NBA players are masters at finding motivation wherever they can. Donovan Mitchell reminded us of this fact on Wednesday when he credited a kid who was heckling him during an online game of NBA 2K26 for inspiring his brilliant 46-point, eight-assist outing in the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ 132-121 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Cavaliers turned back the clock on Wednesday by wearing their “Classic Edition” jerseys, which were made famous by LeBron James during his first stint with the team from 2005-2010. They also brought back the mid-2000s style court and the intro video, all of which Mitchell said was “really cool.” However, he said his big performance had nothing to do with the theatrics.
Here’s Mitchell’s full story:
“You have moments where it’s like — obviously you play this game and you’re trying to win, but his was just a cool day as a whole for me. And obviously to have the night I had was definitely special as well. But I wouldn’t put the game I had based on the court.
“This kid pissed me off today, I was playing 2K. I had been playing 2K for like two hours and I told him, too, I said ‘just wait.’ He called me ‘washed up,’ he called me a bunch of things. But I love it. He said he hadn’t seen a highlight from me in a minute. I just told him, ‘alright, we’ll see.’ He told me to ‘go to sleep.’ He was going in. So this game was for that kid or grown man or whoever that was. So I appreciate you. I told him I’d give him a shoutout, too. So that’s what tonight was.”
There are some Michael Jordan vs. LaBradford Smith vibes to this story.
Smith poured in a career-high 37 points against Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in March of 1993. After the game, Jordan claimed that Smith taunted him by saying, “nice game, Mike.” Jordan promised that he would return the favor to Smith, and sure enough, Jordan poured in 47 points when the two teams met again the very next day. Years later, Jordan admitted he made the whole story up to motivate himself.
Was a small child actually calling Mitchell “washed up” on NBA 2K voice chat? Who knows. But much like the LaBradford Smith legend, it doesn’t really matter. It’s a funny story and Mitchell delivered a huge game to get the Cavaliers one of their biggest wins of the season.
Fittingly, Mitchell joined Jordan as the only players in NBA history to have at least 45 points and eight assists on 70% shooting or better and 10-plus made free throws without a miss. Mitchell (13) also passed James (12) for the most games with 40 points and five 3s in Cavaliers history.
Mitchell and the Cavaliers have gotten off to a somewhat frustrating start this season. They fell to the New York Knicks on opening night in a battle of Eastern Conference favorites, and Mitchell has been dealing with a hamstring issue that forced him to miss their loss to the Toronto Raptors on Halloween.
When Mitchell has been on the floor, however, he’s largely been awesome. This was his fifth game with at least 30 points in seven appearances, and he’s averaging 31.9 points per game — good for fifth in the league — on 57.6/45.5/82 shooting splits.
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, are now 5-3, which has them in a tie for third place in the Eastern Conference. If kids keep heckling Mitchell while he’s playing video games, the Cavs will be in first place in no time.
