CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Hornets will bring back beleaguered young forward Miles Bridges after he missed all of the 2022-23 NBA season dealing with domestic violence charges, and for the first time since the allegations came up last summer, Hornets fans heard from Bridges alongside Charlotte general manager Mitch Kupchak.
Locked On Hornets hosts Walker Mehl and Doug Branson were joined by Nick Carboni of WCNC to react to the press conference on a recent episode of the podcast.
“I think he’s certainly embarrassed about what happened to his name, what happened to his family, but in none of this have Miles Bridges or the Hornets condemned what we are very sure happened, condemned domestic violence in a very real way, so it’s still a little uncomfortable, to be honest, to have the Hornets bring this player back," Carboni noted.
At the same time, by appearing in a press conference setting and addressing his situation head on, Bridges at least owned the circumstances that he put himself and the team in.
“He didn’t get defensive about anything for the most part, he didn’t balk at any reporter’s question," Carboni said. "I think he probably helped himself a little bit.”
Bridges will miss 10 games to start the upcoming season after the NBA handed down a 30-game total suspension but deemed that he had already served 20 games of suspension last year.
The Hornets have said they looked into the situation themselves before extending a qualifying offer to Bridges, but Kupchak did not expand on those determinations at the press conference.
“They were protecting, I think, the franchise from further questions, they were protecting Miles Bridges in a sense from any deeper questions," Branson said. "But the smart thing to do and the right thing to do are not necessarily the same thing.”
Bridges will return to the team on that one-year qualifying offer after he and the team were unable to come to terms on a new contract in restricted free agency. Kupchak acknowledged it may be difficult for fans to stomach the return of a player who pled no contest to such heinous actions, but that fact did not stop the team from bringing back the 2018 top-10 pick.
“You don’t do yourself any favors when you just refuse to go into any detail," Mehl said.