Mikal Bridges trade gives Knicks fresh start after 2018 draft mistake

Mikal Bridges thought he was going to join the Knicks six years before it happened. Now the organization is counting on a very expensive draft overhaul.

As he revealed during his introductory press conference Tuesday, Bridges thought he would go to the Knicks with the ninth overall pick in 2018.

Instead, they made one of the worst draft mistakes in franchise history.

“I was at the draft and I was like, ‘I’m going to play at MSG.’ I was like, ‘This is the time. I’m going to love this place,’” Bridges said, later adding, “I really thought I was going to go.”

The Knicks drafted Kevin Knox from Kentucky after being impressed by his pre-draft workout.

Bridges was selected immediately afterward — initially by the Sixers, who traded him to the Suns in another unfortunate move — and three of the next four picks included MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the questionable but undeniably talented Miles Bridges and NBA champion Michael Porter Jr.

Knox is out of the NBA.

Steve Mills and Scott Perry’s mistake now has a price.

The cost was five first-round picks and a trade to the rival Nets for Bridges, emphatically opening the Knicks’ immediate win window.

Bridges, while elated Tuesday about the opportunity to finally call MSG home, denied reports that he requested a trade from the Nets or was headed to the Knicks.

“That’s just not who I am,” he said. “That’s not it.”

According to Sean Marks, Bridges was told by the Nets general manager that the trade would be made “on the 2-yard line.”

Bridges learned the deal was done while hanging out at the Texas lake house of Memphis guard and “one of my close friends” Desmond Bane.

“I think it was dark out or something, but it was crazy. It was wild,” Bridges said. “(Bane) was right over there yelling from afar, like, ‘Yo! Did you see that?’ I was like, ‘This is crazy,’ so it was cool.”

In addition to prompting flashbacks to the Knicks’ regrettable 2018 draft, the trade mostly represents a Villanova reunion after a public recruitment of Josh Hart.

Last season, Bridges struggled on a Nets team headed to the lottery while his former ‘Nova teammates — Hart, Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo — won 50 games and enjoyed the adulation of New York.

The fear of missing out would have been understandable on Bridges’ part, and he acknowledged Saturday that it was difficult to cheer for their success while enduring Hart’s taunts.

“I wasn’t really rooting for them, man,” Bridges said. “I don’t need them to always have an advantage over me.”

Now they can celebrate together, and the Knicks have a chance to add a happy epilogue to their terrible 2018 draft.

“It’s surreal. It’s awesome to be a Knick,” said Bridges, a Philadelphia native. “I thought I was going to be here in 2018, and I love everything about the team. (Tom Thibodeau), the crowd. MSG. All that. It’s history. … When I think of basketball growing up, and old school, it was always the Knicks. That’s what you think of. MSG. The New York song. The Knicks song. All that.”