Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell has responded to LeBron James’ explanation as to why Mitchell and his teammate Rudy Gobert fell to the bottom of the All-Star team draft. Mitchell says that criticism is nothing new.
“I don’t want to be rude but I really don’t care,” Mitchell said, according to Sarah Todd of the Deseret News. “People have been talking shit about me for a while…we’re not doing this to seek the approval of him.”
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The Jazz are first in the Western Conference standings this season, causing many to wonder whether leaving the team’s top two players on the board until the final two picks was a slight.
“There’s no slander to the Utah Jazz,” James explained after the draft. “You guys gotta understand, just like in video games growing up, we never played with Utah. Even as great as Karl Malone and John Stockton was, we would never pick those guys in video games. Never.”
Charles Barkley, who was covering the draft for TNT, criticized the lack of support for the Jazz: “I’m not going for this Utah Jazz slander right now. Come on, man. They got the best record in the NBA, and they two best players are the last two standing. This is slander. This is slander, America.”
The All-Star Game is set to tip-off at 8:00 PM, Sunday.
[Via]