Donovan Mitchell diary: ‘I’m not going to stop chasing a ring’

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell felt lost, confused and embarrassed when he woke up Tuesday morning. With his season over in a brutal way, he was scheduled to fly to — of all places — New York later that day.

Mitchell and the Cavaliers’ season ended after a 130-93 rout by the New York Knicks on Monday night, completing a four-game sweep of the Eastern Conference finals.

A 2026 All-NBA second-team selection, Mitchell reached the conference finals for the first time in his nine-year career but fell short of advancing the the NBA Finals.

While Mitchell and the Cavs may feel better about advancing to the franchise’s first conference finals since 2018, the morning after being swept was too early to put the season’s accomplishments in perspective.

“When I woke up this morning, there is no easy way. … It was just like, ‘Damn, it’s over with,’ ” Mitchell told Andscape from the Cavaliers’ practice facility late Tuesday morning. “You just wake up like, ‘Damn, what am I doing? What do you do now?’ You just feel clueless, but not about just the loss. Being swept is always tough. It’s embarrassing, nasty. But it just gets you ready for 19 weeks from now.

“It was a very painful ending. To go out like that, you try to put on a smile and try to move past it. It’ll take a little bit. The worst part about it is just the sweep. We had an opportunity, right? It was right there. I’m saying we go ahead and win the series. Whatever happens, happens. But when you have an opportunity, man, and you watch it go past, that’s killer. And at the end with the 35-, whatever it was, point loss. That s‑‑‑, I don’t really know how else to describe it. But that’s one of the things. It don’t matter all the success we’ve had. Yeah, it’s great. But when you lose like that, it’s tough.”

During the 2025-26 NBA season, Mitchell exclusively shared insight into his life on and off the court with the Cavaliers in his monthly diary on Andscape. Draymond Green, Vince Carter, Trae Young, CJ McCollum, Fred VanVleet, De’Aaron Fox, Cade Cunningham, James Wiseman, Josh Jackson, Bradley Beal and, most recently, Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero have participated in previous Andscape diaries.

Mitchell averaged 27.9 points, 5.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game this season, earning an All-NBA selection for the third time in his career. The 29-year-old former University of Louisville star is now averaging more than 25 points per game in his 609-game NBA career and has made seven consecutive All-Star teams.

The Cavs also made an attempt for a title push by adding guard James Harden at the trade deadline, eventually finishing the regular season with a 52-30 record and entering the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s No. 4 seed. Both of Cleveland’s first two series were seven-game affairs, opening the postseason with the Toronto Raptors and then dispatching the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in the second round.

The Cavaliers played every other day, including two Game 7s, between April 29 and May 25, when they were eliminated by New York.

The following is Mitchell’s ninth and final NBA season diary with Andscape, recorded late Tuesday morning from the Cavaliers’ practice facility.

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.

There is more to give. If we had been playing tomorrow, I’d still be ready. Locked in. You prepare for these moments, but this is uncharted territory for me. Sometimes it takes a tough loss in a unique situation or an embarrassing situation to get over a hump and be somewhere we’ve never been. Just because we’ve never been here doesn’t mean we should get swept. Mentally, we know what it is. We just got to be ready for it next [season].

You didn’t win, right? There’s no participation trophies. But I’ve done something that I’ve never done in my career [make the conference finals]. So, when you reflect and look back on the year, it’s a step. But it’s not the step, right? It’s taken me nine years to get here. So, you’re very grateful. You’re very appreciative because you know how hard you’ve worked and what time I put into it, but there’s another level to it.

What’s going to keep me up at night? I think a few different things. RJ Barrett’s [game-winning] shot in Toronto [in Game 6 of the first round]. The eight-second violation against Toronto [in Game 6]. Playing poorly individually in Game 6 against Detroit. Losing the 20-point lead against these [Knicks in Game 1]. Outside of RJ’s shot, [those are] all things that are controllable, that are within our control. I can’t control the fact that RJ’s shot hit the top and bounced around. Can’t control that. You can control getting up the court. You can control maybe not shooting poorly. But overall affecting the game in Game 6, not having to go to a Game 7; you can control losing a 20-point lead. And not to say the reason why all these things [happened] are on me, but I can only control me. Just being able to do what I can control and control what I can control, that’s probably my biggest thing and that’s what I will be focused on.

I take great pride in my leadership because it’s easy to lead right when things are going well. It’s easy to be that guy. But like I said, we didn’t start the [season] off great and I just doubled down into the team. I think a lot of people quit on us and said, “Well, we’re going to be this and that.” I try to be steady, try to be a positive light throughout. There was a lot of uncertainty this year, whether it was injuries, trades. There was, like, so many different things, lineups. But I feel like if you can just remain the constant, you can consistently be the steadying force.

I don’t just mean with my play, right? Every day in the locker room, if I’m joking, everybody’s [happy]. If I’m sitting there mad and all that stuff, what does that do for the group? And sometimes you have to sacrifice your own personal happiness for the sake of the group, because if you’re not good, then sometimes the group doesn’t follow that — especially when you have a younger group who’s playing heavy minutes in the regular season.

As the leader of this team, you have to instill that belief and empowerment in them as well. That taught me a lot. It’s easy to say, ’empower, empower,’ but there’s certain things that should be happening fast. But how would Jaylon Tyson know that? It’s his second year. How would Tyrese Proctor know that? How would Nae’Qwan Tomlin know that? They just got here.

Then you go out there and you really don’t know who’s going to be in the lineup, who’s not going to be in the lineup. But the one thing I love about this group is I can trust every single human in there. So, it makes my job as a leader very easy. But as for growth for myself, I just feel like withstanding all the ups and downs of the season, it’s a long season, and if you start to ride that wave, you’re not going to get to where you want to get to.

I feel like this [contract extension talk] has been a consistent theme every single season I’ve been here. And I thought it would go away once I signed the first extension, but here we are.

I said it [Monday night]: “I love it here.” I see growth. I see a runway. I believe. I’ve made Cleveland home outside of just basketball. I don’t want to go. I don’t really know how else to blatantly say it to people for them to believe me. If they don’t believe me, then hey, who cares? I don’t care. The organization knows and everybody in the building knows and feels the way I feel. I’ve been saying this since I first got to Cleveland. I was called [out], “Oh, he’s lying.” I was about to sign my extension three years ago, “Oh, he’s lying.” Signed it. They’re like, “Oh, [he’s] not signing the long term.” Whatever. There’s always going to be something, I guess. So, Cleveland, you know how I feel. This is just for everybody else.

Playing with James has taught me a lot. He’s helped me a bunch. He’s helped the group a lot. I’m appreciative of him because he helped me get somewhere that I’ve never been before and the team as well.

Sometimes the simple question is, “Why? Why do you care about this certain thing?” It’s like, “Oh, I’ve never really thought of that.” But it’s different when you have somebody that you look eye to eye within that scenario. I’ve never played with a guy like James who’s done what he’s done. So, to hear some things from him, it’s like, “Man, all right.” And what he’s been able to do for our group, man, it’s been phenomenal. Obviously, we didn’t get to where we wanted to get to, but people are going to say what they want to say.

We don’t get to the conference finals without James Harden. We tried. I don’t know how else to put it, but we live in a world where it’s just so much easier to knock and hate. And pretty sure they’re going to hate me. They’re going to hate [Evan Mobley], they hate [head coach] Kenny [Atkinson]. They’re going to hate everybody, right? So, this right here isn’t me saying, “Don’t hate us.”

I’ve watched [Harden] for nine years. I’ve watched it and to see it firsthand, the work ethic, the passion, the IQ, the leadership. The man just gets a bad rep. And I talked about how he changed the game and all that stuff, but he did. Yeah, sure, has he had some rough moments? I’m sure we all have. LeBron [James] is one of the greatest players ever. We don’t really speak on the [Dallas] Mavericks [NBA] Final [in 2011] when he struggled [with the Miami Heat]. We don’t speak on [Michael] Jordan taking eight years to get to the Finals. We speak on the wins.

I saw Denzel [Washington] say this. He’s won three Oscars. And the first thing he said to the interviewer was like, “Yeah, but I lost eight times.” We don’t talk about that, right? We talk about what? Success, success, success. We don’t talk about the failures. And we really harp on the failures, and I hate that part about the world we live in. But it is what it is. Not just with him, but with me, with our team, that’s just what it’s always going to be.

Unless you win the championship, no one’s going to say anything positive. I was going to go, “Hey, what’s next? What are they going to do? Are they going to blow it up? Are they going to do this? Are they ready? Is he this? Is he that?” It’s always been that way. And being around James [Harden] and seeing it firsthand. not really be on me for a second, but on him and I’m like, “No, that ain’t right.” I’ve gotten my fair share, for sure. But seeing it and it’s watching how he handles [it]; y’all [skeptics] really don’t matter. For me, my biggest reason of backing him and supporting him is because we lose the plot of greatness if there’s no ring attached.

I love this group we have. And I’ve always said this isn’t my area, right? This isn’t my job. My job is to go out there and do the best I can on the floor. But obviously [Cavaliers president] Koby [Altman] and everybody will have their conversations. [Cavaliers owner] Dan [Gilbert] said what he said after the game. So, we’ll see. … We are going to war with whoever’s presented on the floor, and that’s kind of my mindset.

As far as this locker room goes, I love everybody in there. We’ve done something. We’ve grown each year, especially on the court, man. To see us lose to the Knicks in the first round [in 2023], get to the second round [in 2024], then lose to the [Indiana] Pacers last year, and now we’re here. We’ve shown a lot of growth and I’m very proud of the group, but anything outside of that is not up to me.

No wedding talk. She [fiancée Coco Jones] has been good, man. She’s handled it on her own. She’s let me rock. I’m sure it’ll be coming in the next few days. She’s actually going to the American Black Film Festival in Miami for her two movies. So please make sure y’all tune in and watch that, both of them that she’s in. But yeah, no wedding talk. It’s been strictly business. But now that we’re done, I have no doubt that I will have my hands full for the next few weeks with our wedding stuff.

Jaylen Brown finally responded. Thank you, JB. After my fifth call. But to his credit, the person that texted him [an invite] used an old number. We got that squared away. He said he’s bringing his mom as plus one. So, shout out to JB and moms. I had to call out two of my teammates. They didn’t respond. But I finally got them to respond. So, I appreciate Dennis [Schröder] and Thomas Bryant. So, we got them locked in. Everybody else is good. I appreciate everybody.

I did this diary just because I feel like it’s lowkey like Jaylen Brown streaming, except I’m not as wild. But it’s like I want to give people my thoughts, right? Like you always hear “what Donovan should do.” “What should the Cavs do?” But you never really hear things from the horse’s mouth. You never hear the perspective. You never hear, “Hey, this is life.” [I wanted to] give people a unique experience of Donovan. And I think that was kind of the whole premise behind this.

For me, it was just to give people a different lens of me. And ultimately, you control your narrative. You have the power behind that, right? So that’s hopefully why I did this. And I think we’ve done a great job. And I appreciate you guys [Andscape] because it’s come out great. And yeah, it’s been a great year doing this. I’ve been more comfortable speaking about the season as it goes, more so than I’ve ever had in my career, too. So, that was different.

I hope people learned that we’re actually human beings. I think people will realize like this is a game and it’s taken me to heights that I’ve never really imagined — generational wealth in my family, places in the world that I couldn’t even think of playing in front of millions of people. And understand that, hey, like, there’s only one champion, right? There’s only one team that says that they had success. So, what you’re seeing through this is trials and tribulations, right, like what it takes? I hope to inspire the youth with this. They can kind of see like, “Hey, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.” The NBA is great, but it’s a business. It’s your job. So, I’m teaching that young generation and also just giving people a unique insight on what we do and what I do.

This game, what it’s done for me, what it’s done for my family. It’s put me in spaces, allowed me to meet people. If you would have told me I’m nine years in, almost a decade in, and I’m one of the best players in the NBA, I would be able to take care of my family the way I’m able to, I would be playing with some of the best players ever, I’d be playing for one of the best organizations ever, if you were to tell me I had my own shoe — if you would tell me all these things, I wouldn’t believe you. And what this [basketball] right here can do for you as a human is special.

Sometimes in losing, you’re going, you’re going, you’re going. You lose sight of life. Without this [basketball], I don’t meet my fiancée. I always thought it’d be baseball. It’s crazy how life just works this way. To be going on 10 years in something that was so far for me, there’s always a blessing. This is my life. I get to do this. It’s a child’s game that we play, and people celebrate and go crazy and boo and scream. It’s something that I’ve never taken for granted. I love this game.

As a kid that struggled in school because all he wanted to do was do recess, I’m basically doing recess as my job. It’s wild. I’m forever blessed. We may win a ring here. We may never win a ring here. But I’ve won in life, and I’m really happy about that. It doesn’t change my desire or my hunger. But when I wake up every day, I’m like, “Man, OK. I’m OK.” I have purpose, but I’m appreciative of what I’ve done as a human. So, yeah, this game has provided [for] me — and I’m not going to stop chasing a ring, and I’m going to die trying, to be honest.

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