Miles Bridges Sends Clear Message to Suns Fans Who Don't Trust Him

PHOENIX -- A lot of fans were very confused when the Phoenix Suns decided to trade for Miles Bridges from the Charlotte Hornets earlier this summer given his troubled past.

In his introductory press conference on Wednesday, Bridges recognized that it will take time to get on the right side of Suns fans.

"It's mixed feelings about me being here, but I take full responsibility in my actions," Bridges said. "I've been to counseling, I've been to therapy, and right now, I'm just prioritizing ... being better as a man every day, on and off the court, mainly off the court, and just being a great father and earning the trust of this fan base and this community. I can't wait to get started, but yeah, I'm very excited."

In 2022, Bridges was charged with one felony count of causing harm to the parent of a child and two felony counts of child abuse after allegedly assaulting his former girlfriend and mother of his children.

He changed his original plea of not guilty to no contest for the charge of injuring a child's parent, which led to him being sentenced to three years of probation and no jail time. The other two charges were dropped.

Bridges was suspended for 30 games by the NBA in April 2023, and the league ruled that 20 of the games were already accounted for after Bridges missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season.

There has been ongoing incidents since then, including later in 2023 when Bridges was charged with violating a protection order, misdemeanor child abuse and injury to personal property, which were all three later dropped.

Most recently, his ex-girlfriend was accused of assault and battery after allegedly throwing water on him during a custody exchange in front of their children a couple weeks ago.

Suns general manager Brian Gregory said they took the decision to trade for Bridges very seriously given his past and said that Phoenix conducted a thorough evaluation of his conduct before pulling off the deal.

"Miles has taken responsibility for his actions. He's shown remorse for those actions," Gregory said. "He has gone through counseling and is continually, on a daily basis, doing things for his personal growth. He has also made a commitment on a daily basis to become the best man and the best father that he can be. I have no question at all that he understands the responsibility of what our organization's expectations and values are.

"We will hold him accountable to the same high standards of everybody that is part of the Phoenix Suns organization. There will be no wavering on that. Okay, we also recognize that trust is not given; that it's earned. And Miles understands that for him to earn the trust of his teammates, of our fans, and of our great community, it's going to be based on his daily actions, and are they seeing the growth? And is he doing the things that we know he should be doing? And earning that trust is something very, very important to Miles.

"He understands that responsibility. He understands our standards, and that he'll be held accountable to those standards. One thing I know that he is excited about is being active and being engaged in this community. He understands that's that's the Suns way. That's important. The basketball piece excited about the growth piece and and and his engagement in the community, he's equally excited about."

Bridges outlined how he was able to earn back the trust of the Hornets fanbase over the years and how that will translate to Phoenix.

"Me coming to a new community, y'all really don't know me like that," Bridges said. "I've been in Charlotte for eight years. I've done a lot of stuff in their community, and I've kind of like earned their respect and trust. And I know I have to do that here, so I'm committed to being in the community. I'm committed to everybody just getting to know me as a person."

With the Suns expected to sign him to an extension, the 28-year-old Bridges will look to prove himself to a new fanbase and show that the work he has been doing to improve himself has made him a better person.

"I've been at rock bottom before, and I've had to work my my way back up to where I am now," Bridges said. "So, just being committed to to one thing. Being being great off the court, being great on the court. Like I said, I've been to therapy sessions. I've been to counseling. They helped me a lot.

"I can't pinpoint one thing that I've learned. It's just it's a lot of things that I that I learned about life in general. Because when you're playing basketball, you're really not thinking about anything else, and then when off the court stuff happens, then you really get introduced to life. So, I try to live life a different way every day now and take advantage of every day."

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