Bridges' ironman streak

Mikal Bridges pushed the National Basketball Association’s longest active games-played streak to 638 on Sunday, then checked out 23 seconds into New York’s regular-season finale. (nba.com) Bridges was the only Knicks starter to appear against the Charlotte Hornets because New York had already locked up the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. He committed a quick foul and left at the first stoppage. (apnews.com) The streak covers every regular-season game of Bridges’ National Basketball Association career since his debut on October 17, 2018. National Basketball Association and Associated Press reports said he has never missed a pro game and recently passed Andre Miller for eighth place on the league’s all-time list. (basketball-reference.com) (nba.com) This has become an April ritual for teams with playoff position set. Last season, Bridges played six seconds in New York’s finale to keep the streak alive, and this year the Knicks repeated the same basic move with even less exposure before the postseason. (espn.com) (sports.yahoo.com) The timing is tied to the way late-season standings work. With seedings settled, teams often rest core players to reduce injury risk before a playoff series, and Bridges’ streak turned him into the one exception in Tom Thibodeau’s lineup on Sunday. (nba.com) (espn.com) Bridges said he does not begin a season trying to reach 82 games, but he also said he does not like missing games. That stance has made him an outlier in a league where rest plans, minor injuries and schedule management regularly interrupt availability. (apnews.com) Not everyone treats these cameo appearances the same way. Some coverage and fan reaction last year argued that a six-second appearance stretched the spirit of an “ironman” streak, even if it satisfied the official rule that a player appeared in the game. (si.com) (sportingnews.com) The league record remains far away: A.C. Green played 1,192 consecutive games, nearly double Bridges’ current total. For now, Bridges heads into the playoffs with the streak intact and New York still managing his minutes as carefully as possible. (wikipedia.org) (nba.com)