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Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell is known as “Spida” nowadays. During his freshman year at the University of Lousiville, however, he was known as “Sliders,” according to a report from Jeff Greer of The Athletic.
Mitchell was part of a talented crew of freshman prospects heading to Louisville in 2015 — one that included Deng Adel, Ryan McMahon, Ray Spalding and two graduate transfers in Damion Lee and Trey Lewis.
Though he was just a freshman, Mitchell immediately began making a name for himself on the practice court. As a result, Lee, who transferred to Louisville from Drexel, says teammates began calling Mitchell “Sliders.”
Lee: In practice, Donovan would be on the second team or the scout team. When you’re on the second team, you have more freedom than the guys on the first team. Donovan would be the other team’s best player. We’d call him “Sliders,” because it was like when you play NBA 2K and you put the game sliders all the way up to 99 or 100. It’s just like, What the hell is going on? What is this dude doing? He’s making everything, making these crazy passes, dunking on people.
Mitchell, now 22 years of age and entering his third season of NBA service, has established himself as the face of the Jazz organization. The former 13th overall pick made 77 appearances with the team during their 2018-19 campaign (all starts), racking up averages of 23.8 points on 43.2 percent shooting from the field (36.2 percent from beyond the arc), 4.2 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 33.7 minutes per outing.
