After Gordon Hayward left the Utah Jazz in 2017, many thought the team’s playoff prospects would be bleak. But Donovan Mitchell‘s leadership propelled the team forward. In five seasons, Mitchell became a key player and earned a spot on the NBA All-Rookie First Team and five NBA All-Star selections.
Born in Elmsford, New York, Mitchell played baseball and basketball in his youth before committing to basketball at Louisville. As a sophomore, he earned First Team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honours. The Denver Nuggets selected him as the 13th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft before trading him to the Utah Jazz.
In his first season, the point guard won the Slam Dunk Contest and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, scoring an average of 20.5 points per game. As a reserve player, he earned his first and second All-Star selections in 2020 and 2021.
After his successful seasons with the Jazz, the New York native was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2022. During his time with the Cavaliers, he scored a career-high 71 points in a game. This achievement placed him among the NBA’s greatest players to achieve a 70+ point game, alongside legends such as Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. Mitchell’s performances earned him two more NBA All-Star selections in the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Despite playing for the USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup and finishing seventh, the Cavalier star was not chosen for the US Olympic Men’s Basketball team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. However, he expressed that playing for Team USA was a great honour.
“The memory I have is losing; we lost. We lost to France and Serbia, so I would love to find a way to bounce back and get the gold,” he expressed during the NBA regular season game in Paris, setting his sights on the Paris 2024 Olympics.
2024-05-25 07:17:11
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