While this international trip to Paris may be a first for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it isn't for the Cavs' star guard Donovan Mitchell. It's, in Mitchell's estimation, either his third or fourth time visiting the City of Lights with former Utah Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert as his tour guide for one trip.

“We were here for a few days, actually,” said Mitchell to the media after Wednesday's practice in Paris. “He took me to a different bunch of different places. I didn't get to see where he was from, but obviously, we talked about it quite a bit. It was a cool experience.”

Mitchell and Gobert spent five seasons together in Utah and made the playoffs each time. However, the Jazz never made it past the second round during that stretch. It seemed like they finally would in 2020-21 when they finished with the best record in the NBA, but they lost to the short-handed Los Angeles Clippers in the second round and everything came crumbling down soon after for Utah.

Soon after Gobert was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Mitchell to the Cavs, Mitchell  shared with Andscape's Marc J. Spears that basketball-wise, the pairing “just didn't work.”

“We live in such a world where it has to be really negative,” said Mitchell. “Basketball just didn't work. We didn't see eye to eye. We wanted to both win, but we wanted to do it two different ways. It didn't work.”

Mitchell being totally transparent with Spears certainly turned a lot of heads. It also seemingly confirmed a lot of outside noise that Mitchell and Gobert had an unspoken hatred of one another. Once the duo broke up and hugged one another the first time the Cavs faced the Timberwolves, it seemed like the end.

Well, with Gobert serving as one of the faces of French basketball and Mitchell in Paris, the conversation understandably came up again. But, instead of dodging the question, Mitchell was fully transparent again and sent any notion of beef out to pasture.

“I haven't talked to him since we've been out here,” said Mitchell when asked if he had spoken to Gobert before coming to Paris. “But he's having a hell of a year. He's doing his thing over there in Minnesota, and they're the No. 1 seed.

“I have no problem with Rudy. I think a lot of it was more media drama than anything else. There's no bad blood. There's nothing there. I think it's more speculation, more of a media thing, if anything else.”

Mitchell said he plans to reach out to Gobert once the Cavs are back in the United States. He said the time difference and spending time in Paris, all while preparing for Cleveland's international tilt with the Brooklyn Nets, has kept him understandably occupied.

Mitchell and the Cavs won't host Gobert and the Timberwolves until early March so there isn't a chance for either player to hug it out once again.

Either way, with these comments it's clear neither Mitchell nor Gobert are in their 1989 era and don't have to remind everyone that band-aids don't fix bullet holes while saying sorry just for show. Instead, everyone read too much into a basketball situation that ran its course and eventually became clear that a breakup was necessary for all parties involved. Both players are doing better things with their new teams and have clearly moved on. Now, it's time for everyone else to do the same.