Hornets president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak admits that retaining Miles Bridges might alienate some of the team’s fan base, Roderick Boone of the Charlotte Observer writes.
Bridges missed all of last season after being charged with felony domestic violence. He agreed to a plea deal and was subsequently suspended by the NBA, who will require him to sit out the first 10 games of ’23/24.
“It obviously is a polarizing topic and not everyone may agree,” Kupchak said during a Tuesday press conference. “It’s a tough situation to be in. But we started out with the legal process in Los Angeles, worked through the legal process, worked through the NBA’s investigation, our relationship with Miles, our conversations with Miles. Remorse, accountability. And it’s the best we can do. But yes, I do understand not everyone may agree.”
Bridges is returning to the Hornets after signing a qualifying offer. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Bridges realizes that some fans don’t want him back in the league.
“People think I don’t deserve a second chance and I understand that,” Bridges said. “So that’s what I’m going to try to use this year to prove to everybody just the person I am. Who is Miles Bridges and it’s not what people think he is, you know?”
Bridges noted he’ll have to repair the damage he caused.
“First of all, I just want to apologize to everybody for the pain and embarrassment that I caused everyone, but especially my family,” he said. “This year away, I’ve used it to prioritize just going to therapy and becoming the best person I can be — someone that my family and everybody here can be proud of.”
He believes he can make an impact with the current roster, which includes No. 2 overall pick Brandon Miller. “I feel like I can still fit in,” Bridges said.
As for the forward’s future, Kupchak pointed out that Charlotte will have the inside track on signing him next offseason.
“Upon the conclusion of the season, he will become an unrestricted free agent and he will have Bird rights,” Kupchak said. “So, in the NBA with Bird rights, that gives you an advantage when signing free agents. Beyond that, we will just have to wait and see how the season plays out. From a basketball point of view, putting aside the serious nature of what took place, we are excited to get him back. He had his best year ever two years ago, so we are excited to get him back. And whatever it is to deal with a year from now, we will deal with a year from now.”
Should of let him walk
Nope. Great signing this fine young man is a good basketball player
That “fine young man” beat the crap out of a woman. You have poor standards for what constitutes a fine person.
Trade Hayward and Rozier with picks for a young SG and PF along with a expiring contract. Should let Washington and Bridges walk. They should be able to fix this team Easy . Easy fix
Someone else will always pick him up
Dude should not be playing, he should be in jail!
Like the big majority of folks in the world, sadly no room for all of them!
When is enough punishment enough?
He sat out an entire year. He’s suspended another 10 games. And he also has to legally pay for the consequences of his actions.
It’s tough abusers of any kind are loathsome, but if the man’s family (and victims of the abuse) can find a way to forgive him. And he has shown his sincere desire to make ammends. All this all pitchforks and torch holding from fans is for personal gratification.
Has his family forgiven him? And how much of an apologist for abusers are you that you’re criticizing people for speaking out against abusers by calling them torch holders out for personal gratification? F off.
Jail is enough.
LOL. His punishment was not working for a year and then making MILLIONS of dollars! Oh heavens no! What a TERRIBLE punishment!
Right. All he has to do is shut his mouth and kiss the babys. What a difficult life to be a sports star
You know nothing.
Posts about domestic abuse really bring out the dregs of society. Incel men online love to leap to defend someone who beat the snot out of a woman.
Last time I checked the penalty for domestic violence is not lifetime imprisonment. I don’t like what he did either. That said he has already missed a season without pay plus whatever was stipulations are in the plea deal. The family has chosen to stay together. Any further punishment hurts the family as much as it hurts him.
It is time to move on. If it happens again his career is essentially over. We all deserve at least 1 2nd chance.
It is hard to hear about “second” chances. He beat her multiple times. This wasn’t a one-time deal. It was her finally saying enough.
Bad look for Charlotte …. Who then drafts Brandon Miller …. LaMelo at times can be seen on social media smiling with all gold teeth.
As a man who has been physically assaulted by a woman a couple of times I think you shouldn’t be so quick to judge. You don’t really know what happened in their bedroom.
She has come after Miles as well but it was not a one time event for him.
I don’t think Bridges’ suspension was long enough and no one outside of the people involved know what really happened with Miller but what does Melo’s teeth have to do with anything?
There is a celebration of “Gang” culture going on with members of the team. Melo had his “gold” teeth to show he was down with the “lifestyle”, and all that goes with it.
A beautiful young mother is dead in Alabama. With the #2 pick …. The Charlotte Hornets select …..
Miles Bridges?? He also believes that he is a rapper in addition to being a basketball player. Have you heard the things that come out of his mouth in his “music”???
This is your “core” group of young “stars”??? Three guys that if they work out on the basketball court, you will have somewhere close to a $1 billion worth of guaranteed money to once they get done with extensions the next couple of years.
LaMelo can be an ego trip, but acting like he’s a criminal or part of a gang culture because he has a grill is… stereotyping. I’ll just say that. So is acting like rap music makes someone morally bankrupt.
Bridges actual actions are a different matter.
Miller though, yeah. Alabama could have handled that better. He personally could have as well. The only saving grace there is that he chose to cooperate fully with the investigation and the police cleared him of wrongdoing. But it’s still a terrible look.
When you listen to the lyrics of the stuff they are both making themselves and listening to, there is no wonder why society is where it is today. Also, not a wonder why so many want to give Miles Bridges a pass for “beating a woman”. The music is dominated by graphic disrespect of women, and nonstop talking of shooting and killing people you don’t like. It’s a glorification of the “lifestyle”. It is what causes the youth that look up to the “role model” athletes, and to want to be just like them!
We have a problem in the black community where the family unit has completely broken down. With the male “role model” only being the thugs in the street, rappers and athletes for many young men growing up …. They don’t stand a chance, and neither do the rest of us. Bullets in the street are real even if LaMelo wants to look like a clown, and glorify the culture by identifying with it.
I am from Chicago my guy ….. Come get a taste of what it is like to be a grown man, and to constantly have to have your head on a swivel looking out for 13 and 14 year-olds. That’s right! They don’t have handguns. They all have automatic weapons. Squeeze and fire. Try and be an adult and question their behavior. Watch how fast you feel the bullets in your body. The streets are real!! It ain’t no game!
As someone who has actually been both shot at and actually stabbed before, your logic still falls short. Growing up in East Cleveland is also not a joke. Neither was growing up in an abusive household.
And yet I’m not going to put people down for listening to or creating music to fit a certain genre or style. Or dressing a certain way. This isn’t the 1960’s. The majority of crime is dependent on where and how someone grows up. Not their choice in music or fashion.
The “role model” talk is overblown as f***. The primary “role model” that people take after is their parents and the people they grown up surrounded by. That’s the primary way people are psychologically affected by criminal behavior. I have an actual degree in this, because I wanted to understand how the lives of people like me could so consistently turn in the way they do. The impact of guys like Miller on kids who watch them is minimal by comparison.
The kids were present when Miles Bridges was abusing their mother. You think maybe that is how they will treat their future wives after watching Dad do it??
Chicago is a whole different level of No Joke! I am not bragging about it.
Little known fact is that Chicago may well be the most segregated city in the USA. If you tell me the address of someone, I can tell you what race they are. We have over 1 million black people in Chicago. Save for a few out west, pretty much all on the South Side. Wait …. Southeast …. Starts changing once you get west of Western Avenue.
Honest question, and one that neither of you should feel obligated to answer: Very Barry and EonADS, are you both African American?
Also:
1) I know you’re disagreeing pretty heavily with each other, but this has been an intelligent and respectful back and forth. So thank you both.
2) EonADS, impressed by having that degree.
3) Very Barry, I appreciate the way you carved Beverley and Mount Greenwood (etc) out of your comment, there :)
4) I guess I’m asking about race, b/c living in a racially mixed neighborhood, you get some croggety folks who will say “we” in a very particular way.
Wait until he sees LaMelo’s watch.
wait until he cherry picks other words to put in quotes and sound condescending
Places emphasis
He did his time, I mean why take everything he has away from him?
Did he though?
He didn’t do any time. Not jail, not suspension. Silver outright shortened his suspension before he could even serve it. Not being signed is not the same thing as being suspended.
To be clear, I’m… accepting of the court-mandated punishments. Even though I think they were light for the magnitude of damage he inflicted. But as his SO’s attorney offered him the plea deal he took, I can’t be *too* mad about it. And it *does* seem like the original child abuse charges that were dropped in the deal were not provable in a court of law.
On the other hand, Adam Silver retroactively changing Bridges’ punishment even though he wasn’t signed and faced few of the actual consequences originally assigned to him by the league is disingenuous to me.
The Hornets made a business decision to distance themselves from a violent offender who hadn’t done anything to prove his remorse at the time. That’s their prerogative. As is the prerogative of the rest of the league to not tender him a contract. Changing his punishment for no logical reason is what I take issue with. He should still be facing the 30-day suspension he was originally going to be hit with.
(Also, doing exactly what the court mandated and no more doesn’t really qualify as “remorse” to me, but that’s a different and more personal matter)
Isn’t it interesting how an entire league, the NFL, can find a way that Colin Kaepernick couldn’t get hired for quietly kneeling during the National Anthem.
However, a wife beater, gets welcomed back after a shortened suspension. If Charlotte had not extended the Qualifying Offer, Bridges would have had a hard time finding a new home outside of heading back to crib with the Pistons. Michigan State has a long history of overlooking a lot of bad behavior from athletes, and team doctors for that matter.
If this dude wasn’t an NBA player, that would have already happened.
Judge not lest ye be judged
walk a mile in someone else’s shoes people.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
Some perfect people on this site because the rocks are flying.
Stop virtue signaling. The man beat up a woman multiple times. You telling people not to judge looks an awful lot like you’re defending an abuser.
I think its great timing…
Jordan ran this team into the ground, and while he was still there Bridges was re-signed.
Now if Bridges flames out the Hornets as an organization are off the hook because it was a Jordan era decision