Let’s send Donovan Mitchell to the dunk contest

Donovan Mitchell, selected No. 13 overall by the Utah Jazz in last June’s draft, has got up and nabbed the unofficial title Steal of the Draft. No one else can have it. Put it on a plaque, let him tattoo it on his forehead, because a bunch of executives across the league are no doubt palming their faces over letting Mitchell slide as far as he did.

We can talk about his points, his maturity or his opportunity all day long, but his dunks…man, his dunks. He’s taking out whatever angst he has about being overlooked on rims across the country. Let’s give this dude a stage. Let’s send Donovan Mitchell to the dunk contest.

“It would be cool,” Mitchell said after a recent game in Sacramento. “I’d love to do it, but there are a lot of guys in the league who have a lot of bounce. Who have dunk contest bounce as opposed to game bounce.”

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Mitchell would explain.

“They are two different things. You can do tricks in the dunk contest that you can’t do in a game. It would be cool, I’d enjoy it, so we’ll see.”

Just minutes before talking with Mitchell, this happened:

That’s why he was asked about the dunk contest. Because, well, he also did this and this. 

Rodney Hood and the rest of his teammates love it when Mitchell gets filthy. “Man, you see the reaction?” Hood said after the game, talking about one of Mitchell’s several dunks (it was unclear which one he was referring to.) “He’s ultra athletic, when he gets in the lane we want him finishing like that. Before long people will start giving him respect and they’ll spread when he goes to the lane.”

The ultimate respect. When people stop trying to guard you after take off.

The talk about Mitchell going to Los Angeles for All-Star weekend is picking up. Mitchell has openly talked about wanting to go, and the Jazz’s P.R. folks, who have been dropping not-so-subtle hints on social media, told me they will continue to campaign for their wunderkind rookie.

Utah’s head coach Quin Snyder, however, won’t publicly feed the hype. When asked about if Mitchell’s dunks do anything to energize the team, Snyder naturally went in a different direction.

“The game is not about highlights, but if you think of a dunk as attacking the rim, any time you’re aggressive going to the rim it’s a good thing,” Snyder said. “If it ends up being a dunk then that’s even better, because if you dunk it, it’s going in.”

Snyder makes a fine point. Dunks are efficient, and are often a result of playing good defense and forcing turnovers that lead to transition opportunities.

But they’re also dope.

During his short career, Mitchell has shown a propensity for the highlight.

There’s already highlight packages on YouTube documenting his best dunks. Now’s a good time to remind you Mitchell has only played in 43 NBA games. The dude, clearly, has “game bounce.”

Now we need to find out if he has “dunk contest bounce.” (I have a sneaking suspicion he does.)

Mitchell probably won’t win Rookie of the Year. That will most likely go to 76ers non-rookie Ben Simmons. Mitchell won’t be an All-Star, because he’s a rookie and because the Jazz aren’t very good and because, well, he doesn’t deserve it yet. He does, however, deserve some sort of recognition. He’ll be named to the NBA’s All-Rookie team, no doubt, but the dunk contest is still one of the league’s brightest stages. A place where legends can still be made.

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We all deserve to see Mitchell try, if only to give him a chance to rub it in the faces of 12 other teams, again, what they passed up on.