The Charlotte Hornets player who was arrested for alleged domestic violence against the mother of his two children last year has been denied entry into Canada from the US, and did not play in the Hornets' game against the Toronto Raptors on Monday night. Miles Bridges, who pleaded no contest to a felony charge of injuring a child's parent as part of a plea deal that saw the other felony counts of domestic violence dropped, avoided jail time in the incident but is serving three years probation, ESPN reports. He was also ordered to have no contact with the woman, but before the start of this NBA season, he faced more allegations including multiple alleged violations of that protection order, CBS Sports reports. He is also facing new child abuse charges related to allegations that he threw pool balls at his ex's car while their kids were inside.
It's not clear why Bridges was denied entry into Canada, but the media outlets all report it's likely related to all of the aforementioned legal issues. Canada has discretion to deny entry to people with criminal records. "The only thing I'm going to say is neither Miles nor (rookie center Nathan Mensah from Ghana) will be here with us tonight," coach Steve Clifford said. "That's all I'm going to say." Bridges had tweeted, then later deleted, "got denied in the 6," using a nickname for Toronto that refers to its six area codes, Yahoo Sports reports. The NBA had suspended Bridges a total of 30 games over the incident, with the final 10 of those being served at the start of this season. In November, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league was OK with Bridges playing. (More Miles Bridges stories.)