Miles Bridges signs massive contract extension

It seems like every former Michigan State basketball player in the NBA who’s up for a contract extension is receiving one.

First we saw Max Christie sign a four-year extension to stay with the Lakers. Then Gary Harris and Xavier Tillman also signed new deals to remain with the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics, respectively.

Now on Saturday, we found out that yet another Spartan has signed an extension, and this contract is much larger than the others mentioned.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, former Spartan Miles Bridges has signed a three-year deal to stay with the Charlotte Hornets. Pretty much every NBA contract nowadays is massive, but this is the largest contract by far out of the four Spartans to ink new deals this offseason. Bridges’ contract comes out to $75 million across three years.

We all know the rocky history Bridges has had off the court recently (we don’t need to dive into that) but after missing the entire 2022-23 season he came back to the league on fire.

Last year, Bridges had the best statistical season of his career where he averaged 21 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game. This also includes shooting 34.9 percent from 3-point range, the second-best percentage of his career.

Now while Bridges may no longer be a great representation of Michigan State, his NBA success still tells us one thing. Tom Izzo knows how to develop and produce NBA talent. This is something we’ve always known, but this NBA offseason has been a great reminder of that after all four of these former Spartans signed new deals.

This can be a huge selling point in recruiting because most of the guys that Izzo recruits want to make it to the league. So the more NBA success they see from former Michigan State players, the more likely they will commit and play at MSU.