Hornets forward Miles Bridges was denied entrance to Canada due to his past legal problems

Miles Bridges was first listed as not part of the Charlotte delegation heading to Toronto on Sunday for “personal reasons.” However, right before that match it was confirmed that in reality, the forward has been denied entrance to Canada due to his past legal issues. 

Even so, his coach Steve Clifford did not want to comment on the real reasons behind his player’s absence against the Raptors. “The only thing I’m going to say is neither Miles nor (rookie centre Nathan Mensah from Ghana) will be here with us tonight,” he shared. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

The 25-year-old is currently undergoing three years of probation after pleading no contest in exchange for jail time after last year’s domestic violence case that involved his former partner, who accused him of assaulting her in front of their children.

Canada denied Miles Bridges entry into the country on Sunday and the decision is "unlikely to be reversed in time" for tonight’s game vs. Raptors, per @wojespn

Bridges pled no contest to a felony charge of injuring a child’s parent in November pic.twitter.com/QMXqRJAeFU

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 18, 2023

Bridges must adhere to a 10-year criminal protection order against her, as well as weekly testing for narcotics and marijuana usage. The player recently turned himself in on October 13 after an arrest warrant was issued for an alleged violation.

This case is still pending, as the warrant was first announced on January 2, but had not served until before this new NBA season started. However, court documents say that Miles “unlawfully” and “knowingly” ignored the protection order.

Rebecca Purdy, spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency, didn’t provide too much detail on the case, but she did mention that anyone hoping to enter the country must “demonstrate they meet the requirements to enter.”

“Admissibility is decided case-by-case and based on the information made available at the time of entry,” she told the press. “Several factors are used in determining if an individual is admissible to Canada, including involvement in criminal activity, human rights violations, organized crime, security, health or financial reasons.”

The 25-year-old not only sat out all last season, but was also handed another 10-game suspension for the start of this campaign. After 12 stars so far, Miles is averaging 19.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

Coach Clifford admits the Hornets have been undermanned recently as they’ve lost five-consecutive matches

For a second-straight contest, Charlotte was short-handed and lost the game to Toronto 114 to 99 on Monday. Besides Bridges’ absence, the team is without LaMelo Ball, Gordon Hayward, Mark Williams, P.J. Washington, Cody Martin and more.

“It’s all hands on deck,” head coach Clifford said.“We are obviously super (undermanned) here and we can win tonight.”

As for Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, he revealed that his game strategy didn’t change despite the fact that the Hornets are missing out on so many players. In a way, he was trying to say that this will still be a competitive five-on-five basketball game and they must respect their rivals.

“They’re going to have a starting five, we’re going to have a starting five, it’ll be five against five and it goes from there,” the Toronto trainer said before winning the match.