By Jake Snyder
Former Great Valley alum Mikal Bridges has been making his hometown proud by tearing it up for the Phoenix Suns.
Currently, Bridges is second on his team in scoring with 14.5 points per game, trailing only to his All-Star teammate, Devin Booker, and with strong defensive stats of 5.5 rebounds, 1.0 blocks, and 0.6 steals per game, Mikal’s successes have made him subject to national conversation.
Bridges, a standout for GV, finished his HS career in the 82nd spot of ESPN’s national rankings for the 2014 class. He has the most career points ever scored by a GV player during his three years spent at the high school (Mikal attended Archbishop Carroll in his freshman year, transferring there after attending GVMS). He also led the Patriots to a state playoff appearance during his senior year, leading the team to a ranking as high as 4th in the state that year.
After picking up over 20 Division 1 offers, Mikal ended up choosing to play near home for Coach Jay Wright at Villanova. This is when his career really took off, as Mikal worked incredibly hard, becoming a key piece for 2016 National Championship team his redshirt sophomore year. By his senior year, as one of the best players in all of college basketball, he was helping lead his team to another National Championship in 2018.
Prior to the 2018 NBA draft, a draft in which he was coming in as a projected top-10 pick with the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Joe Juliano even saying in a February 2018 piece that,
“The 6-foot-7 Bridges likely is entering the home stretch of a college career in which he has become, in his redshirt junior season, one of the top 10 or 15 players in the country.”
Mikal’s former strength and conditioning coach John Shackleton gave an interview with USA Today to offer some insight about Bridges’ progress during his redshirt year as his innate drive:
“I estimate that Bridges spent three to four hours a day in the gym. Unlike the team, which typically had lighter workouts before games, Mikal had no off days,” said Shackleton.
Mikal’s work ethic has not changed. Now in his third year in the NBA and his explosion into the forefront of the league is further proof of his hard work and determination.
Analysts have even been talking about the possibility of Mikal winning the Most Improved Player award, Franchise Sports and Spencer Davies are two specific examples of this. With only a little over a month into the season, it certainly looks like he is on his way to this achievement both from the eye-test and the comparison of his stats from last year to this year.
Here are the incredible numbers. He is averaging five more points per game than last year and has upped his three-point percentage from 36% all the way up to 44%. On top of all this, he has also upgraded to a full-time starter this year starting all 24 games thus far.
As a 76ers fan, I am hurt. Originally Mikal was taken with the 10th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft by Philadelphia. However, the hometown player was almost immediately traded to his current team, the Phoenix Suns. Mikal was in the middle of a press conference after being picked when he was informed, he had been traded. It was a sad moment for Mikal as obviously he was excited to play where he had lived his entire life, but clearly, he learned quickly how to adjust to the big leagues.
Now the Suns, led by longtime vet Chris Paul and All-Star Devin Booker are 15-9 and currently slated as the 4th seed in the West. If Mikal keeps his play up as it is, the Suns could very well make a run for the playoffs and maybe even have a significant impact once they are in. The Suns 8-0 record in the Orlando Bubble in the spring/summer of 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic is further evidence that they have a shot.
One of Mikal’s former coaches during his days at GV, Ray Fulmer, took time to offer some first-hand insight of Bridges’ days in the Valley.
There is an ironic twist as to when Coach Fulmer recognized that Mikal could be a very special player.
“The first time I watched him play and really thought he could be something special was in a game we actually lost by 25. It was the district final four against Lower Merion, who had a player by the name of BJ Johnson,” said Fulmer. He had all the credentials you could ask for: all-league, all-state, full ride to Syracuse. Their team was much better than ours, but Mikal just dominated BJ on that day. Scored when he wanted, blocked his shot on a couple of occasions, basically made his day a nightmare. That was the first time I really thought he could be something special.”
As for Mikal reaching his current level of play, Coach Fulmer’s thoughts of that happening back then in the Patriot gym was perhaps a bit surprising.
“No,” Fulmer said, laughing. “I thought he could be a really good Division 2 player or low-level Division 1 player. When Mikal first got to Great Valley as a sophomore though he was only 6’ 2”. By the time he got back as a junior he was 6’ 6” and the rest is history.”
When Mikal first became a member of the Patriots, Great Valley basketball was a part of the PIAA’s small-school 3A classification. Like many coaches, Fulmer cannot pinpoint a favorite memory of Mikal’s days with the Patriots, but he certainly knows the time was special.
“I think my favorite memory was just the whole experience. We had some success before Mikal’s years at GV but they were always at AAA. There was always doubt whether GV could even get out of the first round of districts when we had to move up to AAAA. Making the district Final Four and the State Elite 8, reaching as high as 4th in the state his senior year, and having to turn people away at the door 40 minutes before a game even started because it was sold out were scenarios, I never thought could happen at a school like GV. The whole thing was just one amazing ride.”
Thank you to Coach Fulmer for sharing some insight into the past. Coach Nolan, Coach Wise, and Coach Savage have all expressed interest to share some memories as well and when they do, they will be shared on the Surveyor website as well.