Donovan Mitchell recently went looking for a basketball game in Utah and found one featuring some eighth-graders. Mitchell loves showing up to events like that unannounced, just so the people there get a chance to interact with him organically before word of mouth spreads and the place gets swamped.
Discussing his latest appearance after the Utah Jazz beat the Rockets on Monday prompted the question of who was the first NBA player he ever met in person, which elicited a great story about his younger days — and provided some context for one of his pregame routines.
“I knew one of the equipment guys for the New York Knicks [when I was] growing up, and [through him met] Eddy Curry. I had big feet growing up, so it was tough for my mom to buy me shoes. So we had a hook-up when I was growing up, and he was able to give me some. … He had boxes upon boxes, so instead of my mom going out and buying stuff, I was wearing Eddy Curry’s shoes at, like, age 13, 14.”
Mitchell added that every year from about 11 to 15, his age approximately matched his shoe size, though he conceded that while he was initially wearing the 7-foot Curry’s shoes, they were “big as hell!” Further, he was technically violating his school uniform code by wearing them.
At the school he attended, he was supposed to be wearing khakis, a jacket, and dress shoes, “but I’m out here wearing bright-a-- orange and blue Kobes and all that other stuff,” Mitchell said with a laugh. “But it was great because they were free. Can’t complain about that.”
He said he initially got a few warnings, but “thankfully they understood my situation, that I wasn’t able to get top-level stuff. I kind of got some slack.”
These days, Mitchell’s shoe situation has changed in several ways. For starters, he stopped wearing the size 17s he was in for a while, realizing “that was a little too much,” and now he wears a 15 base/16 width. Furthermore, in case you’d forgotten, he has his own shoe line through Adidas and his own national marketing campaigns as a result (like the life-size Lego statue of him that recently visited Vivint Arena).
And so, these days, he’s the one frequently giving shoes away. He can often be observed pregame going through his workout routine, then taking off his sneakers, autographing them, and bestowing them upon some star-struck fan.
Part of it is remembering Curry’s generosity to him and his mom and paying it forward (”I’m forever grateful for that”), but honestly, there’s a practical component to it that benefits him beyond good karma.
“[Curry] used to have boxes, and I was like, ‘Why does he give away so many?’” Mitchell recalled. “And now I get it, ‘cause I have too many to count. I have to give ‘em away ‘cause I don’t have the space.”
Mike Conley’s H-O-R-S-E prowess
The Jazz point guard owns a nationally-broadcast victory in a game of H-O-R-S-E, when he beat the likes of Trae Young, Chris Paul, Zach LaVine, Paul Pierce, Chauncey Billups, Allie Quigley, and Tamika Catchings in a two-day event meant to fill some television time for ESPN a month into the COVID-19 shutdown of 2020.
These days, he mostly just takes on Royce O’Neale after Jazz practices and shootarounds. And he maintains that the crown remains his.
“I don’t lose! I almost beat him with my right hand today in real, live shooting,” Conley told reporters who witnessed some of their daily shooting group tête-à-tête. “That just goes to show you … He’s a great shooter, shooting 40% [on 3s]. I could probably do that.”
The mention of Mike’s right-hand prowess sparked something of a critique from my coverage partner, Andy Larsen, who posited that games of H-O-R-S-E should not allow a participant to win more than two letters by the same method. Isn’t the win somewhat cheapened, Andy semi-jokingly asked him, given that Mike prevailed largely by making off-hand shots, and he’s effectively ambidextrous?
“It is, it is. It’s unfortunate, you know?” Mike replied, laughing. “It eats me up at night.”
