CREATED BY SPORTS BETTORS FOR SPORTS BETTORS
LET’S HEAR YOUR STORY
Restricted free agent forward Miles Bridges is expected to sign a $7.9 million qualifying offer to remain with the Charlotte Hornets, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The two sides remain far apart on a long-term extension, per the report. The move would keep Bridges in Charlotte for the upcoming season and allow him to enter next offseason as an unrestricted free agent.
Bridges will start the season serving the final 10 games of a 30-game NBA suspension after he was arrested on domestic violence charges last offseason. Bridges initially pleaded not guilty to multiple charges at his arraignment and later pleaded no contest to a charge of domestic violence toward a spouse or other cohabitant in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Bridges was expected to receive a lucrative offer from the Hornets last offseason after his breakout 2021-22 campaign. Instead, he sat the entire 2022-23 season without a contract following his arrest on the eve of free agency. The Hornets never extended him an offer until the recent reported qualifying offer. They denied a report in January that they were negotiating a new deal with Bridges after violent details of the alleged attack emerged.
After his arrest, Bridges' wife, Mychelle Johnson, posted images on social media of injuries she wrote were the results of an attack. She wrote that she sustained "a fracture[d] nose, wrist, torn eardrum, torn muscles in my neck from being choked until I went to sleep and a severe concussion." She included a medical report stating that she was the “adult victim of physical abuse by a male partner."
"I’ve allowed someone to destroy my home, abuse me in every way possible and traumatize our kids for life," Johnson wrote. "I have nothing to prove to the world, but I won’t allow anyone who could do something so horrible to have no remorse and paint a picture of something I’m not. I won’t allow the people around him to continue to silence me and continue to lie to protect this person."
The post has since been deleted.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office initially charged Bridges with one felony count of injuring a child’s parent and two felony counts of child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death. District Attorney George Gascón wrote that the alleged attack took place in front of Bridges' and Johnson's two children. Those charges were not included in the plea agreement.
Bridges served no jail time after reaching the agreement. He was ordered to undergo domestic violence counseling and parenting classes and forbidden from owning a firearm or any dangerous weapons. He was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.
After its own independent investigation, the NBA announced in April that Bridges would be suspended 30 games without pay, with 20 of those games "already served" because "Mr. Bridges did not sign an NBA contract for the 2022-23 season, missing all 82 games." He'll serve the suspension for the first 10 games of the season assuming he follows through with the reported plan to sign the qualifying offer.
Bridges, 25, averaged 20.2 points, 7 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in 2021-22, his fourth NBA season. The Hornets finished 43-39 that season, their only winning campaign since 2015-16. They did so as then-second-year point guard LaMelo Ball made his first All-Star team.
The Hornets and Ball agreed Saturday to a five-year max extension worth up to $260 million. The Hornets also drafted Alabama All-America forward Brandon Miller in last month's draft. Miller enters the NBA amid concerns about his alleged involvement with the off-campus shooting death of Jamea Harris last season at Alabama.
If their core players remain healthy, the Hornets are expected to contend for their first playoff berth since 2016 next season. The recent moves have been made amid a transfer of ownership after Michael Jordan announced that he was selling his majority stake in the team to a group led by former minority owner Gabe Plotkin and ex-Atlanta Hawks minority owner Rick Schnall.
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
Your experience on this site will be improved by allowing cookies.
