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The Knicks certainly have made their share of mistakes in the draft, and Miles Bridges made sure to remind them of it Wednesday night at the Garden.
After Bridges netted a game-high 31 points in the Hornets’ 125-114 victory, he noted that he’s always motivated to play in New York after the Knicks selected since-traded Kevin Knox over him with the ninth overall pick in the 2018 draft.
Bridges, the 12th pick that year out of Michigan State, is averaging 20.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game for Charlotte, which currently holds the No. 9 seed for the play-in tournament in the Eastern Conference.
“There’s a lot of history between me and the Knicks organization, going back to draft day,” Bridges said after Wednesday’s game. “So every time I come in, I want to make a point of why they should have drafted me back then. I just try to be aggressive every time I come here.”
Bridges, who scored 14 straight points for Charlotte over a stretch of the fourth quarter, also said that he enjoyed jawing with fans who were courtside at the Garden.
“Somebody on the corner was talking crazy for a minute,” Bridges said. “Me and R.J. [Barrett] had a friendly exchange and they took it the wrong way. That was right before I went on my streak, 14-0.
“Yeah, he kind of got me going, got me energized and that’s what I love about New York, you know? There’s a lot of hecklers. They are going to try to get under your skin and for me that just makes me play better.”
Knox was traded by the Knicks to Atlanta in January – along with Charlotte’s first-round pick in 2022 – for Cam Reddish, who is out for the season with a shoulder injury. He is averaging just 3.1 points in 27 games with the Knicks and Hawks this season, although he did score 17 points in 18 minutes Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.
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