Couch: As Miles Bridges becomes a legend, he shows he's just a kid
EAST LANSING – The story of Miles Bridges’ decision to return to Michigan State for his sophomore year, it turns out, is quite simple. He’s just a kid who wants to be in college right now.
Somewhere that gets lost. That he’s a kid. Less than a month past his 19th birthday. We see the NBA money he’s delaying and the risk of injury. We see the basketball player — a 6-foot-7, 230-pound man child. It’s easy to forget the teenager who likes his life.
Because, well, he is more than that at MSU. For sure now.
On a day when the news surrounding MSU athletics again got worse — another football player under investigation for a separate incident of sexual assault — Bridges sat in front of the Sparty statue and chose MSU. In front of about a thousand fans, the freshman basketball star, a projected NBA lottery pick, told the world his experience at MSU was so awesome he didn’t want to leave. Not yet. Not even for NBA riches.
“I wanted to stay here and get better with my teammates. I love college,” Bridges said.
Who among us wanted to leave college after our freshman year? Granted our employment prospects probably weren’t as lucrative.
Bridges Thursday evening was a white knight in stormy times at MSU. Spartan great Draymond Green suggested that rather than a press conference, Bridges hold a fan gathering, to include the campus.
“Right now, this is a good thing at this university, and he wanted to share it with everybody,” MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo said.
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It was a brilliant move, taking his announcement to the people. No press release or press conference or feel-good story elsewhere could do the PR work Bridges did Thursday. He’ll be remembered for it forever. Loved for it. If MSU wins big next year because of him, his block party will be the beginning of his legend.
Bridges and Izzo played to the crowd Thursday, saying this was about the fans and university and his teammates. And, to a point, I’m sure the latter factored in his decision. But this was almost entirely about Bridges.
He is as self-aware as you’ll find in a freshman in college. He’s as uninterested in immediate self-gratification as you’ll find in a college basketball player. It’s as if he wasn’t made to be a star. But is.
“He made a decision for himself,” Izzo said. “And there were a lot of people pushing him and pulling him. And he had enough courage and enough wisdom and enough fortitude to do what he wanted to do. And tonight, we benefit from that.”
Bridges’ own mother wanted him to turn pro, though Thursday sat next to him on the platform in front of Sparty, exchanging understanding and loving glances with her son. Then declared herself 100 percent supportive.
Izzo drove Bridges around campus two nights earlier, one last check to make sure Bridges was truly making the right decision. Bridges had never been interested in talking about agents or the NBA. Not even when he was injured during the season, the entire time Izzo assuming he was one-and-done.
“Why are you pushing me out the door?” Bridges asked Izzo midseason.
Even then, Izzo had no inkling that a kid with Bridges’ talent might want to return.
During their drive earlier this week, Izzo told Bridges that he needed a better reason to return than winning a national championship, because those also take good luck and, as MSU learned two years ago, that doesn’t always happen.
Bridges' primary reason — he was happy. That ought to be enough.
“I asked him at the end, ‘Are you getting tired of me?’ Izzo said. ‘“No, I’m not getting tired of you, I’m just getting tired of the same question.’”
Bridges said he knew midseason he wanted to come back. A couple of his teammates — Tum Tum Nairn and Joshua Langford — knew a while back, as well. Most, Bridges said, learned Tuesday.
“I knew this is where I needed to be,” Bridges said. “I need to get better. I have goals, too.”
He told Izzo he wasn’t ready for the NBA.
“Not ready doesn’t mean not ready physically,” Izzo said. “He’s more mentally ready than a lot of guys I’ve had. But he’s got things he wants to accomplish. He wants to enjoy another year of it.”
“Not ready” meant not quite ready to leave.
“When I went to bed last night, I finally felt like, you know what, he’s doing what he wants to do and he has no doubt in his mind," Izzo said. “None. And I felt good about that.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.