Donovan Mitchell It is not expected to be this happy.
when Utah Jazz He decided to trade him in the summer of 2022, who was hoping to land in his hometown in New York. So, when he was sent to Cleveland, he had no idea that he felt the way he is doing now.
“It was one of the best seasons of my life,” Mitchell told Fox Sports in an exclusive interview. “I am happy because I am here. It is clear, not a secret: Did you want to go home?
Help Mitchell, who won the title All-Star for the sixth season in a row in February, helped. Cavaliers The American Professional League thunderbolt by opening their season with 15-0 and ends as a better manufacture in the eastern conference, with the second best record in the league in 64-18.
Mitchell brought both jazz and chaos to the qualifiers in both his eight seasons in the American Professional League, but he never advanced in the second round.
He hopes to change this year.
But in a sudden development, Mitchell now finds Cavaliers in a 2-0 chain hole against Indiana Basars In the qualifying series in the second round, with 3 game in Indiana on Friday.
Mitchell poured his heart in game 2, and ended with 48 points, nine teeth, five beds and four theft in the Cavaliers loss 120-119. Short Cavaliers – without a defensive player for this year Ivan Mobly (Ankle), Diandari Hunter (thumb) and Darius Garland (Foot Foot) – Leading up to 20 points, including seven points in the last fifty seconds, before the Besters star Teres Haleporton Made 3 game with 1.1 seconds remaining.
It was a crushing for Mitchell, who had placed a head despite dealing with the calf and sick cramps. But when he was asked how the knights weapon can recover from this mental blow, he did not hesitate.
“You have no choice,” Mitchell said. “We can sit here and throw this matter, be at home in about four or five days. We can go foot and take some things that we did well and go from there. I have no doubt that everyone in this cabinet room is ready for Friday. It is absorbed, we believe in each other.
Mitchell hopes that Cavaliers can turn things out.
They played for each other throughout the season, as Mitchell led role models by playing a lower role in the offensive end to enable Garland and Mobiley to become the best versions of themselves. Cavaliers continued to finish the higher classification crime (121) in the league this season.
For Mitchell, the sacrifice of his team was irrational.
In Utah, he did not test a series of endless disappointments on the field, but rather dealt with it racism Outside it. In Cleveland, he finally feels as if he was belonging.
“My Cleveland has truly won me,” Mitchell told Fox Sports. “I’m really enjoying my presence there. It looks like it is at home. This is my biggest thing. Basketball will be basketball. But you spend most of your time there and I feel at home. I feel safe. I feel in peace. This is really one of the biggest things for me.”
In this season, Mitchell scored the lowest number of shots since his upward campaign (18.6) and had a low profession in minutes (31.4), a non -selfish work for the player who is able to score 71 points in a game, as he did with Cavaliers in 2023.
However, despite the completion of less statistics than usual this season (24 points, 4.5 rebound balls and 5 assists), his name was maximized. He was considered a strong competitor to be called the first team of all NBA for the first time in his career, as well as the completion of the first five positions in MVP vote.
Meanwhile, Cavaliers rose, destroyed expectations and gained respect as competitors for the real championship.
The city had not had this hope a lot since Lebron James worked with Cavaliers, which included reaching the four consecutive finals (2015-2018), and led them to his first championship in 2016, before leaving in a free agency in the summer of 2018.
Cavaliers continued to miss Four Seasons, respectively, from 2019-2022 before Mitchell arrived. In 2023, Mitchell carried them to the first round of the qualifiers. Last season, he brought them to the second round, where they lost to the final champion Boston Celkus.
Mitchell is well aware that he breathes a new life in a city obsessed with sports and wants to try greatness again.
In fact, he wants to redefine the Cavaliers ’legacy from being a privilege that is completely dependent on James to determine his atoms and Nadirs, until he is a team that can reach the top with a new group of stars.
“We are not talking about this time since Lebron left,” Mitchell told Fox Sports of the Cavaliers as the competitors. “I think it’s more, so what we can do as a group and be special. I think it is something that we definitely want to do for our right. Liberon did incredible things for distinction. It is time to try to continue to bring another championship to the city.”
For Mitchell, it will be a hard battle.
Cavaliers have been involved due to injuries, with two missing stars in the game 2. Haleporton has turned from being classified as the most exaggerated player in the American Professional League in A. reconnaissance By his peers, to become the most handicapped player in this season. Mitchell gave everything he had this series, with an average of 40.5 points while he was a violent defender, but he was not enough.
“I don’t know what he can do more,” said Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson.
But Mitchell disturbs his teeth more difficult.
He knows what Cavaliers is able to achieve. They had more than 15 years of victories this season. They made them one early 15-0 with a group of 16 games that extend until mid-March.
This team has a special thing.
For this reason, Mitchell, who did not want to decline in Cleveland three years ago, agreed to extend a three -year contract worth $ 150.3 million with the team last July.
In fact, Mitchell made this decision six months ago, while playing the regular season match in Paris as part of the American World Professional League initiative against Brooklyn windowWhich, from the paradoxes, was one of the difference that he initially hoped to join.
At that time, Mitchell realized that he was associated with his team mates. He fell in love with Cleveland. Amid the rumors he would leave, he decided that he would remain.
“When we were in Paris, I felt different,” Mitchell told Fox Sports. “You had this feeling that this is where you want to be. I felt early as well. But as soon as we did the Paris trip, I knew I was definitely back.”
Now, Mitchell himself is to revive the Cavaliers season.
In Cleveland, he found not only a great team, but also found a house.
While he became his way to win his first Serin, it will bear the challenge.
“This is what you play,” Mitchell told Fox Sports. “You are still facing a wall, and how do you discover that? It did not happen in Utah. The goal is to accomplish it here.”
Melissa Rohalin The American Professional League Writer in Fox Sports. The league has previously covered the photographer, Los Angeles Times, Gulf News Group and San Antonio Frankly. Follow it on Twitter @Melissarin.
Donovan Mitchell
Cleveland Cavaliers
National Basketball Association
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