Donovan Mitchell Appears at NYC Baseball Game Amid Trade Hysteria

The NBA star threw out a first pitch and took batting practice while the buzz about potential trade from Jazz to Knicks abounds.

NBA fans in New York have been abuzz for days with the possibility that Jazz star Donovan Mitchell might be traded to the Knicks.

So should we read anything into the fact that Mitchell took batting practice and threw out the first pitch at the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball game Saturday night?

After all, we’re looking for any morsel of intel that might reveal the status of trade talks between the Jazz and Knicks.

That said, the Cyclones had scheduled their Donovan Mitchell bobblehead giveaway well in advance of the recent news that Utah is willing to entertain trade offers for the All-Star guard, so the timing is almost certainly a coincidence.

Mitchell actually has ties to the Cyclones, the High-A affiliate of the Mets. He served as a bat boy for the team as a child while his father worked as a coach for the club in the early 2000s.

Mitchell’s athleticism translates pretty well to the baseball diamond, as he hit five home runs during batting practice on Saturday.

MJ hit .202 at AA. @spidadmitchell put 5 out of the yard during BP. Just saying…#AmazinStartsHere #MiLB pic.twitter.com/C39sVP9Gxr

— Brooklyn Cyclones (@BKCyclones) July 17, 2022

Mitchell signed autographs and posed for photos with fans at Maimonides Park in Coney Island, according to the New York Post, but he avoided discussing his NBA future—even as fans beseeched him to join the Knicks.

“We’re not talking basketball,” Mitchell said, per the Post. “Ain’t nobody talking basketball.”

So it seems as though Mitchell will allow trade discussions to play out behind the scenes, even if a trade to the Knicks would bring the Westchester County native home.

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