![Donovan Mitchell ’15 Receives ESPY Award]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1532019873/brewsteracademyorg/yrmknectm7splwyvorii/DonovanESPY.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1532019873/brewsteracademyorg/yrmknectm7splwyvorii/DonovanESPY.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_3/v1532019873/brewsteracademyorg/yrmknectm7splwyvorii/DonovanESPY.png","width":800},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1532019873/brewsteracademyorg/yrmknectm7splwyvorii/DonovanESPY.png","width":814}])
July 19, 2018 – 2015 graduate Donovan Mitchell received an ESPY Award for Best Breakthrough Athlete for his stellar NBA rookie season. After two years at the University of Louisville, Mitchell declared for the 2017 NBA draft where he was the 13th overall selection. Soon after, his rights were traded by the Denver Nuggets to the Utah Jazz.
Upon accepting the award, Mitchell first thanked his parents and sister Jordan ’20 (mother Nicole and Jordan were in the audience) for their support and never-ending commitment. He also thanked his alma maters Brewster Academy, Greenwich Country Day School, and the University of Louisville, noting “Without the help from all you guys I wouldn’t be here.”
His message to all the kids watching … “Don’t’ let anybody put limits on what you can do. … Go out there and have fun and enjoy it. Enjoy life and enjoy your passion whatever it may be, whether it is sports, whatever it may be. Don’t let anybody put a limit on yourself. … You are as good as you can be. … For all the kids out there. Just do you and have fun.”
Mitchell wasn’t the only Brewster alumnus nominated for an ESPY. Brewster teammate Joe Sherburne ’15, along with the UMBC basketball team, earned a Best Sports Moment nomination for upsetting the #1 seed University of Virginia in the NCAA tournament. It was the first time in tournament history that a #1 seed got bumped by the sixteenth seed.
ESPY Awards, presented by ABC, recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding the annual awards ceremony.