Josh Hart Jokes Mikal Bridges Got 'Traded for 5 12th-Graders' After Knicks Beat Nets

After playing his best game of the season in the New York Knicks' dramatic 124-122 win over the Brooklyn Nets, Mikal Bridges was the butt of a joke from teammate Josh Hart.

Hart joked that Bridges was "traded for five 12th-graders" when the Knicks acquired him from Brooklyn during the offseason.

Hart and Bridges are part of the 'Nova Knicks crew, along with Jalen Brunson. They were teammates for two seasons at Villanova from 2015 to '17, winning a national title in 2016. Brunson and Bridges won a second national title during the 2017-18 season after Hart was drafted into the NBA.

The joke is a reference to the haul of picks the Knicks sent to Brooklyn in exchange for Bridges, though Hart actually overestimated the grade of the players who will eventually become members of the Nets are.

A 12th grader is a senior in high school, so those players are at most five years away from entering the NBA. The Nets are receiving unprotected first-round picks every other year between 2025 and 2031, plus a pick swap in 2028.

We have to wait and see how all of the picks play out, but it's theoretically possible the 2031 first-round pick the Nets will acquire is in seventh grade right now if they enter the draft as a 19-year-old.

If the Knicks are able to win a title with Bridges on their roster, no one will care what they traded away to bring him onboard.

Bridges is starting to play better after an erratic start to the season. The 28-year-old scored a season-high 22 points on 9-of-17 shooting with five rebounds and four assists in the win over the Nets. He is shooting 53.3 percent from the field in his past three games.