that's all I ask, that's all I ask. You crawl before you walk.
"We crawled last year and now we gonna walk and we're close to sprinting. I still feel we need another piece but we have moved in the right direction! I like this! I like this! Go New York, go, New York, go!"
Watch the video post below:
Mikal Bridges, 27, played in all 82 games for the Nets (32-50) last season, averaging 19.6 points and 4.5 rebounds. 3.6 assists and a steal in 35 minutes. He spent a season and a half with Brooklyn after being traded there from the Phoenix Suns midway through the 2022–23 season.
With the Knicks, he joins forces with Brunson, Hart and DiVincenzo, with whom he won NCAA titles while playing for Villanova in the mid-2010s.
New York had a solid campaign in the recently concluded NBA season, finishing with a 50-32 record and coming a win away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals.
Villanova teammates are excited over Mikal Bridges' arrival in New York
The New York Knicks added another core member of the Villanova championship team by getting Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday. As soon as the move got official, his former college teammates welcomed him with a lot of excitement.
Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart both took to X to celebrate 27-year-old Bridges joining them after playing a season and a half with crosstown rivals the Nets.
All-Star guard Brunson just could not believe he got to reunite with his fellow Wildcat standout, saying:
"Omg"
Do-it-all Hart, meanwhile, could not wait to get in touch with Bridges as Knicks teammates, writing:
"YOOOOO @mikal_bridges FINALLY HIT MY LINE!!!!!"
Mikal Bridges won NCAA titles with Brunson and another Knick player, Dante DiVincenzo, in 2016 and 2018, while Hart was part of the Villanova team in 2016.
In his final collegiate year in 2018, Bridges was a member of the First-team All-Big East and was voted the Big East Tournament MVP after averaging career-highs of 17.7 points and 5.3 rebounds.
He was selected 10th overall in the 2018 NBA rookie draft by the Phoenix Suns and has career averages of 14.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.2 steals.