- What's up GQ.
This is Mikal Bridges here,
and these are my essentials.
[hip hop music]
I'm a pretty simple dude.
You know, you wear Forces they go with anything.
I was looking for a black pair,
so I got the Tiffany's.
These are probably the two shoes I probably wear the most.
You wear an all black pair of Forces is kind of crazy.
Just big demon timing.
All black is, I won't even feel,
feel comfortable wearing 'em.
I don't even feel right wearing 'em.
[relaxing music]
I got this bag in the finals
when I was with Phoenix years ago.
You see the NBA, you see the logo.
You can't just go buy it, you know.
You gotta be in the finals to get this bag.
So everybody sees it is like
"Where'd you get it from?"
And everybody make jokes saying,
"Oh you got money, you bought this."
I'm like, "Oh no, it's free."
"Free-99."
I always remember that year.
It's not every day where you make it to the finals.
And that experience was really dope for me.
Obviously we didn't win.
But yeah, like I said, I just
keep everything in here.
I hate having things in my pockets.
Keep my keys in here.
Usually I have my brush and everything else in here.
Got deodorant in here.
Got a spare iPhone charger.
Maybe I need it, like maybe I need it.
Got my comb, got chapstick, Aquaphor.
Pretty much it.
[hip hop music]
Thanks.
Some Bose headphones, probably one of the
best headphones I've had
just with noise cancellation.
Makes life easier.
I go to my music, I'm
all different types of genres.
It's actually hilarious 'cause my mom
thinks I got a lot of old soul in me
that she didn't know.
My music before game
is probably pretty much all calm music.
Some people like being all hyped up
and all that stuff, I'm more relaxed.
'Cause I know when the game starts
I'm gonna be all teed up.
Even when I play Drake,
I play a lot of his slow music before the games.
Like, I got some Brent Faiyez that I play
before the game that I love.
I got some Amy Winehouse in here,
some Young Thug in there.
Kem, one of my favorite songs
that I play all the time,
"Love Calls", fire.
And "The Woman's Work" by Katie Bush
and then Maxwell.
So, I play those and that's kind of like
really, really calm, but for some reason
it just gets me in the right state
and gets me ready for the game.
[hip hop music]
All right, next item, my POGA.
This travel monitor
that you put your game system in.
Let me give you a little sneak peek.
[grunting]
Simple though, it's simple.
You got the PS5 in here, got the monitor right here.
There's one chord, just plug it in a wall,
and it turns right on, it's that simple.
I like my video game, my game.
Me and my boys play Madden a lot.
Just having this on the road
is a much needed thing.
Put my teammates on, couple my teammates on the,
to where now they got their little POGAs.
Everybody in the league loves playing the game,
so let's make it easier for 'em to travel.
[hip hop music]
Up next, this is my dog.
My boy Sonny.
Eight years old, Lab and like Golden mix.
A goofy dude, but he really chills.
He's a good dog, man.
Just having my dog with me
and just coming back home,
either if it's a good or bad game,
I always see him.
I know he is always happy.
So it's just, that's my boy.
He's very socially awkward.
And if you kind of know me, I'm low-key the same.
I can be kind of awkward a little bit.
I think the life that I live
kind of puts you in this little bubble.
Like I'm outgoing, but I can also be to myself
and I can get socially awkward sometimes.
That's what I love about him.
But he loves being around other dogs.
Like he loves being around 'em.
Like, he'll pull me or like see another dog
he'd be so hyped.
But then I'm like, when I like
let him off the leash, he's around these dogs.
He doesn't know how to play,
you know what I'm saying?
And he just starts barking
just in their face. [dog barking]
Some of these dogs are just like,
"Bro, like, like, back up."
Yo, you're not gonna get no friends
just barking at 'em, bro.
Like, you gotta approach 'em a different way.
So I don't know what his issue is with that, but
I'm trying to help him.
So I keep bringing him to parks and stuff
and let go of that little awkwardness.
But I think it's him.
I think that's just who he is.
I think I just gotta more embrace it
than try and change him, you know?
[hip hop music]
So I got my watches.
I got two Rollies.
I got one on now.
So they call this
basically the Batman.
I think it's a Jubilee band?
Hope my agent don't get mad
'cause I know he'd be upset
if I say the wrong band.
So I think it's technically called the Batgirl now.
just because of the band they switch.
Dope, tells the time.
This is my first one.
This is called the Day Date, and I love it.
Just green face.
It's a different band because I wanted,
like if I had two different watches,
I wanted two different bands
so it could be a little different.
A little bit heavier, but
this one's probably is a,
the more everyday watch.
This is probably my favorite one,
And they see the nice Rollie, look at it,
and people that know watches will know like,
"Oh that's a, that's a dope ass watch.
[hip hop music]
Chipotle, I eat this every day.
And it's been about, how many years
since I've been eating Chipotle?
Since 2013, 14, so about 10 years.
Still been on a heavy to this day.
I have friends and family
that teases me a little bit about it.
It's too fire and I have it every single time.
So it don't disappoint.
[sighing]
I love to take a bite.
Okay, fire.
So my bowl order, I get white rice, no beans,
double chicken, medium and mild salsa.
Corn and lettuce.
Oh, I used to get the hot salsa.
But I don't know if y'all know that hot salsa.
I don't know what they did to it
in this past couple years,
but I'll just take one bite.
I'd just be like, just chugging water
and it still ain't helping.
It just be like painful eating a bowl.
No, I felt soft because I love spicy food
and I'm just like, bro, I've been eating this
hot sauce for all these years.
Rest in peace to the hot sauce.
[hip hop music]
All right, next
we got the hypervolt.
This is for recovery.
Just a little thing to have at home.
Just a little device to have
if I'm freaking hurting at night
or something like that.
Always have this just
for like 10 to 15 minutes.
If there's one spot that's like
aggravate me a little bit,
I just keep it on me and
keep me right.
[upbeat music]
I don't have great vision.
I take my contacts out at night
when I'm laying in bed.
And usually the TV is very far away
from my bed, so I can't really see.
So now I got my iPad is right there.
Keep it next to me while I'm in bed,
watch whatever I need,
and go right to sleep.
I've been lacking on movies and TV shows lately,
so I'm like either watching basketball
or I'm on Twitch or something.
On Twitch was RDC, they're hilarious.
Swag, Faze Swag, he moved to YouTube.
So like I watch him on YouTube on the app.
My guy Exposed, his name's Cody.
He gambles, and, you know,
I gamble a little bit on football and stuff like that.
Hilarious, hilarious content.
[hip hop music]
All right, got my heavy ball right here.
Handle life.
Very, very, very, very, very important.
Just using it when I warm up and practice in the games.
Just gets my handle tighter, my jump shot faster, smoother.
It does wonders.
Oh, I love New York.
I love living in New York.
Being in New York, playing in New York.
I wanted to get drafted in New York
when I was coming out in pre-draft
'cause I wanted to live in the city.
So it's kind of dope that I am now.
But yeah, it's just, it is real cool.
My dog loves it.
Walk him every day.
He sees a lot,
lot of people, it just makes his day too.
So it's, it's definitely great.
[hip hop music]
Thank you GQ.
Thank you everybody for watching.
These are my essentials.
Hopefully I see you guys at the next game.