Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell Admits He Nearly Pursued Different Sport, Was ‘Trash’ at Basketball

The Cavaliers guard admitted just how close he was to pursuing a different sport.

Donovan Mitchell has proven to be one of the more explosive playmakers in the NBA. And at the age of 27, it’s likely he still has a long career ahead of him, but we almost didn’t get to witness Mitchell, the basketball player. Instead, the Cavaliers guard was close to pursuing baseball.

“Every day I’m like, ‘Man, I miss the game [baseball]‘ … I was really good at baseball, I was trash at basketball,” Mitchell told Tidal League’s Run Your Race podcast. “So I’m like, I wanna keep building on this, I want to keep going. I definitely thought about baseball, but I was like, ‘I’m gonna keep building and I just want to see how far this can take us.”

“Every day I’m like 'I miss the game'... I was really good at baseball, I was trash at basketball... I definitely thought about baseball but I was like 'I'm gonna keep building', I just want to see how far this could take us."

—Donovan Mitchell

(via "Run Your Race",… pic.twitter.com/Ic6gMXzCMu

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 11, 2023

Mitchell’s father played college baseball at UNC Charlotte and then spent time with the Astros in the minor leagues before getting into coaching and managing. He proceeded to explain that one aspect of the appeal behind basketball was the pace, which was a big sell for him.

It’s safe to say Mitchell made a good career decision. He’s averaged north of 20.5 points per game every year since joining the NBA. His first season in Cleveland was the best of his career from a scoring and shooting perspective, as he averaged 28.3 points and shot 48.4% from the field.