Donovan Mitchell of Utah Jazz has crowned himself the winner of the 2018 Slam Dunk Contest with a furious dark show, even though he was not invited at all. However, it is quite possible that he will have even more hardware in his closet by the end of the season.
Mitchell won the contest first against Dennis Smith Jr. (Dallas Mavericks) and Victor Oladipo (Indiana Pacers) and then eliminated Larry Nance Jr. in the final round (Cleveland Cavaliers).
The rookie of Jazz honored Vince Carter for his legendary appearance at the Contest 2000 and “Dr. Dunkenstein” Darrell Griffith, who started jazz in 1984. In the Griffith jersey Mitchell jumped over his sister Jordan and the comedian Kevin Hart – with this slam he entered the final.
“This is one of my favorite All-Star Weekend events. Mitchell had not been nominated for the first time, but he succeeded Aaron Gordon (Orlando Magic) on short notice for the injured Aaron Gordon.
Now it could well happen that Mitchell will call further awards his own at the end of this season. The Guard is considered one of the top favourites for the Rookie of the Year Award, with his main rival Ben Simmons from the Philadelphia 76s likely to be. Simmons is the better preparer and rebounder, but Mitchell is the more efficient and better scorer.
All statistics as of 18. February 2018.
With 19.6 points, the 21-year-old is currently the top scorer among all rookies and also leads his team in this category. Utah has recently won eleven games in a row, with Mitchell being the top scorer every time – no rookie in the history of the NBA has ever won such a winning streak. He already beat the 40-point mark twice this season, beating the Pelicans (41) and the Suns (40) once.
Mitchell already has a lot of fans, even among the established NBA stars “Mitchell is really good. I really like his game,”said Joel Embiid recently. Blazers star Damian Lillard went a little further:”You have players in this league who have been around for a long time and who don’t have the courage Mitchell is showing. That’s why he would be my choice for the Rookie of the Year.”
Mitchell was not expected to be a candidate at all at this time of the season – not even by himself,”I would never have thought that I would come this far, at least not so fast,”he recently told SLAM Magazine. Also at college Mitchell had actually flown under the radar.
Mitchell played two years in Louisville and just in the second year he was able to attract attention with 15.6 points – but not as a star. In the course of the drafts Mitchell was even considered to be a defensive specialist with some offensive potential, but since then he has been much more mature than expected.
The jazz shines on 13. In the second part of the drafts a real steal could have succeeded, especially since this wasn’t really their pick. Utah secured the rights to Mitchell in the trade for Tyler Lydon and Trey Lyles, which were transferred to Denver. A good decision – as well as Mitchell’s decision to sign up for the draft at all.
“I trained with Paul George and Chris Paul in the summer and they were the ones who convinced me to keep my name in the draft,”Mitchell recently revealed.”We talked and they said,’ You’re good enough. Just go out and prove it.” But I never thought it would go so fast.'”
The two permanent All-Stars were right. Mitchell seems to be getting better from month to month – and there were already some voices demanding that he should have been an All-Star this year. It didn’t turn out to be anything, but one can well imagine that Mitchell will be playing the best of the best quite often in the next few years.
I think it’s more important to me that we reach the playoffs than any awards,”said Mitchell to the Salt Lake Tribune,” Awards are great and would certainly be a great honour. But I want to reach the playoffs in my career and win a title at some point.”