Donovan Mitchell is becoming a legend before our eyes

The Jazz lost a basketball game the other night. A bad one. But from what may have been a very sad night for many of us, something incredible and life-changing happened following the loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Several Utah Jazz legends were in attendance Tuesday night, including John Stockton, Karl Malone, Jerry Sloan, and Mark Eaton. A photo surfaced on Twitter the next day, and this photo turned out to be one of the greatest the (Jazz) world has ever known.

Mark Eaton- Twitter

For any Jazz fan, this picture is everything. The past, the present, and the future, all in one picture. There are so many great things about this picture. Karl’s beard, Stockton looking like Eaton’s child, and Sloan; JUST LOOK AT JERRY SLOAN! I miss that man so much. But my favorite thing in this legendary picture, is the man right smack dab in the middle of the pic.

Yeah, the one with the Jazz cutoff hoodie, surrounded by four HOFers, all who happen to be on the Mt. Rushmore of Utah Jazz basketball. Look at Donovan Michell’s countenance. He looks great. He looks happy. He looks like he knows exactly what he’s doing. He looks like he knows he is where he is supposed to be. He looks like he belongs. And that’s because he is in fact becoming a Utah Jazz legend, right before our very eyes.

Mitchell has done everything perfect in Utah so far. He has won over the fans, which took like two minutes into his post-draft interview. He has earned the respect of his teammates and coaches, and leads what is a very loyal and passionate team. He’s straight-up carried the Jazz offensively on the court this season, and has them in the playoffs as things stand right now. And most recently, Mitchell has embraced the Utah Jazz legends (literally) and being in the middle of them in this picture is an awesome sight to see.

Donovan Mitchell also became the first Jazz man since Deron Williams to appear on the cover of Slam Magazine. As you can imagine, the cover turned out to be straight fire. Sporting the City edition unis an a tough little smirk on his face, Mitchell’s cover is just another sign of his impact on the league and how he’s been able to catch national attention.

Karl Malone also was seen having an intimate coversation with Ricky Rubio, giving us another great picture. Ricky Rubio used the picture to instigiate a twitter vote on who would win a game of two on two between he and Karl Malone vs. John Stockton and Rudy Gobert. Who you taking?

As if beating the Jazz wasn’t enough, the Hawks took their troll game to the next level and tweeted what was actually a very interesting, yet, strange piece of information.

The Jazz have only lost four games since January 20th. Two of those games have come at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks, who have hovered around the bottom of the standings all season long. It can’t really be explained, but at least we know the Jazz aren’t playing the Hawks any more this season.

The Jazz are back in the 8th spot of the Western Conference, with Denver and Los Angeles Clippers right on their heels. They open up a three-game road trip tonight in Dallas, where they absolutely cannot afford another breakdown. 538 is giving the Jazz an 85% percent chance to make the playoffs (was 92% earlier this week), and says the Jazz need at least five more wins to secure a playoff spot based on their calculated odds.

fivethirtyeight.com

I’m not sure that I feel “85%” sure about the Jazz making the playoffs still, but it could be because I just watched them get beat by a 20-win Hawks team. Either way, the Jazz need to take it a game at a time, making sure they don’t squander their playoff position.