{"id":162993,"date":"2022-12-20T06:55:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T06:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/donovan-mitchell-speaks-of-draining-utah-experience-then-leads-cavs-in-blowout-of-jazz\/"},"modified":"2022-12-20T06:55:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T06:55:11","slug":"donovan-mitchell-speaks-of-draining-utah-experience-then-leads-cavs-in-blowout-of-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/donovan-mitchell-speaks-of-draining-utah-experience-then-leads-cavs-in-blowout-of-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell speaks of ‘draining’ Utah experience, then leads Cavs in blowout of Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Donovan Mitchell led the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday to a 122-99 win over the Utah Jazz team that traded him this offseason.<\/p>\n

Prior to the game, he opened up to Andscape’s Marc J. Spears about his time in Salt Lake City and his relationship with former teammate Rudy Gobert. He told Spears in an interview published Monday that “we did a lot of special things” while acknowledging that a Jazz team led by himself and Gobert that never advanced to the Western Conference finals fell short of expectations.<\/p>\n

“Basketball just didn’t work out,” Mitchell said of his relationship with Gobert.<\/p>\n

Mitchell, who played five seasons in Utah, also spoke about the challenges of being a Black athlete in a predominantly white city, an experience that he says has shifted for him in Cleveland. He described his experience in Utah as “draining.”<\/p>\n

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“If I’m being honest with you, I never really said this, but it was draining,” Mitchell told Spears. “It was just draining on my energy just because you can’t sit in your room and cheer for me and then do all these different things.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Mitchell cited an incident that saw 10-year-old Isabel Tichenor take her own life amid bullyingla. He also referenced Utah state senator Stuart Adams, who suggested that Mitchell needed to be educated after Mitchell spoke out against a critical race theory resolution in the state legislature.<\/p>\n

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“I’m not saying specifically every fan, but I just feel like it was a lot of things. A state senator saying I need to get educated on my own Black history. Seeing Black kids getting bullied because of their skin color. Seeing a little girl hang herself because she’s being bullied.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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