Detroit – Mikal Bridges had just lost a game of the outdoor summer league. He was in high school at that time, a Junior on the rise.
The defeat left him annoying and not anxious to discuss with his mother the pain in his area of his feet.
“She was like,” are you okay? “” Bridges recalled. “And I say,” I’m fine. ”
Approximately a few months later, Bridges woke up and could not walk. A doctor soon discovered that he had a leg playing in a fracture of many injuries that the 28 -year -old has masked, ignored or managed while becoming the Iron Man of the NBA.
“He is a son of just a mentality. I get him or get him to grow. I always wanted to play, be upset, hide my mother’s injuries and always play through them. And then reach the university, where the coach [Jay] Wright is great when playing it, “Bridges said before scoring 17 points in 33 minutes in the defeat of the Knicks 115-106 against the Pistons in Thorsday Night.” Even my high school coach. You surround an ankle, my coach called him a sting and tells you to be tied even more shoes.
“Then, through my phases, I always had my personal being and then my coaches that always children or simply pushed me more.
Bridges played in his 554th consecutive game of the regular season Thorsday, a brand that would seem unfathomable in the current cargo management era. It was also a relevant statistic in Detroit because two or his fellow headlines-Jose Hart and OG Anunoby got up in the first game of a consequent.
That said no Knick, apart from the bridges, will reach 79 games this season. Other Knicks will probably sit on Friday game against Cleveland while preparing for playoffs.
No bridges. It was accumulated by 82 and, except the DNP of the bridges never seen before, it will reach that number again on the last Sunday.
Pop champagne for another 82 games played?
“No, just a child or keep prayer and only thank God every day,” he said.
That strategy is working. Bridges also has a high threshold of pain and possible unique healing powers. At the beginning of this season, Bridges remembered two injuries that almost finished his streak: pain in his hand, while with the networks that seemed to break the votera and a hyperextendid knee when he played with the Suns.
“I was really nervous [for that one]”Bridges said.
Bridges’ streak dates back to Villanova, where he played 116 consecutive games about three years while winning two national titles. A longer stretch could be claimed if it were not for his coach of high school coach, Bridges assumes a meaningless contest before the State Penylvania tournament.
“I think that if we had won that game, we would have a worst of those seen or whatever for the United States,” Bridges recalled. “My coach knew it. And I was a child of sick, but I was going to play and he just said:” It’s a consolation game. Just sit down. ”
“I was like,” that’s fine. “So I stayed at home and we lost.”
That was the last time Bridges stayed at home. At the beginning of this season, he broke the Top 10 of all time for most consecutive games played at Derek Fisher.
The next is John Stockton.
Bridges, who has played more than 100 minutes more than anyone in the league this season, can do it clearly through pain, if necessary, such as when he fractured his entire summer.
Hiding that of his mother was not so easy.
“She knew it,” Bridges said. “She is intelligent, so she says:” I knew something was happening. ”
