Mikal Bridges finishes second in Teammate of the Year vote ... by NBA players
Photo by David L. Nemec/NBAE via Getty Images
The captain gets the closest any Nets player has gotten to a post-season award. It’s been said many times, that everyone wants to play with Mikal Bridges, that he fits in everywhere. It’s a big reason why a rebuilding team, like the Brooklyn Nets, would want him around, to recruit free agents like you know...
.@spidadmitchell and Mikal Bridges with @sabrina_i20 after her @nyliberty game pic.twitter.com/KWg83OTHoP— GQ Sports (@GQSports) June 25, 2023
So, it wasn’t much of a surprise Wednesday when Bridges finished second in balloting for the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award to Mike Conley, the veteran Timberwolves point guard. Indeed, it was the second time in two years that Conley bested Bridges at the top of the vote count. More than 300 players cast votes. Conley finished with 1,172 votes and 51 first place votes, Bridges 1,041 and 47, both far ahead of third place vote-getter, Jalen Brunson of the Knicks, and Bridges teammate at Villanova, with 783 and 29. Of the three, only Bridges didn’t make the post-season.
Unlike other year end awards, the teammate of the year is ultimately determined by a vote of NBA players. A panel of league executives select 12 finalists (six from each conference) for the award. Then current NBA players select the winner from that list of finalists. Presented annually since the 2012-13 season, the award recognizes the player deemed the best teammate “based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team.”
The Nets are counting on Bridges to help them recruit players to Brooklyn and he’s shown up at New York Liberty games with the like of Donovan Mitchell. Bridges, whose consecutive game streak surpassed 500 games this season, regular season and playoffs combined, had a tough second half of the season, his scoring average dropping to a little more than 16 points a game. Still, the Nets have continued resisting offers for him. According to one unconfirmed report, the Houston Rockets offered the remaining assets from the 2022 James Harden trade as well as Jalen Green for Bridges.
Cam Johnson, Bridges teammate with both the Suns and Nets, said at season’s end that he’s not worried by his “twin’s” drop off.
“Because of how he played at the end of the last season, everybody went, ‘look at him,’ and had their questions and suspicions, but at the end of the day, I’m proud of him,” Johnson said.
“I’m proud of him, and I’ve seen strides in his game, I’ve seen strides in the way he sees and reads the game and his ability to play with the ball in his hand and his shot-making and his overall level for the game is increasing, ever-increasing. So, there’s no worry, there’s no doubt, there’s no — people are so quick to be like, ‘Oh, maybe he’s not who we thought he was.’ And whatever that may be, he’s only getting better. I got full faith, and everybody went through the same thing the second half of the year.”
Nets’ Mikal Bridges named runner up for NBA’s top teammate award ($) - C.J. Holmes - New York Daily News
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