In the Miles Bridges situation, the focus should be on the alleged victim — not the millions he may have just lost

Four days after Roe v. Wade was overturned, an unidentified woman was involved in a domestic situation that led to her requiring medical attention. The man involved was arrested for felony domestic violence. But instead of the attention being on the victim, most of the interest had to do with the accused — a basketball player set to be offered a max contract.

TMZ was the first to report that Charlotte Hornets star Miles Bridges turned himself in on Tuesday. It’s just the latest incident of a rocky offseason for Bridges that has included him posting pictures of himself smoking weed and drinking lean — a mixture of Sprite, codeine, and jolly ranchers. And after a season in which Bridges led his team in scoring — as well as career highs in points and rebounds — it was expected that the restricted free agent was going to command a deal potentially worth $173 million over the next five years.

Money matters more than women in America. And so with things being the way they are, too much of the conversation about Bridges has been about how much money he might have just lost instead of what that women is dealing with — and why society has become so desensitized to violence against women.

“The Charlotte Hornets are aware of the situation involving Miles Bridges,” the team said in a statement. “We are in the process of gathering additional information. We will have no further comment at this time,” as only they know how long Bridges will be around in Charlotte, and at what cost — be it financially or morally.

According to TMZ, Bridges’ $130,000 bail was paid and he’s been released, which is par for the course for people who have the means to pay for things in situations like this. But what shouldn’t be par for the course is the continued belittling and numbness that too many of us feel when we see words like “athlete” and “domestic violence” in a headline. Just last month, TMZ was at it again when they reported that Rajon Rondo was in a domestic situation with the mother of his children, as he allegedly told her “you’re dead” before he left and came back with a gun demanding to see his kids. And in 2019, TMZ was there again when one of DeMarcus Cousins’ phone conversations were released after he got upset with the mother of his son for not letting him attend his wedding.

“I’m gonna ask you this one more time before I take it to another level,” Cousins is heard saying on the recorded phone conversation … “Can I have my son here, please?”

When the woman said no, Cousins replied, “I’m gonna make sure I put a bullet in your fucking head.”

For the third time in the last few years, the NBA is dealing with a domestic situation. But this time, one of the league’s youngest stars is involved as it could greatly affect his next contract. However, that should only be the subplot here, not the focal point. It’s not the lede of this story, but something that should be mentioned further down. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case, as people would rather discuss how Miles Bridges “fumbled the bag,” instead of why Miles Bridges felt it was necessary to allegedly do the one thing that no man should ever do.

If you’ve never had a history of violence and you play a professional sport against grown men where elbows are constantly thrown and cheap shots occur, it proves that you have restraint. Which means you should be able to keep your hands off a woman. But even then, the last few weeks have proven to us that harming women feels like something far too many people are OK with.