Mar 12, 2025; Portland, Oregon, USA; New York Knicks small forward Mikal Bridges (25) shoots the game-winning basket over Portland Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan (23) during overtime at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-Imagn Images Soobum Im-Imagn Images

Knicks Star's Past Complaints Revisited After HC Firing

Originally posted on New York Knicks on SI
By Henry Brown | Last updated Jun 5, 2025 3:00 PM ET

The New York Knicks had some reflection to do in mid-March. They had to navigate their way through the final leg of the regular season without Jalen Brunson, and had to find other ways to win that didn't involve their over-reliance on their star.

Mikal Bridges got more on-ball reps during this stretch than he saw at any other point in the regular season, but gave head coach Tom Thibodeau a rare piece of criticism on how he'd organized his rotations and distributed the available minutes heading into an otherwise-low-stakes matchup.

"Sometimes it's not fun on the body," Bridges told press pregame. "We've got a lot of good guys on this team that can take away minutes. Which helps the defense, helps the offense, helps tired bodies being out there and giving up all these points. It helps just keeping fresh bodies out there."

Thibodeau denied such an exchange ever happened, but Bridges still came out on top regardless when he hit the buzzer-beating game-winner in that night's contest.

Mikal Bridges kills the mics on the Blazers broadcast with the game winning three pic.twitter.com/VL6PboOLJz
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 13, 2025

The coaching staff evidently took issue with Bridges' publicly raised concerns, according to some later-released reports, and it would appear that the franchise took Bridges' side in the rift when they fired Thibodeau three days after their quest for the NBA title came to an end in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Bridges would go on to lead the NBA in total minutes with his first-ever entry into the 3,000 minute club, but never seemed like he figured out his role within the Knicks' offense through 100 total games in his first year with the club. He elevated into a go-to guy with the Brooklyn Nets, but went back to doing a lot of standing around in watching Brunson-ball all season.

New York's management has to decide what they want to do with Bridges entering this offseason, with the veteran forward soon to be eligible to ink a long-term extension. If there really was a long-term disagreement between he and Thibodeau, this was the Knicks' indication at who they'd rather stick it out with in continuing their contention.

This article first appeared on New York Knicks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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