Mikal Bridges on viral argument with Deandre Ayton: ‘It hurt me too’

There are quite a few Phoenix Suns fans in the Valley that are thrilled to have Kevin Durant but miss Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, and both can be true.

Although Bridges was involved in many memes over his Suns’ tenure, he joined the Point Forward Podcast with Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner to discuss a few more of the serious moments.

One of those moments was a time in 2022 against the Washington Wizards that had NBA Twitter in a frenzy. Bridges and Deandre Ayton were arguing while Washington was taking free throws and Bradley Beal was sitting there clapping in both of the Suns teammate’s faces.

This led to the two pointing fingers at each other on the bench with Monty Williams visibly yelling at Ayton.

here is Ayton and Mikal barking at each other during free throws, and Bradley Beal doing his best Joakim Noahhttps://t.co/bg7OHU7zNw https://t.co/a9w32fCzPw pic.twitter.com/wxRUfeI8wZ

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) December 21, 2022

“That (expletive) hurt me too cause D.A. is one of my best friends,” Bridges said. “I was so locked in I was so pissed off because we were losing. I was trying to tell him to do this and that, and not thinking about his situation being the No. 1 pick and getting a lot of hate for no reason.

“The world looking at that, seeing me yelling at him always looking at that and saying ‘He’s the problem.’ I wasn’t thinking that at the moment but after the game I felt that. After coach talked I apologized in front of everyone. I was (expletive) tearing up because of that. That’s my best friend and at that moment I was embarrassing him.”

Bridges said one of the things he will take away from playing with Devin Booker and Chris Paul is “making the right play every time,” on and off the court.