13-Year-Old Donovan Mitchell Was At LeBron's "The Decision"

Donovan Mitchell just keeps surprising us!

This past weekend, the NBA Rookie of the Year candidate beat a pair of high-flying Juniors and a Black Panther to win the 2018 NBA Dunk Contest. His bag of tricks included homages to Vince Carter and Dr Dunkenstien and a touching tribute to his sister that involved Kevin Hart. The accomplishment is the latest of many that has fans wondering, "Where the hell did this guy come from?"

Ballislife fans might remember first seeing him on our mixtapes or at our 2015 All-American game. But many basketball fans almost saw him...five years earlier?

In 2010, a 13-year-old Mitchell went to the Greenwich Boys and Girls Club with the hopes of seeing his favorite player, LeBron James, make one of the most controversial decisions in sports history.

BIL-DONOVAN

As much as we want to believe the circled kid in the above photo is the Utah Jazz rising star, It's not. I asked him today and he said it wasn't.

“It was cool,” Mitchell said to The Salt Lake Tribune. “I was outside, so it was cool being there. I wanted him to go to Miami at that point, I wanted him to get a ring. I remember there were a lot of upset people there. There were a lot of Knicks fans, Greenwich being so close to New York and all. But it was definitely cool.”

Real cool! But probably not as cool as dropping 29 points in a win over your favorite player eight years later.

KANYE WAS ALSO THERE

Also present at the infamous event was a pre-Kardashian Kanye West!

According to former ESPN employee Courtney Cox, she had a fear of West pulling a MTV Awards moment like he did with Taylor Swift so she placed him a few rows back. He ended up falling asleep during the event and left before LeBron announced he was taking his talents to South Beach.

I spend the first 15 minutes or so honed in on ‘Ye’s every move. He seems chill, he’s wearing his glasses indoors, and he’s not making sudden moves. I forget he’s there until one of the camera operators says, “I think Kanye West fell asleep.”