Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Mikal Bridges was born on August 30, 1996, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a small forward in the NBA.

Bridges attended Great Valley High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where he was coached by Jim Nolan. He began to get serious about basketball in his sophomore year, when he had a growth spurt to reach 6-6. As a junior, he averaged 20 points and eight rebounds per game. During his senior season, he was named First Team All Class AAAA.  Bridges was named to the Philadelphia Inquirer's All-Southeastern Pa., boys basketball first team as a senior. In his career, he had 1,340 points and 511 rebounds. Coming out of high school he committed to Villanova.

Bridges redshirted his freshman season and assisted in scouting players. In his first year with Villanova he appeared in all 40 games for the Wildcats. He said he had to do a lot of lifting weights and changing his three point shot. He had a key role coming off the bench in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, scoring 11 points in a Final Four rout of the Oklahoma Sooners. Bridges won the NCAA championship along with his teammates for the school for the first time since 1985. 

On June 21, 2018, Bridges was selected with the tenth overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2018 NBA draft. Besides being a Philadelphia-area player (and the first of four Villanova players drafted this year), Bridges' mother, Tyneeha Rivers, is the Vice President of Human Resources for Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, which hires for the 76ers. Soon afterward, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns.