Jazz's Donovan Mitchell Hopes Pass to Rudy Gobert Ends Relationship Questions

With Thursday's game between the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans tied at 104 apiece and the final seconds ticking away, Donovan Mitchell drove the lane and flipped a pass to Rudy Gobert, who was fouled going up to the basket and made both free throws to help clinch Utah's 106-104 win. 

After the game, Mitchell said he hoped that pass put an end to any questions about his relationship with Gobert, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon:

"That also kind of stops y'all from talking about it, to be honest with you. At the end, we're basketball players. We go out there and make the right play. He did a hell of a job. I try to find my way and find guys who get open. For me, at the end of the game, it's about making the right read. I've told y'all a thousand times I'm trying to be a better passer, better playmaker as a whole. To be able to do that in that situations just shows the steps I've made."

Gobert praised his teammate after the game for making "the right play."

"Donovan was trying to make the right play and he did," Gobert said, per MacMahon. "A lot of people probably won't be able to probably say the things they want to say to try to break our team apart. Like I said, life works in mysterious ways."

The significance of the pass did not go unnoticed:

The relationship between Mitchell and Gobert reportedly became quite severed after the season went on hiatus, as Gobert—who had displayed a cavalier attitude toward the COVID-19 pandemic and had shown symptoms before his positive test but procrastinated getting himself checked by team doctors—became the first player to test positive for the coronavirus.

Mitchell registered a positive test shortly thereafter, and a source close to the team told The Athletic that the pair's relationship didn't "appear salvageable," with Mitchell upset by Gobert's handling of the situation. 

According to ESPN's Tim MacMahon, the two went weeks without talking, and Mitchell acknowledged during an appearance on Good Morning America that "it took me a while to kind of cool off."

Both spoke about the situation in early July.

"Right now, we're good," Mitchell said. "We're going out there ready to hoop."

"We told each other what we had to say to each other," Gobert added. "We are both on the same page. We both want to win. We both think that we have a great opportunity, and we know that we need each other. We talked about a lot of things, but the main thing was that we are on the same page and the fact that our team needs us. We can win together. That's the most important thing."

On Thursday night, there didn't appear to be any lingering effects from the reported rift between the two. Given how big a story it was at the time, however, it's hard to imagine one pass erasing it from the memory of basketball pundits and fans alike.