The New York Knicks swept Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers on Monday, and it will take them a lot longer than four days to get over it. And for the 29-year-old star guard, it will probably take even longer, considering that his home is New York. In his last NBA season diary for Andscape, he detailed just how much harder it will be for him to escape what happened:
Going home [to New York] after this is tough. Going home to my house is tough just because I won’t be able to escape this for a long time. I won’t be able to escape the madness that’s going to come with this, that’s coming with this. It’s not always just about the fact that the Cavs lost. It’s just that I have to see the team that beat us and watch the fanatics, live around the fanatics, go order my favorite sandwich and the person behind the counter is a fanatic. All of my camps, the kids are fanatics. So, it’s safe to say if you feel like there’s some type of motivation, it’s definitely there. But yeah, it’s going to be a long summer. But hey, we should have won, then it wouldn’t be the situation.
Mitchell returns to New York during the offseason to be closer to family. He's from Elmsford, about 22 miles outside of Manhattan, so assuming his home is somewhere in that area, it truly will be impossible for him to escape the Knicks fanatics.
Losing in that fashion is never easy, and that's especially the case when you get nonstop reminders about what happened. There truly may not be a "safe" place for him to go, other than his own house, and even then, he can't turn on the television or open social media without seeing something about the Knicks.
Donovan Mitchell can't escape the Knicks after sweep
Mitchell is an avid Mets fan, and his father works for the team. He typically goes to Citi Field during the offseason to catch a game, but he may choose to avoid going there for a while because of how palpable the Knicks' energy is right now.
New Yorkers may be split between the Yankees and Mets, but one thing the majority can agree on is the Knicks, so Mitchell can't even use America's favorite pastime as an escape.
It hasn't even reached its peak yet. The Knicks are already the topic of conversation in and around the city, but when the NBA Finals air, that will be quite literally all that matters. And if they do win four more games, we will see things never witnessed before.
Hopefully, for Mitchell's sake, he has a plan to get out of dodge if that happens. Or maybe he's a sicko who wants to soak it in and use it as motivation, as he said. It would certainly be something he could refer back to next season (and for the rest of his life, for that matter).
You know, it might be sort of cool for Mitchell to witness the Knicks winning their first championship since 1973, if the Cavaliers' season didn't end the way it did. It must feel like some cruel joke.
To think that there was a time (just four years ago) that fans were attached to their phones, even more so than usual, hoping to get the notification that Utah traded Donovan Mitchell to New York. The Knicks did get their missing piece that offseason, but it wasn't him — just some guy who goes by Jalen Brunson.
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