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Even after being gone for almost four years, Donovan Mitchell still gets in his feels when the Cleveland Cavaliers make their lone annual trip to Utah.
Having spent the first five years of his NBA career with the Utah Jazz, he still feels a sentimental attachment to Salt Lake City, to the Jazz, to the fans and to everyone in between. And since the Eastern Conference Cavs only travel to Utah once a year, it kind of heightens the emotions and has Mitchell circling the trip on the NBA calendar.
This year, in particular, was really special for Mitchell, because he was able to bring his fiancée, singer Coco Jones, on the trip.
“Me and my fiancée went to dinner with a bunch of my friends who were here, and family, and it was her first time here, so I was kind of showing her where things were at,” Mitchell said on Monday night after the Jazz played the Cavaliers. “I’m like, ‘This is what this was, and this was my first apartment,’ all those different things.”
Mitchell and Jones have been together for a few years, but Mitchell popped the question last summer, so this was his first visit to Utah since preparing to tie the knot.
After next season, Mitchell will have spent just as much time away from the Jazz as he did with the Jazz. But he doesn’t think that he’ll ever stop feeling tied to Utah and stop having affection for the place where his NBA career began.
“It’s always going to resonate, because this is where it started for me,” Mitchell said. “Utah has seen me grow to be the man that I am today, and I’m very grateful. So for me, coming back and to see the fans continually wear my jersey — and I still watch. I know Ace (Bailey), I know Keyonte (George) pretty well. I know some guys on the staff. Hearing (Craig) Bolerjack and Thurl (Bailey) on the broadcast and all those different things, it’s always special.”
He’ll never get used to coming into the visitors’ entrance and being in the visitors’ locker room. He’ll always feel a fondness and closeness to the city and everyone that supported him during the early years of his career. And on this trip to Utah, he wanted to share that fondness with the person he wants to spend the rest of his life with.
While so much is the same and he was able to take Jones to old haunts and show her where it all started, Mitchell did mention that one big difference stood out this time around.
“I think the coolest thing is the arena looks different with the hockey going on and whatnot,” he said. “Ryan (Smith) and them have done a phenomenal job with everything in here, for sure.”
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