As much as Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell appreciated the throwback navy jerseys and logo from the 2000s, the team's debut Classic Edition night wasn't the inspirational factor behind his incredible 46-point performance against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Instead, it was an online trash-talking “kid or grown man” on NBA 2K26 who angered Mitchell to the point where he wanted to spite this random person.

“He just called me washed up. He called me a bunch of things,” Mitchell said following the Cavs' 132-121 win over the Sixers. “But I love it, you know what I mean? He said he ain't seen a highlight from me in a minute. And I just told him, ‘Alright, we'll see.' He said, ‘Tell me to go to sleep.' He was going in. So this game was for that. I appreciate you.”

Mitchell didn't want to give this mystery man the satisfaction of sharing his gamertag afterward.

“I'm not giving him that much attention, but he knows who he is,” Mitchell said. “It was a long, long game, long discussion. We were going back and forth. He probably clipped it, too, so it might be on the Internet or somewhere. But I made sure that I gave him his props for that.”

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Going back to the theme of the evening, he did vouch for keeping the retro court permanently at Rocket Arena — and maybe even the presentation from top to bottom.

“This was really cool to me,” Mitchell said. “I mean, this was the song in the intro, ‘My Time' with Fab [Fabolous], and I think it was Jeremih. Like, I listened to that pregame when I was a kid. To see us walking through the city and all that, you have moments where it's just like… obviously, you play this game and you're trying to win, but this is just a cool day as a whole for me. And obviously, to have the night I had is definitely special as well.”

Mitchell went off, inside and out, going 15-of-21 from the field with a balance of drives, perimeter shots, and passing. He also dished out eight assists, grabbed four rebounds, and recorded a steal.

“The Spida that we know, MVP that we know, First Team All-NBA that we know that he should be every year,” said Darius Garland, who made his season debut on Wednesday after recovering from surgery on his toe. “So it was good to see him, and we really need that to go forward, and he's starting to realize that. But he also wants us to do our thing as well. So it's a give-and-take type of thing with Don, but we really need Don to go be Don.”

“I just think he's underrated,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson added. “And I know, everybody’s like, ‘Yeah, you're his coach.' But I don't know… what guards in the East are better than him? And I respect the heck out of this league.”