'Twins' Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges to share the court again for Nets vs. Knicks

At the Nets’ media day in September, Cam Johnson hinted how he’d greet Mikal Bridges as a first-time opponent after five seasons as a teammate.

“Don’t be surprised if I put him in a headlock off the jump ball or something,” Johnson said with a laugh. “No, it’s going to be a lot of fun. Mikal is such a talker. He’s a slick talker. He’s always got some celebration or something to say.”

The moment finally will come Friday night when the Nets face the Knicks at Madison Square Garden in the Nets’ first NBA Cup game this season. It’s the first meeting between the teams since the Nets traded Bridges to the Knicks in June.

For Johnson, it’s another chapter in a bond that started when he was traded to the Suns two weeks after being drafted by the Timberwolves in 2019. Until this season, all 283 games of his career, plus a stint with Team USA in the FIBA World Cup, came alongside Bridges.

That friendship took hold in 2019 in Las Vegas when the Pennsylvania natives — Bridges from Philadelphia, Johnson from near Pittsburgh — noticed they prepared for games the same way.

“I think it would have been that summer league, we were working out,” Johnson told Newsday this week. “It’s just like, we were kind of on a similar type of page where our workouts are really similar, our lifts are really similar. So all those things we kind of find ourselves doing together, and, you know, that’s just how we became closer.”

The bond was so evident that they earned the nickname “The Twins.” It helped that they played the same position as young wings on a rebuilding Suns team that would make the NBA Finals in 2021.

SEE PHOTOSNets unveil this season's City Connect uniforms

With the Nets, their friendship carried over to often being two of the last players working out after shootaround or practice. They also attended pregame chapel together.

Johnson credited Bridges for being a big help in a challenging 2022-23 season. Between Johnson’s meniscus surgery that November and the players being traded to Brooklyn in the Kevin Durant deal three months later, Bridges helped keep him positive, especially adjusting to a new city.

“When you’re going through something like that and everything’s crazy, I’m coming off the surgery and the season’s all over the place, to go through it with somebody that you’ve been alongside of your whole career, man, that helped,” Johnson said.

Bridges was equally excited about the matchup.

“I already know how it’s gonna get. It always gets physical every time we play, especially at practice guarding each other,” he said. “It’s gonna be cool. But I’m happy for him [and to] see him do well. Just happy for my guy.”

The crosstown rivalry has been one-sided in different forms since January 2021. The Nets won nine in a row, but since Johnson’s arrival, they’ve lost six straight meetings

. That’s why, for him, getting a win means more than just facing Bridges. But, that headlock still might come Friday.

“It’s going to be fun, man,” Johnson said. “We always look forward to that New York Knicks game. Love playing at the Garden . . . but we haven’t won there in my tenure, and that’s all I’m focused on, winning that game.”

With Steve Popper

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Nets for Newsday. He previously covered Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.