The Toronto Raptors defeated the Charlotte Hornets 114-99 at the Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto on Monday night. But the Raptors got a huge assist in the victory when the Canada Border Services Agency denied Hornets’ forward Miles Bridges entry due to his past legal troubles.
Hornets Are Injured
To be fair, the Hornets were also missing LaMelo Ball, Gordon Hayward, Mark Williams, and Cody Martin. All out with injuries. So it was likely the cumulative effect of missing all of those players that contributed to the loss.
Bridges is averaging 19 points and seven rebounds per game on 47/34/85 shooting splits. But he’s not impacting winning at the rate he was in 2021-2022. He missed the entire 2002-2023 season while he was dealing with the courts as a result of the incident. Effectively a suspension.
Bridges was involved in a domestic violence incident in June 2022 against his former girlfriend and the mother of his two children, Michelle Johnson. He initially pleaded not guilty to one felony count of causing harm to a parent of a child and two felony counts of child abuse. He subsequently changed his plea to no contest, and was sentenced to three years of probation and no jail time.
Bridges Involved In Horrible Act
In October a criminal summons was issued for Bridges for an alleged violation of the protective order stemming from his sentencing last November. He was also charged with child abuse and injury to personal property, as he allegedly threatened Johnson and damaged her car while their children were in the car. Bridges allegedly threw pool balls at the car, smashing the windshield and denting the windows. His current girlfriend allegedly kicked the car.
Bridges is on a one-year deal with the Hornets worth $7.9 million. He was in line for a nice contract extension in 2022. Likely somewhere in the four-year $100 million to $120 million range. The domestic violence incident quashed all that.
This year is critical for Bridges. Not only does he need to keep himself out of trouble, he also needs to put up numbers and contribute to winning like he did two seasons ago. The injuries to other starters will make that even harder.
