In a rare sight, Mikal Bridges’ signature three-point celebration did not sit well with the referees during the United States’ eventual conquest of Italy in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 quarterfinals on Monday night.
The gunslinging winger got whistled for a technical foul at the 8:33-mark of the third quarter after pulling off his trademark celebration in front of the Azzurri bench, which he did after nailing a triple to stretch their lead to 55-28.
For head coach Steve Kerr, that’s just an example of the differences in FIBA play that he and the staff have been teaching their young wards.
“In the NBA, Mikal gets a three-point shot in front of the opposing bench, the players yell at him, he turns and he points back, and we just keep playing,” he said during the postgame presser of their 100-63 win at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“In FIBA, he makes a three, they yell at him, he points at them, he gets a technical foul. So we gotta understand this. There are a lot of differences.”
Another instance Kerr mentioned was the unsportsmanlike foul called on Brandon Ingram late in that same quarter after dunking over Nicolo Melli.
“We got the unsportsmanlike foul on Brandon Ingram tonight when he was trying to dunk the ball. In the NBA, there’s no way that’s an unsportsmanlike foul. In FIBA, it is. So we have to adjust and respect that,” said the champion mentor.
Those calls, though, hardly affected the USA’s groove. Bridges himself showed how quickly he picked up that lesson when he “concealed” his celebration after draining another triple with about 7:54 to go in the third as well.
“We’ve had a lot of plays that we’re trying to show the players, like, this is where it’s different, and we have to respect that,” Kerr said. “We can’t complain too much.”
Bridges went on to finish with a game-high 24 points on 8-of-11 field goal shooting, including a 4-of-6 clip from beyond the arc. He submitted his best game of the tournament to date to lead USA Basketball to the semifinals.
“I just stayed aggressive, that’s what it is. Honestly, even coming in tonight I was really, really locked in on my rebounding. That’s kind of my struggle throughout this whole process,” said Bridges, who also had seven rebounds.
“What I showed just in general, it’s just that force of being aggressive. We’re all confident. I mean, how many points did we score? We were all ready to make that shot, we were all ready to make a play so that’s never gonna wear.
“We just got dogs in the locker room, we all know what we can do, we can shoot, dribble and pass, defend and do everything,” he added.
