By Aidan Fajardo
Listen to your coaches.
That is the advice of Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell to budding basketball players during his press conference at the adidas Sports Performance Store, Two Parkade, Bonifacio Global City on Sunday.
“For me, you just have to listen to your coaches, if you don’t listen you don’t really have a shot”, said Mitchell, who is currently one of the frontrunners for the NBA Rookie of the Year award alongside Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons
The Jazz shooting guard and adidas endorse was accompanied by Rain or Shine player Chris Tiu and Gilas star Kobe Paras.
Mitchell also said that in order to succeed in the NBA, he mastered the fundamentals of basketball and practiced hard before turning pro.
“I practiced the crazy shots before I even got to the NBA. Practice the fundamentals. Fundamentals must be solid,” said Mitchell, who owns the nickname Spida. “Pay attention to detail, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, well, you’ll suck.”
“Speed, the preparation, the athleticism. You have to get used to that,” Mitchell added.
Tiu, a PBA veteran, also shared that the biggest advantage you can have against a rookie is experience.
“Definitely, these guys are much younger than I am, you know exactly what they’re tendencies are,” Tiu said.