SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell confirmed that he was initially angry after the news that his teammate Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the coronavirus and then that he too had been infected.
Speaking with Robin Roberts in a remote video appearance on “Good Morning America” on Monday morning, in the wake of Gobert apologizing via Instagram for being reckless during the COVID-19 crisis, Mitchell went on to say that he has seen Gobert’s apology and that he’s glad both of them are OK.
“To be honest ... it took a while for me to kind of cool off,” Mitchell said. “I read what he said and I heard what he said and I’m glad that he’s doing OK and that I’m doing well.”
The interview comes after multiple reports of Mitchell being frustrated with Gobert’s actions and Mitchell’s anger potentially causing a rift within the Jazz.
Later in the interview Mitchell announced that he is partnering with the Granite School District in Salt Lake City to help provide meals to students who rely on school meals they’ll no longer get because of closures.
“That particular school district is home to some of the most vulnerable children in Salt Lake,” Mitchell said. “I want to be able to give back because we really don’t know ... doctors can’t pinpoint a date. So for parents that may not have the money and not being able to send their kids to school to get food, it’s a scary feeling for them and I want to make sure they’re set and they understand that guys like myself and whoever have their back.”
Mitchell noted that the school district is composed of nearly 90 schools that service close to 66,000 students.
After mentioning that he indeed needed a cooling-off period after initially learning of his diagnosis, Mitchell said that he was glad that the virus was contained to just himself and Gobert and that nobody else on the team or their traveling party was impacted.
“I’m just really happy that — I hate to say there was two of us — but that it wasn’t the whole party,” he said. “At the end of the day, neither him or I have children at home. I have teammates that have children and staff that have children at home. I’m glad that we were able to kind of contain it as much as possible.”
Mitchell, unlike Gobert, has continued to be asymptomatic and even joked that he felt good enough to play in a seven-game series.
During his quarantine Mitchell said that he’s been keeping himself busy by playing video games and, like many other athletes, watching some of his own highlights from college and the NBA.
Despite the good memories and being able to keep busy, Mitchell admitted that he’s already missing his day job.
“You miss the game,” he said.
Mitchell, like many others, called for anyone listening to proceed with caution and to think about others as they traverse these new conditions.
“I’m asymptomatic. I could walk down the street if it wasn’t public knowledge that I was sick, and you wouldn’t know it,” he said. “That’s the scariest part about this virus, you may seem fine, you may be fine, but you never know who you may be talking to and who they’re going home to.”