NEW YORK -- Donovan Mitchell still remembers the noise. As a young fan sitting inside Madison Square Garden during a playoff game years ago, he was watching the New York Knicks, his hometown team, play on the game's biggest stage.
On Friday, before a pivotal Game 3 (the series is tied 1-1; 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC) as the star player of the Cleveland Cavaliers, he'll walk into the World's Most Famous Arena in a role he never could have anticipated back then: villain.
"It's fun," Mitchell said after Friday's shootaround. "I think as a competitor you want to be booed.