by Earl Smith and Angela J. Hattery
9/7/2026
Miles Bridges, NBA player, was recently traded from the Charlotte Hornets to the Phoenix Suns.
There is nothing unusual about an NBA trace, except………Bridges is a serial domestic violence perpetuator.
Bridges is 6’7″ tall and weighs 225 lbs. The charges:
“Bridges was arrested in 2022 after he allegedly assaulted his former girlfriend in front of their two children. Bridges was later charged with three felonies for which he received three years of probation after pleading no contest. In 2023, the NBA suspended Bridges for 30 games. He ultimately served 10 after the league said he’d already served the other 20 the previous season when he wasn’t with a team. Later that year, an arrest warrant was issued for Bridges in North Carolina stemming from a violation of a protective order. He ultimately turned himself in.”
Mychelle Johnson, the survivor, is 5 feet, 5 inches tall. She is “Adult victim of physical abuse by her male partner; Assault by strangulation; Brain concussion; Closed fracture of nasal bone; Contusion of rib; Multiple bruises; Strain of neck muscle.”
These terse words do not convey the serious nature of the harm done to small children who witness domestic violence in their homes. Researchers, including us, have warned that when children see their parents fighting they are susceptible to, among other things: Housing instability, shelter stays, school changes, loss of peer networks, substance use/abuse and incarceration.
Still, in 2026, these sport corporations like the NBA and the NFL, continue to evade accountability.
A trade is a transaction. Charlotte moved an asset. Phoenix acquired one. Nothing in the paperwork records that Mychelle Johnson’s nose was broken, that her neck was strained, that she was strangled. The ledger has no column for it.
That is what accountability looks like when it is left to a market. Three felony charges became a no-contest plea and probation. A thirty-game suspension became ten, the rest credited for time he spent unemployed. A protective order violation became a warrant, then a surrender, then nothing. At every stage the penalty was discounted, and at the end of it he is a starting forward in a new city with a clean introductory press conference.
And two children were in the room. They are the part of this story that no contract addresses and no suspension repairs. The research is not ambiguous about what they carry forward: the disrupted sleep and the disrupted schooling, the moves and the shelters, the elevated risk that they will end up in systems far less forgiving than the one that keeps finding roster space for Miles Bridges.
The NBA did not fail to notice any of this. It noticed, it calculated, and it decided he was still worth the trouble. That is not an oversight to be corrected with a better policy memo. It is the policy. Until leagues are made to bear a real cost for that arithmetic, the trade deadline will keep doing what it does best: moving a problem to another zip code and calling it a transaction.
REFERENCES
Edleson, J. L. (1999). “The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering.” Violence Against Women, 5(2), 134–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/107780129952003
Foltz, Katelyn E. 2026. “Most Valuable Perpetrator: Exploring the Athletic Market Value of National Football League Players and Its Impact on Consequences for Gender-Based Violence.” Sociology of Sport Journal, https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2025-0237
Shuo Xu, Zhe Xie, Mingyan Li, Jianing Zhao, Manya Li. 2026. “Childhood Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis to Examine the Impact on Mental Health. Trauma Violence Abuse.” https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380261462866