Monday night was a dream come true for Eric Paschall and Donovan Mitchell. The final score read Jazz 122, Warriors 108 ... but there was a bigger picture going on at Chase Center in San Francisco.
Paschall, the Warriors' breakout rookie, and Mitchell, the Jazz's young star, faced each other in the NBA for the first time after a life-long friendship. The two swapped jerseys once the Dubs fell to Utah and reflected on the moment.
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SIGN UP HERE Paschall and Mitchell's friendship started as church league basketball teammates in Harlem, New York, and only has grown since. As Mitchell has achieved young stardom, he has been one of Paschall's biggest believers through adversity.
“No one really expected it to be us to make it,” Mitchell told NBC Sports Bay Area. “We had talent. We were good.”
From the time they were kids, the two set a goal: Turn your haters into believers.
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"That's one thing that we took on," Paschall said on The Warriors Insider Podcast. "We're going to prove everybody wrong. Just because you guys are from the city doesn't mean we're not good basketball players."
[RELATED: How Paschall shook doubters to make his mark on Warriors]
Mitchell helped lead the Jazz to a 14-point win over the Warriors on Monday night, scoring 23 points with eight rebounds and six assists. Paschall, sent back to the bench in Draymond Green's first game since returning from a finger injury, scored eight points with six rebounds and two steals in 30 minutes of action.
The score and their stats will be forgotten one day. The moment, however, will last forever.
