Yahoo Sports Donovan Mitchell on relationship with Rudy Gobert as Jazz players: We weren’t our most mature selves
They both [Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert] wanted to win, but went about winning in differing ways. And both would tell you in honest moments that they didn’t handle themselves in the best way when it came to their differences off the floor. “I think we both would say that we weren’t our most mature selves,” Mitchell said. “But, it’s tough, because you’re never the most mature you are going to be when you are 21 or 22. The funny thing is that we were our best after the COVID thing. I think that’s when we got everything on the table and we were able to go and hoop. “I would do it all again if I could. I’m appreciative of that, because it allowed me to become this player and this person.”
Source: New York Times
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After years of drama and upheaval, Donovan Mitchell has finally found a sense of peace on the hardwood. And now, he's taking the lessons of Conley and Rubio and applying them in Cleveland. Read the exclusive, here - nytimes.com/athletic/60160… - 11:09 AM
🇫🇷 Guerschon Yabusele takes on Victor Wembanyama and triumphs
➕ Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves fall in Atlanta
eurohoops.net/en/nba-news/17… - 2:08 AM
The Triple Team is online and in inboxes! On
1. The Jazz's league-worst defense played the Cavs' league-best offense, and, well,
2. Walker Kessler good and bad
3. Donovan Mitchell's changing game
sltrib.com/sports/jazz/20… - 11:11 PM
Donovan Mitchell's handles are nuts - 9:15 PM
Kessler now has 9 offensive rebounds late in the 3Q, Jazz all-time team record is 13, jointly held by Adrian Dantley, Rudy Gobert, and Rich Kelley. - 9:12 PM
#Cavs Evan Mobley said he blacked out afterward. Kenny Atkinson drew a comparison to an NBA legend. Donovan Mitchell used it to jumpstart an All-Star campaign. Mobley’s ferocious poster dunk over two helpless Sixers was a portrait of his ascension
cleveland.com/cavs/2024/12/c… - 1:54 AM
Danny Cunningham @RealDCunningham
#Cavs are up 99-76 after the third quarter. Darius Garland has 26 points, Evan Mobley has 22 (and a thunderous poster) and Donovan Mitchell has 19 to lead the way for Cleveland. The Cavs are +29 in the 18 minutes Caris LeVert has played tonight. - 9:48 PM
Danny Cunningham @RealDCunningham
Whew. Donovan Mitchell just made Andre Drummond touch the earth and then buried the 3-pointer. He's up to 19 points with 7:35 left in the first half. - 8:43 PM
More on this storyline
With this Cavs team, however, Mitchell is finding something that had previously escaped him, what he calls “a sense of peace.” “For years, everyone has talked about if I like Rudy, or talked about me going to the New York Knicks or the Miami Heat,” he said. “So, it’s great to finally have that sense of peace.” He’s in a locker room that seems to universally like each other. He’s surrounded himself with friends and family. And most importantly for him and the Cavaliers, Mitchell is playing some of the best basketball of his career. “Ideally, if I can paint a picture, I would win a championship at some point over the next five years,” he said. “It’s hard to win championships. It’s hard to win in this league. Despite public opinion, I love being in Cleveland and I want to win a title with this group.” -via New York Times / December 24, 2024
Jon Krawczynski: Rudy Gobert: 3pts, 4r, 0 blks, -37 in 22 minutes. "I didn’t like my energy, my activity, my physicality. I thought I was absent tonight." -via Bluesky / December 20, 2024
Draymond Green on Rudy Gobert: Hey man, he started throwing elbows. He kept throwing elbows at me, bro. I was chilling, not trying to cause any issues, and he kept throwing elbows. Even the one where he flopped—man, flop—before he took off, he threw this crazy elbow at me. I’m like, 'Man, y’all keep letting this dude throw elbows at me? This is crazy!' -via YouTube / December 11, 2024
In most cases, humans mature naturally over four years simply through life experience. So, leading an upstart Cleveland team in 2024 is much different than it was for Mitchell in 2021. “I think the way he communicates is something that’s been very welcomed,” first-year Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He has an attention to detail and the way he reaches out and is constantly texting and communicating has been terrific. He’s embraced a leadership role here.” -via New York Times / December 24, 2024
Donovan Mitchell remembers the conversation as if it happened yesterday. And he recalls how little attention he paid to it at the time. “Remember this moment,” Mike Conley Jr. once told Mitchell when the two were teammates on the Utah Jazz. “These kind of teams don’t come around very often. This doesn’t normally happen in the NBA. So, appreciate it.” -via New York Times / December 24, 2024
As he faced his former team Monday night with his current team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Mitchell is no longer the youngster in the locker room. And Cleveland, like that 2021 Utah team, has the best record in the NBA at 26-4. This time, Conley’s words hit deeper for the now-28-year-old. “What I’ve learned is that this isn’t forever. We are not invincible. You have to appreciate this, because this doesn’t come around too often,” Mitchell told The Athletic over the weekend. “When Mike was saying that, it wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate it then, but when you’re as young as I was then, you don’t know what you don’t know. “I find myself telling the guys in this locker room the same stuff that Mike and Joe (Ingles) and Ricky (Rubio) used to tell me. What we have this season? This isn’t always the NBA. Not every locker room is like this.” -via New York Times / December 24, 2024
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Donovan Mitchell on relationship with Rudy Gobert as Jazz players: We weren’t our most mature selves
