Donovan Mitchell didn’t spend his summer spiraling over the LeBron James sweepstakes, even though the Cavaliers had real reason to believe they were in the mix.
On In Motion With Ashley Nicole Moss, the Cleveland star said the possibility of James returning to his hometown team had crossed his mind, but he refused to live there for long.
“Yeah, it is something that was definitely on the brain,” Mitchell said. “You’d be naive to think that that’s not a possibility. But I like to live in the real, not the what-ifs or the possibilities.”
Mitchell also admitted he made the pitch directly to James, though he wasn’t about to turn the conversation into a full-court press.
“It’s just more like ‘Hey, we’d love to do this,'” Mitchell said. “But at the end of the day, I’m not going to blow somebody’s phone up.
It’s his decision to make. He’s earned that right.
He’s done this for 20-some years. He’s won here.
He’s won in L.A. He’s won everywhere he’s went.
So at the end of the day, if he was here, we welcome him. If he’s not, he’s not.
“So, now it’s like he’s the enemy,” Mitchell continued. “But you understand what Cleveland fans and what the media is going to be because he’s LeBron James.
So ultimately for me, my summer didn’t change. I was like, I’m just going to focus on doing what I got to do, and if it’s real, then it happens, and it happens.
But I don’t like to live in the maybes or the what-ifs. ‘Cause then you start going all over.”
The Cavaliers were one of five teams in the running for James, along with the Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, and Minnesota Timberwolves. His two former teams were viewed as the most likely landing spots, and Cleveland was openly framed as a real option because James had spent 11 seasons there, plus four with the Heat. He won two titles in Miami and one with the Cavaliers.
Mitchell’s public recruiting pitch was as simple as it gets.
“I mean, it’s home. We’ve done it once; let’s do it again.
Simple as that,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think I’ll cry [when he retires], but it would be great to be a part of that if it’s his last year.”
That reunion never materialized. James wound up signing with the 76ers, a move that caught plenty of people off guard, including Mitchell.
“I didn’t think it was Philly,” Mitchell said. “I did think it was either us or Golden State, but hey, it happens.”
James signed a two-year, $8 million deal with Philadelphia, including a player option for the second season. The 76ers reportedly only entered the picture after they acquired Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics.
Cleveland’s inability to land Brown was one of three reasons James passed on the Cavaliers. The other two were that family was not a factor and that the team had traded away Darius Garland, another Klutch Sports Group client.
There was still enough serious interest for James to hold a secret meeting with the Cavaliers’ front office, which showed he was at least considering a return home. In the end, though, he went elsewhere.
Mitchell, meanwhile, has had no shortage of good news of his own. In July, he and the Cavaliers agreed to a four-year, $273 million extension. On Aug. 1, the 30-year-old married Grammy Award-winning singer Coco Jones.
He also had another strong season on the floor, averaging 27.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in 2025-26. But the ring that still matters most remains out of reach.
The Knicks swept Mitchell and the Cavaliers in the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals, and that loss has left them without the kind of championship buzz that would normally come with a roster built to contend. James in Cleveland would have changed that. Instead, Mitchell is left with the version of the summer that actually happened, and all the what-ifs that came with it.
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