Professional basketball player Mikal Bridges is about to play his 600th consecutive NBA game. Not the only remarkable series in the life of the New York Knicks’ perennial favorite. However, his fitness secret is hardly recommended for imitation.
For many professional athletes, routines are part of the secret to their success. They can also be objectively useful and helpful for sharpening focus, recalling automatisms or building self-confidence. Sometimes they are simply based on superstition. Players hopping onto the soccer field on one leg are a common sight. Tennis fans remember Boris Becker’s tongue or Rafael Nadal’s plucker, and have you ever seen a 100-meter sprinter before the start who didn’t follow any rituals?
Americans think primarily of Wade Boggs. The baseball hero of the eighties and nineties painted the Hebrew word for life in the sand before every trip to the plate. And before evening games, the batting cage was a mined area from 5:15 p.m., as superstar Boggs always had to start batting at 5:17 p.m. Exactly two hours later he did his sprint exercises. Boggs loved familiar paths and familiar routines, even when it came to eating. Before every game without exception there was chicken, which gave him his nickname that is still used today: Chicken Man.
Nobody can take away his World Series title with the New York Yankees and his twelve All-Star nominations from the 67-year-old. But the title of Chicken Man has long since gone to another American professional athlete. Because what was repeated for Boggs on around 160 match days a year is a daily routine for Mikal Bridges. The professional basketball player for the New York Knicks has eaten the same thing every day for twelve years without exception: white rice with a double portion of chicken, corn and salad, mixed together in a bowl and ordered from Chipotle. The Denver-based restaurant chain is widespread in North America with 4,000 locations.
An incredible habit and apparently not a duck. Bridges confirmed his routine himself. He revealed that he had only changed the sauce over the years. Instead of hot salsa, he only has the employees pour a mix of medium hot and mild salsa over his meal.
Twelve years of chicken and corn – a monotony that would make many a nutritionist fold their wings in worry. But Bridges knows the best arguments are on his side. The fact that the small forward doesn’t jump through the NBA as a “Chicken Man”, even though he wiggles his head from left to right after successful three-point throws not unlike a chicken, is due to another, even more impressive series. Mikal Bridges is the Iron Man.
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The 29-year-old has been playing in the NBA since October 24, 2018. He first played for the Phoenix Suns for five seasons, then for the Brooklyn Nets from 2023 to 2024, and since then he has been trying to help the New York Knicks achieve great success again. What’s remarkable: In his seven and a half seasons, he hasn’t missed a single game, neither in the regular season nor in the play-offs. The NBA Cup Final on December 16 in Las Vegas against the San Antonio Spurs will be his 600th consecutive NBA game. A level of continuity that would be exceptional in any professional sport. In the intense and draining NBA circus with up to four games a week, it’s almost unbelievable.
In the 80-year history of the professional league, only ten players managed to play more than 600 matches in a row. The demands placed on basketball players’ athleticism have always been high, but have continued to grow due to the constant increase in speed and intensity. Since 2000, there has only been one player, Andre Miller, who has broken the magic mark. His run ended after game number 632.
Jumping high, sprinting explosively, standing up powerfully, constantly changing direction and stopping movements: torture for ligaments, muscles and joints. Injuries are normal in the league, and breaks – especially for the teams’ most important players – are inevitable.
Bridges was undoubtedly always one of the top performers in his teams. The Knicks paid five first-round picks, a pick swap and a second-round pick to their city rivals to sign him a year and a half ago. Bridges is not a muscle man who uses his mass to push opponents through the zone under the baskets. But he is quick, flexible and, thanks to his arm span of 2.15 meters, an excellent defender. In 2022 he finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting. And his three-pointer has now become a real weapon for the Knicks. The victory over the Boston Celtics in the 2025 Eastern Conference Semifinals is closely linked to Bridges. Added to this is his reliability and discipline.
However, the strain doesn’t seem to bother his body too much. In his three years at college, the winger didn’t miss any of the 116 games for the Villanova Wildcats. The last time his team took the field without him was in high school. On the Great Valley High School team from Malvern near Philadelphia, his coach left him out of a game in order to spare him for the upcoming state tournament, the final tournament of the state of Pennsylvania.
Since then, Bridges has been reliably sprinting up and down the basketball courts. Restless. Non-stop. Til today. “He brought energy to every team he played for. That’s what makes him so special,” says teammate Karl-Anthony Towns about the man next to him, and he doesn’t just mean his commitment on the pitch: “We all know about his talent and abilities, but the energy and personality that he brings into the dressing room, the self-confident nature that he gives the team, has been undervalued so far.”
Because even if the long-running favorite is of course aware of his special series, there are no signs that he is committed to maintaining and continuing it with his game. Bridges is not one to dose, spare himself or even hide in order to save a few grains. No part-time worker or time waster. The exact opposite is the case: Last season he ran 459.47 kilometers, more and further than any other player in the league. That’s almost eleven marathons and more than any player has completed in one season since data recording began in 2013. Given the increase in the speed of play in recent years, this is likely to be a record in NBA history.
Bridges only had to make a trick twice to keep the series from breaking. On April 9th, the last matchday of the 2022/2023 regular season, he committed a foul after four seconds in the Brooklyn Nets jersey and was then taken straight off the field. And exactly a year later to the day – a man of routines – the bizarre spectacle was repeated. Bridges, who has since moved to Madison Square Garden for city rivals, fouled an opponent after six seconds and left the field past grinning teammates and referees. In both cases, Bridges should be rested for the upcoming play-offs – but without destroying his series.
This has continued to grow consistently since then. Among the active NBA players, Harrison Barnes of the San Antonio Spurs, who is four years older, follows in second place in the ranking of long-running favorites with 323 games in a row. However, to become the greatest Iron Man in league history, Bridges would have to stay injury-free for a few more years.
His 596th game on December 6th against the Utah Jazz was just halfway to the all-time AC Green timeline. The now 62-year-old did not miss a single NBA game due to injury in his long career and was on the field in each of the 1,192 matches from November 19, 1986 until the end of his career on April 18, 2001.
There is no record of the Lakers icon’s culinary monotony being comparable to that of Bridges. But Green demonstrated iron discipline in another sector. The strict Christian committed himself to sexual abstinence and confessed to virginity throughout his career. Bridges, who has no children, has not yet commented on the matter. Breaking Green’s streak is likely to be difficult anyway and will take at least seven seasons, even with continued health, fitness and performance.
Certain records may simply last forever. Which brings us back to Wade Boggs. The baseball star drank 107 beers in one day, 73 of them on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles, where there was a Major League Baseball game the following day. Boggs came to bat five times, reached the bases four times and hit two doubles.
If Lutz Wöckener Not exactly trying out any sport on his own, he writes about darts and sports politics, but sometimes also about offbeat things like football.
This article comes from the guest edition of WELT AM SONNTAG by Andreas Gursky, one of the most famous photographers in the world. You can get this unique collectible here bestellen.
