Donovan Mitchell: two-sport athlete

Dunks or Dingers? Donovan Mitchell came pretty close to having both of these in his sports repertoire yesterday afternoon. In a day spent with the New York Mets, Mitchell’s hometown and favorite MLB baseball team, Mitchell swung for the fences in BP prior to the Mets’ game. He came close to hitting one of the of park, which is pretty crazy.

Most Jazz fans know by now that Donovan Mitchell has pretty strong ties to the game of baseball. If you didn’t already know, here’s a quick back story.

Mitchell grew up a multi-sport athlete, with most of his focus actually being towards the game of baseball. His father, Donovan Sr., played minor league baseball for the Houston Astros organization for seven seasons during the 1990s, which played a large part in Donovan Jr. aspirations of following his father’s legacy. (Mitchell’s father now is employed by the Mets as director of player relations.)

Due to a season-ending wrist injury during his sophomore year in high schools, Mitchell missed that year of AAU baseball, and decided to focus more on basketball. We all know how that side of the story went, with Mitchell exploding onto the NBA scene as a young rookie and becoming the face of the Utah Jazz franchise in a matter of months.

It’s pretty crazy to think of what might have happened had Donovan not gotten injured while playing baseball on that summer day. As a Jazz fan myself, I’m totally content with how things ended up.

That being said, could Donovan Mitchell be a professional two-sport athlete? We know Mitchell is incredibly gifted athletically, and based on the videos from his batting practice, actually has a pretty good swing. Multi-sport athletes are always super fun to see. It’s fun to see these guys showcase their abilities in more ways than just one. Whether is Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Michael Jordan, Tim Tebow, Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, or Donovan Mitchell, it’s always cool to see these guys in different sports doing their thing.