Tonight, Donovan Mitchell put together one of his best performances in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform — all because an opponent on NBA 2K told him he was ‘washed up’ just hours before the game.
“This kid
pissed me off today,” Mitchell said after the game. “I was playing 2K for like two hours… and he just called me washe dup. He called me a bunch of things. He said he ain’t seen a highlight from me in a minute. I just told him, we’ll see… this game was for that kid… or grown man.”
NBA players are highly competitive athletes. It doesn’t take much for them to find motivation, especially when rage-fueled inspiration can be found on any corner of the internet. Someone calling you out right before a game is more than enough motivation for someone like Mitchell.
Mitchell certainly proved his point. He scored 46 points on 15-21 shooting, throwing in a handful of highlights to appease his online troll. He did it all while making it look easy.
The Cavaliers, led by Mitchell, stormed to a 132-121 victory over the 76ers. Mitchell was a key part in this, dicing up Philly’s defense and leaving them with no solutions. But Mitchell wasn’t the only Cavalier who had it rolling. The team as a whole played its best game of the young season.
Mitchell’s big game happened on a night when the Cavs reintroduced their 2009 branding. The retro logo and colorway have long been fan favorites. The franchise went all-in on nostalgia, and everyone seemed to love it.
“This was really cool to me, the song in the intro ‘My Time’ with Fab, like, I listened to that pre-game when I was a kid,” said Mitchell. “As a whole, this night was really dope… I’m kind of hoping we keep the court, but we’ll see.”
The Cavs only plan on replicating their 2009 brand for a handful of games this season. Though I don’t know if anyone would complain if they brought it back full-time in the near future.
