Mitchell played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals, earning first-team all-conference honors in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2017.

As a rookie with the Utah Jazz, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team and won the Slam Dunk Contest in 2018.

That season, he scored a Cavaliers record 71 points in a game Mitchell was born on September 7, 1996, to parents Donovan Sr. and Nicole in Elmsford, New York.

[3] With his father serving as a director of player relations for the New York Mets, Mitchell spent his childhood around Major League Baseball locker rooms.

At seven years old, he looked up to star pitcher of the Mets' minor-league system Scott Kazmir and later to David Wright, who was the first poster he hung on his wall.

[7] In 2010, Mitchell was present at the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich (Conn.) when LeBron James announced his decision to sign with the Miami Heat.

He also acted in the school musical and gave tours to visiting students in his role as a member of the Gold Key Club.

As he would later do in college, Mitchell spent his summers playing in streetball games at the famed Rucker Park in New York City.

Mitchell was invited to play in the regional game for the Jordan Brand Classic, ranking twenty-seventh in the 2015 class by one recruiting service and forty-third by another.

As a freshman at the University of Louisville, Mitchell started in no more than five games[4] and averaged 7.4 points, 1.7 assists, and 3.4 rebounds for the season.

On March 1, 2018, Mitchell was named as the Western Conference Rookie of the month for the third time that season for games played in February.

[38] Mitchell led the Jazz to a 4–2 series win over the Thunder, averaging 28.5 points a game on 46.2 percent shooting.

[47] On April 9, Mitchell tied his career-high 46 points in the regular season finale, as the Jazz topped the Denver Nuggets, 118–108.

The league was later reinstated within the NBA Bubble four months later, where the Jazz obtained the sixth seed and faced the Denver Nuggets in the first round.

[64][65] Despite a mid-April ankle sprain against the Indiana Pacers, which would sideline Mitchell for the final sixteen games of the regular season,[66][67] the Jazz finished with the NBA's top seed and home-court advantage throughout the entire postseason for the first time since 1997–98.

[73] On April 16, during Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs, he logged 32 points, six rebounds, and six assists in a 99–93 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

[77][78] He made his regular season debut on October 19, putting up 31 points and nine assists in a 108–105 loss to the Toronto Raptors.

[82] On January 2, 2023, Mitchell scored an NBA season-high, career-high, and Cavaliers-record 71 points, along with eight rebounds and 11 assists, in a 145–134 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls.

[87] On April 4, Mitchell scored 43 points, his fourth straight 40-point game, to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 117–113 victory over the Orlando Magic.

[88] On April 15, Mitchell in his Cavs playoff debut recorded 38 points, five rebounds, eight assists and three steals in a 101–97 loss against the New York Knicks.

He scored 52.1% of the Cavaliers' points in Game 6, the most by a player with an opportunity to clinch a playoff series in NBA history.

The only other player to score at least half of his team's points in a clinching scenario was Michael Jordan in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals.

[96] On May 5, Mitchell recorded 39 points, nine rebounds and five assists in a 106–94 Game 7 victory, thus sending the Cavaliers past the Magic to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

[98] On November 2, Mitchell scored the game-winning shot against the Milwaukee Bucks and finished with 30 points, three rebounds, and four assists in a 114–113 victory.

[100] During the 2017–18 NBA season, Mitchell appeared on the cover of Slam and starred in a documentary called Rookie on the Rise.