Becoming an NBA player one of the ultimate dreams for talented athletes involved in the sport, even if they played multiple sports growing up. If you asked Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell about his goals and aspirations as a young athlete, you might be surprised based on where he has taken his career so far.

“Baseball was really it,” Mitchell told SLAM Online. “I had my mind made up—I wanted to make the Major Leagues. But then I broke my wrist and that kind of went out the window right then.”

Mitchell seemed to truly look up to baseball stars when watching sports growing up, and he instills some of their values into whichever sport he ends up playing to bring a paycheck to the table.

“When you grow up watching guys like David Wright, Jose Reyes and Pedro Martinez, you definitely have a sense of professionalism about yourself and you see how guys who are making millions of dollars stay humble and stay grounded,” Mitchell continued. “I’ve also seen athletes who are not humbled and not grounded and are jerks in that way. I try to go out there and treat people right. My mother is big on that. She tells me, ‘The way you treat people is the way they’ll treat you.’ I’ve grown up with that same philosophy and that outlook doesn’t change whether I’m in the NBA or not.”