Donovan Mitchell passes a Utah Jazz legend on all-time list
Indeed, Donovan Mitchell is steadily climbing one list of Utah Jazz greats.
Donovan Mitchell still has almost 30,000 points to go before challenging Karl Malone on the Utah Jazz’s all-time regular-season scoring list. Nevertheless, the fifth-year pro is inching his way up the leaderboard.
With his game-high 26 points in Saturday night’s 123-105 road win over the Sacramento Kings, Mitchell jumped into the No. 13 spot among history’s Utah bucket-getters. His 6,867 points now forever sit above the 6,848 total that Jeff Hornacek tallied across his seven seasons as a legendary Jazz sharpshooter from 1993-94 to 1999-00.
The performance against the Kings marked Mitchell’s eighth time scoring 25 or more points throughout Utah’s 11-5 start to its 2021-22 campaign. Yet he hadn’t done so in the previous four games. In 32 minutes on the court, he also contributed five rebounds, five assists, and one steal to the victory while shooting 11-for-22 from the field, including a 3-for-7 clip beyond the arc.
Other Utah Jazz gems in reach of Donovan Mitchell this season
The 25-year-old’s career points in regular-season action are now perhaps only a couple of games from sliding into No. 12 on the franchise’s list and past Rickey Green, who dropped 6,917 points across eight seasons with the Jazz from 1980-81 to 1987-88.
Yes, assuming Mitchell stays healthy and does not encounter any severe shooting slumps, he ought to leapfrog Green as well as Mehmet Okur (7,255), Derrick Favors (7,336), Deron Williams (7,576), and Gordon Hayward (8,077) by season’s end. At that point, the former No. 13 overall draft pick out of Louisville would sit No. 8 in franchise history.
And if Mitchell improves his current 24.4 points per game a tad, the two-time All-Star could flirt with No. 6 and No. 7 on the list in Andrei Kirilenko (8,411) and Pete Maravich (8,324).
The top five are Thurl Bailey (9,897), Darrell Griffith (12,391), Adrian Dantley (13,635), John Stockton (19,711), and Karl Malone (36,374).
