The way that I’m feeling is nothing compared to that.” People lost their family members to police brutality and racism and s-t. “The pain that’s on my face right now and the way I feel, I can only imagine what’s going through these victim’s families,” Mitchell said in an effort to keep the message on fighting systemic racism and social injustice. Just minutes removed from a draining, grueling series, Mitchell answered questions honestly, respectfully and with proper perspective. The young All-Star averaged 36.3 points, five rebounds and 4.9 assists, and shot 52.5 percent from the field and 51.5 percent from beyond the arc in the series, and yet he professed to teammates that he could have done more.
Mitchell held back tears when he addressed the media after Tuesday’s heartbreaking loss. That allowed me to go out there and play. But I put my trust in Him and didn’t worry about potentially getting injured. I couldn’t let my contract get in the way of the bigger picture. It would have been selfish of me to stand in the way of that. “There are younger guys who aren’t established in this league and needed this time to show their value. I couldn’t make it all about myself,” Mitchell told Yahoo Sports after the Nuggets’ 80-78 Game 7 first-round win that eliminated the Jazz. “Once my teammates told me they wanted to play, then I was all in. Mitchell is eligible for the rookie max extension - valued this offseason at roughly $170 million over five years - but there was concern that a serious injury in the restart could jeopardize his earnings. On a players Zoom call in June that was organized by Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, Mitchell opened up to his peers about his comfort level. “It’s just one of those things that once there’s a little bit more urgency of training camp looms, the urgency of the season looms, then I think that conversations will get a little bit serious at that point.The Utah Jazz’s young star put forth an effort for the ages during the postseason restart by joining Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray in making NBA history by being the only two players to score at least 50 points twice in the same series.īut there was a period before the restart when Mitchell was hesitant about committing to the Orlando bubble because of his contract situation. “Mitchell is going to be with the Jazz, and if they do get a trade offer that they feel is fair, Mitchell will be traded.”Įven if that means Mitchell, who Jones believes, on some level, doesn’t really want to be around Utah’s rebuilding. “The Jazz at this point are very clearly doing what’s best for them,” Jones said. But the Jazz, however, are comfortable holding onto Mitchell until a team meets their threshold. The Jazz insider believes the Knicks are not incentivized at this point to improve their current offer.
“I think this has the potential to go all the way down to the wire towards training camp,” Jones said. Will it be the Knicks or Jazz who blink first? The Jazz are expected to check back in with the Knicks after scouring the rest of the market. “There are some other teams that Jazz have talked to, some other teams that want to present themselves as an option, but I’m still overwhelmingly gearing my attention towards the Jazz and the Knicks.”