Nets rookie Mikel Brown Jr. gets high praise from mentor Donovan Mitchell as two face off for first time
CLEVELAND — Donovan Mitchell once likened speaking with a then-teenage Mikel Brown Jr.to talking hoops with James Harden, marveling at his protege’s maturity and basketball IQ. Saturday night, Brown got his first chance to suit up for real against both Mitchell and Harden.
The Nets rookie finally got to play against his mentor in a game that mattered — and got to face the future Hall of Famer Harden for good measure in the Nets game at Cleveland. “Shoot, it’s great,” Brown, 20, said beforehand.“They’re obviously coming off a loss as well, just as we are, so they’re going to come in hungry.
But to be able to play against Don was kind of crazy.The time went by.
Three years ago I literally just met him in high school, and to be able to share the same court as him now and compete against him is great.” The Nets overtly tanked the last two seasons to get back-to-back lottery picks that became first Egor Dëmin and now Brown. While they had the joint-best odds of landing the top overall pick, they slid all the way to sixth.But the silver lining is that in a deep class they still ended up with Brown, whom Mitchell has said is hardly a consolation prize. “Not many high school kids pay attention to the details.
I’m having conversations with [Brown] like I’m talking to James Harden,” Mitchell said recently.“He’s going to do amazing things in Brooklyn.
Nets fans should be really excited, because they got one.” Years ago, when they were on a different timeline, the Nets eyed Mitchell.A local who was born in Elmsford — and played AAU basketball for both the Riverside Hawks and The City — he would’ve made an All-Star centerpiece in Brooklyn. Now they can only hope that Brown can someday become that. Brown was one-and-done at Louisville, where Mitchell was All-ACC in 2017.
The latter took him under his wing, and is helping him right up until today. “Yeah, really just use what he [taught] … I get to use against him now, so ...