“Cool to just wear sweats”: Donovan Mitchell shuts down necessity of $124.6 billion brand being sported by 15 year olds

Donovan Mitchell built up quite a reputation before ever making it to the NBA. On one occasion, the young guard went viral after he was pictured throwing down a spectacular dunk at an Under Armour-sponsored event in Brooklyn.

While his high school performances and streetball prowess helped college recruiting, today they would have earned him quite a bit of NIL money.

The NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deals that college players are securing have earned many collegiate athletes millions. In the case of some athletes like LSU's Angel Reese, her NIL valuation of $1.6 million according to Just Women's Sports is far more than she would make in the WNBA for example.

While collegiate athletes being paid has generally been viewed as a positive thing for NCAA sports, there have been exceptions. In the case of NCAA American Football player Shedeur Sanders, who frequently boasts about his Rolex watches and Rolls Royce, others feel things have gone too far.

In a recent interview, Donovan Mitchell explained that he wants to coach one day, specifically stating that he wants to coach high school because he can make the biggest impact. In an appearance on the Point Forward podcast he said:

"You don't need to be wearing Dior at 15. It's cool to just wear sweats and get your curse. Yeah, you get your shit and then that's it, you know what I'm saying?

"And when you get to the space where you wearing that, nil is a little different now, but you know what I'm saying? ... you don't have to do all that, in my opinion"

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What else has Donovan Mitchell said about his future retirement?

Although he still has plenty of good years ahead of him, and has shown no interest in retiring just yet, Donovan Mitchell’s comments about coaching have drawn attention.

Given his young age, there has been little talk of his career after retirement, however, he did briefly mention retirement in 2022.

As he explained at the time in an interview with Marc J. Spears, he didn’t feel as though he had done enough to warrant his jersey being retired by the Utah Jazz organization.

Despite the franchise being one of the few in the NBA to never raise a banner, Mitchell doesn’t believe that his time in Utah warrants a jersey retirement.

While he and Rudy Gobert had several successful seasons, where they made deep playoff pushes, the team fell short of their ultimate goal. As such, Mitchell will now look to cement his place in Cleveland Cavaliers history as he and the team look to make a 2023–24 playoff push.

With plenty of years left in his career, should Donovan Mitchell secure an NBA championship, it's incredibly likely that he will end up having his jersey retired.