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SALT LAKE CITY — It's been nearly three weeks since Donovan Mitchell last played a game due to a lingering concussion. There's been some notable things happen during his absence:
- The Jazz went 2-6 without him, continuing a poor stretch from the team
- Mitchell and teammate Rudy Gobert were both named to their third All-Star Game
- Those two stars were back in national reports that their relationship was once again fractured.
That last bit of news comes from a recent ESPN podcast with NBA reporters Tim MacMahon and Brian Windhorst. Here's a snippet of the conversation:
Windhorst: "Gobert and Mitchell have been at each other's — I don't know that I'd say — at each other's throats."
MacMahon: "It's back to being passive aggressively awkward."
Windhorst: "It's the most underplayed story in the league right now because the Jazz are struggling a lot. The team had big expectations, and they're getting passed by, quite frankly. ... Donovan and Gobert, even though they're under long-term contracts, are under each other's skin."
Mitchell, who will make his return to the court Friday against the Brooklyn Nets, quickly refuted those reports after Friday's shootaround.
"We're good," Mitchell said when asked about his and Gobert's relationship. "I saw that coming in this morning. Like, nah, we're good. That's just not true. Blatantly, not true at all."
It's not the first time Mitchell and Gobert have been reportedly at odds. It's been an ongoing narrative ever since both players tested positive for COVID-19 in March 2020. During that time, their relationship was reported as being "unsalvageable." That proved to be a bit of hyperbole.
Mitchell expressed a bit of annoyance over the continuing narrative. The two aren't best friends, but they have managed to make it work for five seasons now. This season they have been one of the elite pick-and-roll partners in the NBA.
"Honestly, I'm getting tired of answering it," Mitchell said. "We put in the work, we go out there to do our thing. We're leaders for our team, we're going through a tough stretch, and then that happens. So it's part of it."
That tough stretch, Mitchell said, is likely why the reports are surfacing now.
"We've never had this stretch of losses in a row," he said. "So I guess now's the time for all these things, I guess. But it's like, just come on bro, like, nah, we're good."
In the end, though, Mitchell said the team — and especially he and Gobert — aren't worried about the reports or outside noise. They know how things are, so there's no real reason to discuss what people say. He just knows they are both eager to turn the season around.
"We are ready to come back and play together and kind of take our games to the next level," Mitchell said. "People are going to speak for him, speak for me, but until you hear it from one of us, then I guess take it for what it's worth."
