Jalen Brunson thought the Brooklyn Nets would never trade Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks. Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart reflected on the New York Knicks finally acquiring their college teammate Mikal Bridges from the rival Brooklyn Nets.
Brunson kept it real and said that he never expected the Nets to agree to a trade that saw Mikal end up with the Knicks.
Jalen Brunson: “I never thought it would happen because when was the last time the Nets had done a trade with the Knicks?”
Josh Hart: “1983.”
Jalen Brunson: “When we used to see each other after games, everyone would be like, ‘Oh these guys are recruiting.’ I was like, well, it’s never gonna happen.”
Josh Hart: “You don’t really think it’s gonna happen but you’re like, let me mess with Mikal because that’s my guy. Then Nets fans just be saying random stuff all the time, so it was poking fun at the Nets a little.”
Fans who follow the players on social media know that Hart and Brunson, along with Donte DiVincenzo, share a close bond with Bridges due to them winning an NCAA title together on the Villanova Wildcats. While fans did feel tampering was heavily at play with how Hart in particular would openly mock the Nets, the Knicks paid a hefty price to get the deal done.
Bridges averaged 19.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists last season and will hope to have an instant winning impact on his new franchise.
The Knicks And Nets Have Made 6 Trades In NBA History
Brunson was not wrong to have the opinions that he did, as the Knicks and the Nets have a barren trade history.
Their first trade with each other came in 1978 and included arguably the greatest coach of all time as the Knicks traded Phil Jackson and a 1978 1st round draft pick (Winford Boynes) to the Nets for a 1978 1st round draft pick (Micheal Ray Richardson) and a 1979 1st round draft pick (Vinnie Johnson)
The next trade between the teams came in 1981 when future Knicks head coach Mike Woodson was traded as a player to the Nets for Mike Newlin. The deal momentum continued the next two years, with the Knicks trading a 1983 3rd-round draft pick (Bruce Kuczenski) to the Nets for Ed Sherod in 1982 and making another trade in 1983 by sending a 1984 2nd-round draft pick (Tom Sluby) to the Nets for Len Elmore.
This led to a 31-year freeze in trade negotiations between the rival franchises, as the Nets started to become prominent while the Knicks struggled throughout the last 20 seasons. The Nets have more NBA Finals appearances in this century than the Knicks, but that dynamic could change now with the Nets back into the lottery.
The Knicks are considered to be among the top contenders in the Eastern Conference after they traded six first-round picks and Bojan Bogdanovic to acquire Bridges, one of the premier 3-and-D wings in the NBA. The pick cost was definitely a little aggressive, but that’s probably what it took to end the 30 years of silence in trades between the franchises.
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