Knicks’ Mikal Bridges still hasn’t missed a game

Eighty-two. Seventy-three. Seventy-two. Eighty-two. Eighty-three. Eighty-two. Eighty-two – and now 29.

Mikal Bridges’ perfect assist record reads like an NBA head coach’s fantasy.

Mike Brown is living that fantasy in real time in his first season at Madison Square Garden, guiding a championship-aspiring Knicks team. Bridges isn’t just a premier two-way wing capable of shutting down the league’s best scorers one night and blowing up offensively the next.

He is also the reigning and undisputed Ironman of the league. If there’s one certainty about the Knicks’ season this year, it’s Bridges who prepares to be briefed every night.

And in a league increasingly shaped by load management and star absences, Bridges’ availability has become its own competitive advantage — one you can’t really put a price on (although the Knicks might argue otherwise after giving up five first-round picks to acquire him from Brooklyn, then signing him to a four-year, $150 million extension this summer).

“The best ability is availability, and having that is an important thing,” Brown said after practice in Tarrytown earlier this month, just before the team boarded its flight to Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinals. “And anyone – everyone – would love to have that.”

Bridges is the only current player to appear in 500 consecutive games, with 600 imminent. He and Golden State’s Buddy Hield are the only active players who haven’t missed a game in the last five seasons. And in 2023, after a midseason trade from Phoenix to Brooklyn created additional competition on his schedule, Bridges became the first player since Josh Smith in 2014-15 to appear in 83 regular-season games.

On Christmas Day against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bridges will move into 11th place all-time in consecutive games played, surpassing James Donaldson’s mark of 586 consecutive games set in 1981. He can pass Jack Twyman and John Stockton (tied for ninth with 609) as early as January and surpass Andre Miller’s streak of 632 consecutive games to stand alone in eighth place by the end of the season.

“He takes care of his body. He does a great job taking care of his body,” Brown said. “I don’t know what his sleep habits are like, but I know he works extremely hard with his prep. And when you work as hard as he does with your prep, good things usually happen. And then he probably has good genes. So thanks, Mom.”

Bridges hasn’t missed a game since high school. He played 116 straight games at Villanova, where Jalen Brunson first saw how far his teammate would go just to be available.

Now reunited in New York, Brunson says nothing has changed.

“He takes care of his body. He works extremely hard,” Brunson said. “He’s a psychopath when it comes to his craft. So he’s really focused on everything he needs to do to make sure he’s ready. And that’s exactly what he has been since I met him.”

A psychopath?

“That’s not my story to tell,” Brunson said with a smile. “But he’s crazy, that’s for sure.”

Bridges owned the label moments later.

“Maybe a little psychopathic, but nothing crazy,” he said. “I just try to take care of it every day. Try to stay on top of it.”

What might be considered madness from the outside has become a ritual for the NBA’s longest-tenured ironman.

“I take advantage of the cold baths, I always get a massage before the game, the stretcher routine and everything,” Bridges said. “I think it’s just about being consistent. It’s a long season with a lot of emotion. People tend to stop doing everything. I just try to be consistent all the time and keep doing everything that’s going to get me ready for the game.”

Bridges is not chasing records. But if he finishes this season with perfect attendance again, he will reach 638 consecutive games played. To reach AC Green’s untouchable NBA record of 1,192 consecutive appearances, Bridges would need 555 more, or about seven more seasons.

That would take him to 37 years old. Lots of basketball to play. Lots of kilometers to accumulate. But it may not be quite an impossible feat for the basketball psychopath on the loose at the Garden this season.