NBA free agency 2023: Miles Bridges expected to sign qualifying offer with Hornets amid suspension for domestic violence plea agreement
Content warning: The following article contains graphic descriptions of alleged domestic violence.
Restricted free agent forward Miles Bridges is expected to sign a $7.9 million qualifying offer to remain with the Charlotte Hornets, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The two sides remain far apart on a long-term extension, per the report. The move would keep Bridges in Charlotte for the upcoming season and allow him to enter next offseason as an unrestricted free agent.
Bridges will start the season serving the final 10 games of a 30-game NBA suspension after he was arrested on domestic violence charges last offseason. Bridges initially pleaded not guilty to multiple charges at his arraignment and later pleaded no contest to a charge of domestic violence toward a spouse or other cohabitant in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Bridges was expected to receive a lucrative offer from the Hornets last offseason after his breakout 2021-22 campaign. Instead, he sat the entire 2022-23 season without a contract following his arrest on the eve of free agency. The Hornets never extended him an offer until the recent reported qualifying offer. They denied a report in January that they were negotiating a new deal with Bridges after violent details of the alleged attack emerged.
After his arrest, Bridges' wife, Mychelle Johnson, posted images on social media of injuries she wrote were the results of an attack. She wrote that she sustained "a fracture[d] nose, wrist, torn eardrum, torn muscles in my neck from being choked until I went to sleep and a severe concussion." She included a medical report stating that she was the “adult victim of physical abuse by a male partner."
"I’ve allowed someone to destroy my home, abuse me in every way possible and traumatize our kids for life," Johnson wrote. "I have nothing to prove to the world, but I won’t allow anyone who could do something so horrible to have no remorse and paint a picture of something I’m not. I won’t allow the people around him to continue to silence me and continue to lie to protect this person."
The post has since been deleted.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office initially charged Bridges with one felony count of injuring a child’s parent and two felony counts of child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death. District Attorney George Gascón wrote that the alleged attack took place in front of Bridges' and Johnson's two children. Those charges were not included in the plea agreement.
Bridges served no jail time after reaching the agreement. He was ordered to undergo domestic violence counseling and parenting classes and forbidden from owning a firearm or any dangerous weapons. He was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.
After its own independent investigation, the NBA announced in April that Bridges would be suspended 30 games without pay, with 20 of those games "already served" because "Mr. Bridges did not sign an NBA contract for the 2022-23 season, missing all 82 games." He'll serve the suspension for the first 10 games of the season assuming he follows through with the reported plan to sign the qualifying offer.
Bridges, 25, averaged 20.2 points, 7 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in 2021-22, his fourth NBA season. The Hornets finished 43-39 that season, their only winning campaign since 2015-16. They did so as then-second-year point guard LaMelo Ball made his first All-Star team.
The Hornets and Ball agreed Saturday to a five-year max extension worth up to $260 million. The Hornets also drafted Alabama All-America forward Brandon Miller in last month's draft. Miller enters the NBA amid concerns about his alleged involvement with the off-campus shooting death of Jamea Harris last season at Alabama.
If their core players remain healthy, the Hornets are expected to contend for their first playoff berth since 2016 next season. The recent moves have been made amid a transfer of ownership after Michael Jordan announced that he was selling his majority stake in the team to a group led by former minority owner Gabe Plotkin and ex-Atlanta Hawks minority owner Rick Schnall.
