At the height of last season’s Rookie of the Year race, with Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell and Philadelphia 76er forward Ben Simmons trading highlight-reel plays, stat-stuffing performances and win after win back and forth from opposite ends of the country, the crew from adidas was spit-balling some ideas to boost the underdog’s profile. Mitchell had been the No. 13 pick in the draft. His meteoric rise had come as a surprise to most, in many ways to the Jazz, his brand, and Mitchell himself. He was just a rookie, and yet somehow so much more.
Someone at adidas threw out the idea that would define the word rookie and Mitchell’s campaign.