Miles Bridges signs with Hornets after domestic violence suspension
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Miles Bridges will step back onto the court as a member of the Charlotte Hornets for one more season after domestic violence charges kept him out of the 2022-23 campaign.
Bridges signed a $7.9 million qualifying offer that will keep him in the Queen City for the 2023-24 season and would allow him to be an unrestricted free agent in 2024, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Bridges tweeted after the news came out, “Blessed to be back with the squad. let’s make some noise!!”
The Hornets’ forward had not played since he was arrested in Los Angeles on June 29, 2022 — the day before free agency began last summer — on three counts of domestic violence-related charges for allegedly assaulting his then-girlfriend in front of their children.
Bridges had received a qualifying offer from the Hornets the day prior to his arrest in 2022 and he was projected to get a max contract from Charlotte worth $173 million, according to the New York Times.
Bridges pleaded no contest to one felony domestic violence charge in November and was sentenced to probation, 100 hours of community service and ordered to attend counseling and parenting classes.
Bridges was also ordered to submit to weekly drug tests and the victim was given a 10-year restraining order against the NBA player.
The league handed Bridges a 30-game suspension in April and credited him 20 games for sitting out the entire season last year.
He will still have 10 games that he needs to sit out in order to complete the league-mandated punishment for violating the NBA’s domestic violence policy.
In April, commissioner Adam Silver explained why Bridges was given the punishment that he was.
“The process (with Bridges) was that we worked with his representatives and the players association that he sat out the entire season,” Silver told CBS Sports. “And so we felt, on the balance, that because he had sat out an entire season and not been paid for an entire season, that we thought in fairness that would give him partial credit, I think, for having sat out that season.”
Silver added that the punishment fit since the season he was out had forced Bridges to lose out “on millions of dollars.”
Bridges will now spend this season trying to boost his value across the NBA.
The forward had been coming off a 2021-22 season in which he had averaged 20.2 points and 7.0 rebounds while appearing in 80 games.
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