When the New York Knicks visited Toronto earlier this month, Raptors guard Bruce Brown wasn’t playing. Yet, there he was on the sideline, in support of his team, wearing what has become his staple look: a cowboy hat, a leather jacket draped over a buttoned-up, tucked-in shirt, which showed off his shiny belt buckle, and boots out of a Western film.

Brown, a native of Boston, has become known as the NBA’s cowboy because of his growing love for country music and a game-day attire that has him resembling John Ware.

That M.O. was all Knicks wing Mikal Bridges needed.

With under two minutes to play, and the Raptors leading by one, Bridges knocked down a 3 on the opposite corner from where Brown stood. It gave New York the lead for good.

Bridges looked over toward Brown, pinched his two fingers together as he raised them near his hairline, slightly dipped his head and gave a cowboy hat-tip, obviously, without a hat.

“None of them are pre-determined,” Bridges told The Athletic of his trash-talking antics. “I know Bruce and he’s a cowboy.”

In front of a microphone, Bridges is professional. He’s somewhat soft-spoken. He has an innocent look to him. Bridges doesn’t carry the brash personality of Anthony Edwards or Draymond Green, two other NBA players known for their ability to yap it up on the court. In between the lines, though, Bridges is the NBA’s most unassuming trash-talker. Very few baskets pass without him saying something to someone, though rarely ever aggressively over the top. And if he doesn’t say anything, he’s acting something out, whether it be his patented 3-point celebration or creative pleasantries like the one he did toward Brown.

“He talks all game, don’t he?” Bridges teammate Cameron Payne said.

The trash talk has stood out more lately because Bridges has been backing it up offensively after a slow start to his Knicks tenure. Over the last month, Bridges is averaging 18.8 points while shooting 50 percent from the field and 38 percent from 3, all while being one of the league’s elite midrange shooters.

Every bucket, seemingly, is followed with words or antics. Bridges has always been that way. He talks trash to his friends when playing video games, one-on-one on the court, playing football in the schoolyard or when doing pretty much anything competitive.

“I trash-talked my mom in tennis growing up,” he said. “It’s good energy. When you talk to someone, you get the best out of them and they get locked in. That’s what I want.”

Some people might be put off by how much Bridges likes to talk, but his teammates love it. The Bridges you see on television is closer to the Bridges you see in real life. The Bridges the media often sees (at least when the cameras are rolling) is him taking care of his duties as a professional.

There is also an innocence about it.

“He’s out there having fun with it,” teammate Miles McBride said. “I think people get lost in how much of a business this is. I think he’s just having fun.”

Inside the visiting locker room in downtown Minneapolis’ Target Center on Thursday, Payne was asked about Bridges’ playful banter. He laughed when it was mentioned to him how much his teammate and longtime friend chirps at the opposing team. Payne stopped for a second, looked over as Bridges was walking toward him, and admitted that he, at times, can be the root of Bridges’ funny quips. Bridges, playfully, agreed. When Bridges scores against someone Payne knows or is friends with, the former will point at his teammate, no matter how far away he is, as if he’s suggesting that it’s his fault that Bridges scored.

“It is his fault,” Bridges jokingly said while pointing at Payne.

Bridges and Payne were teammates before in Phoenix and have been friends since. The two always have a locker near one another. Payne, like Bridges, brings energy to the game in his own way. Aside from playing hard in hopes of never going back overseas, Payne dances a lot before games and on the sideline during them. Almost non-stop.

He expects Bridges to provide similar juice within the roster.

“Honestly, him and Cam kill me all day with their celebrations,” McBride said. “I don’t know if they’re pre-planned or just chemistry from being together in Phoenix.”

Payne’s favorite Bridges trash-talking moment this season came a week ago in Orlando. Bridges’ left arm was grabbed by the Magic’s Anthony Black as he went up for a layup. Bridges finished through the contact and then looked over at Black, flexing his muscle. Bridges isn’t the most jacked dude. Scrawny would be a fair way to describe him.

There wasn’t much muscle there when he tried to show it. Payne couldn’t control his laughter.

“It was like nah… (Mikal) is the smallest guy on our team,” Payne said.

While Bridges diversifies his trash talk, the celebration he does after making a 3-pointer is always consistent. Bridges will put three fingers extended away from his body, shake his head from side to side, almost like a bobblehead, while his tongue hangs out of his mouth. Bridges said he took that celebration from the San Diego Padres, who, when they used to get an extra base hit, would point at the dugout and do a head turn.

Bridges has no issue directing it in front of an opposing team’s bench.

“I saw that and decided I was going to turn it into a 3-point celebration,” Bridges said.

The amount that he pokes fun at opponents wouldn’t be so obvious if he wasn’t scoring with the efficiency that he has lately.

And the more Bridges does that, it likely means the more the Knicks are winning.

“He brings energy to every team he’s been part of,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “That’s what is so special about him. We know about the talent, but the energy and personality that he brings to a locker room, the swagger he brings to a team, I think, has been undervalued.”

“He’s always doing something,” OG Anunoby said. “He’s a funny guy.”

(Photo of Bridges: Elsa / Getty Images)