Tony LaShae Mitchell Jr. (born April 7, 1992) is an American professional basketball player. He competed in college for

North Texas North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...

. Mitchell is , weighs 235 pounds and plays the forward position. Mitchell was selected in the

2013 NBA draft The 2013 NBA draft was held on June 27, 2013, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including internation ...

in the second round (37th overall).

High school career

Mitchell played three years of prep basketball. For his career, he posted over 1,500

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

and 700

rebounds 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

. As a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

L. G. Pinkston High School L.G. Pinkston High School is a Public school (government funded), public secondary school in West Dallas, West Dallas, Texas, Dallas, Texas (United States, USA). L.G. Pinkston High School enrolls students in grades 7-12 and is a part of the Da ...

he averaged 20.5 points, 13.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 4.1 blocks per game while leading his school to a 26–10 record and a berth in the Class 4A Region II Tournament. In one playoff game against Lincoln High School he recorded 25 points, 20 rebounds and five blocks in an

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

win. Mitchell was ranked as the #12 overall senior recruit in the class of 2010 by Rivals.com. His accolades also included being named the 2010 ''

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

'' Player of the Year – beating out Perry Jones III, a future first round NBA Draft pick out of Baylor; a ''

SLAM Magazine ''Slam'' (stylized in all caps) is an American basketball magazine in circulation since 1994. History Founding and early years ''Slam'' was launched in 1994 as a basketball magazine that combined the sport with hip hop culture at a time when ...

'' All-American; Texas' 12-4A Player of the Year; Texas Class 4A All-State selection; and being chosen to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches All-Star Team.

NCAA eligibility issues

Mitchell attended a public high school in Atlanta (Dutchtown High School) for his

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

year then in Dallas sophomore years, but under the advice of his

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

basketball coach he transferred to Center of Life Christian Academy (CLCA) in Miami. What he did not realize until the latter portion of his junior year there, however, was that CLCA was not an accredited prep school, and therefore only a fraction of his coursework counted toward

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

eligibility. Mitchell transferred back home to Pinkston to finish his prep career. To make up for lost time at CLCA, he attempted to take make-up classes at a faster rate than the school district allowed. After an investigation into his course load, and upon discovering Mitchell's attempted expedition of his graduation requirements, his transcript got invalidated and his high school graduation was postponed while he struggled with Texas' exit test. Mitchell had already committed to play for the

Missouri Tigers The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the "Fighting Tigers of Columbia" who, in 1864, protected Columbia ...

while these issues unfolded. Forced to stay at home in Dallas for the entire first semester of what would have been his freshman year playing for Missouri, it was not until the start of the second semester when he found out that he would never be allowed to suit up for the Tigers. Mitchell then had to choose one of two routes: either play

junior college A junior college is a type of post-secondary institution that offers vocational and academic training that is designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations or support roles in professions such as engineering, a ...

basketball for two seasons, or play for a different four-year institution as a partial qualifier. He chose to play as a partial qualifier for

, the local Division I school whose coach, Johnny Jones, had aggressively recruited him during his high school years.

College career

Freshman season

After sitting out the 2010–11 season due to his eligibility issues, Mitchell officially began his collegiate career as a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically ...

freshman in 2011–12. He quickly established himself as a premier player in both the Sun Belt Conference as well as nationally; Mitchell was named by

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

as one of the "top 10 freshmen in the country" and their third-best "under the radar" player after averaging 14.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. Along with

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

Anthony Davis Anthony Marshon Davis Jr. (born March 11, 1993), nicknamed "AD" and "the Brow", is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Davis, a Power forward (basketball), power f ...

, he was one of only two freshmen in NCAA Division I to average a

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the ter ...

(Davis was also that season's national player of the year and the first overall draft pick in the ensuing NBA draft). Among freshmen, only Davis' 10.4 rebounds per game average exceeded Mitchell's. He set school records for single season blocks (70) and blocks per game (3.04), while his single game top scoring and rebounding performances were 34 and 21, respectively. Despite the team not qualifying for any postseason tournaments, Mitchell still received awards and honors for his personal play. He became just the second player in league history to earn three consecutive Sun Belt Player of the Week awards while also becoming just the third player to be named the league's freshman of the year and earn a first team all-conference selection simultaneously. Mitchell was named to the All- 2012 Sun Belt Conference tournament team after leading the Mean Green to the championship game before losing to

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

, 74 to 70. According to his North Texas player page, "In league-only games, Mitchell led the Sun Belt in scoring (15.9 ppg), rebounding (11.8 rpg), 3-point percentage (47.1), blocks (3.1 bpg), and was also second in field goal percentage (58.1)." Mitchell had numerous 30-point, 15-rebound games during the season and became the first freshman since

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public inst ...

Michael Beasley Michael Paul Beasley Jr. (born January 9, 1989) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for Kansas State University for one ...

in 2007–08 to record multiple 30/15 games. For his standout season, he was named a finalist for the

Lou Henson Award The Lou Henson Award is an award given annually by Collegeinsider.com to the most outstanding mid-major men's college basketball player in NCAA Division I competition. The award, established in 2010, is named for esteemed men's college basketball ...

, an annual college basketball award given to the nation's best

mid-major Mid-major conferences in American college sports at the NCAA Division I level are athletic conferences that are not among the power conferences. The grouping is most commonly used in men's college basketball to describe conferences outside of the ...

player.

Sophomore season

Heading into his sophomore season in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, national media had their eyes on Mitchell as a potential

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

. He had been a projected first round draft pick in the

2012 NBA draft The 2012 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2012, at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The draft started at 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (2300 UTC), and was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, National Basketball A ...

following his freshman season, but opted to remain at North Texas because he said he "still needed to mature on and off the court." Some of the preseason watchlists and honors that Mitchell received included being an All-American according to numerous media outlets; a

John Wooden Award The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The Wooden Award program consists of the men's and women's player of the year awards, the Legends of Coaching Award, and rec ...

Preseason Top 50 player; being featured on the October cover of ''

Basketball Times ''Basketball Times'' was an American basketball magazine that was in circulation from 1978 to 2021, and was published by Akers Ink LLC. ''Basketball Times'' published monthly and mainly focused on college basketball. The headquarters was in Matthe ...

''; Lindy's number two ranked center in college basketball; and CBS Sports' number seven overall player in the country. He was listed as a "near guarantee" to be named the 2013 Sun Belt Player of the Year according to CBS Sports. An anonymous Sun Belt coach said of Mitchell: " eis the most athletic guy in college basketball, bar none. Rebounds as good as anyone. He's a freak." Mitchell's per-game averages lowered in four of the five major statistical categories from his freshman season: 13.0 points (down from 14.7), 8.5 rebounds (down from 10.3), 0.8 assists (down from 1.6), and 2.7 blocks (down from 3.0). Only his steals per game average increased, going from 0.9 as a freshman to 1.0 in his second year. Additionally, the North Texas squad managed just a 12–20 overall record (7–13 in conference) after being selected as the preseason Sun Belt Conference champions. Midway through the season,

Bleacher Report ''Bleacher Report'' (often abbreviated as B/R) is a website that focuses on sports and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London. ''Bleacher Report'' was acquired by Time Warner's Turner B ...

wrote an article which questioned Mitchell's ability to lead a team, noting that a player of his caliber should have been a bigger factor in games played in a mid-major conference. The article also said that his All-American candidacy took a severe blow, and that his per game averages would be more impressive if he played for a stronger Division I program.

Professional career

Detroit Pistons (2013–2014)

With a college postseason invitation not occurring, Mitchell decided to be the first underclassman to declare for the

. He was the first North Texas player to be drafted in the NBA since the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Divisi ...

drafted John Horrocks in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. Mitchell was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the 37th overall pick in the draft. He was also the highest North Texas player to be drafted in the NBA, ahead of Kenneth Lyons in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

(47th overall). On July 19, 2013, he signed with the Pistons. When the 2013 rookie class convened for its annual photo shoot and filled out its NBA.com Rookie Survey, the class voted Mitchell as the most athletic. On December 26, 2013, Mitchell was assigned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. On January 13, 2014, he was recalled by the Pistons. On January 31, 2014, he was reassigned to the Mad Ants. He was later recalled in February 2014. While not making an appearance for the Pistons in the 2014–15 season, Mitchell was assigned multiple times to the

Grand Rapids Drive The Grand Rapids Gold are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and are affiliated with the Denver Nuggets. The Gold play their home games at Van Andel Arena. They began play as the Anahe ...

Short stint with Phoenix Suns (2014–2015)

On December 24, 2014, he was traded to the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

in exchange for Anthony Tolliver. However, he was later waived by the Suns on January 9, 2015, before appearing in a game for them.

Atléticos de San Germán (2015)

On February 5, 2015, Mitchell signed with

Atléticos de San Germán Atléticos de San Germán is a basketball club of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) based in San Germán, Puerto Rico. Founded in the 1930s after the amalgamation of the old San Germán team and the Farmacia Martín team, the team is one of ...

of Puerto Rico for the 2015 BSN season.

Cocodrilos de Caracas (2015–2016)

On September 25, 2015, Mitchell signed with the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

. However, he was waived by the Warriors on October 12. On December 11, he signed with

Cocodrilos de Caracas Cocodrilos de Caracas () is a Venezuelan professional basketball club based in Caracas. Established in 1990, the club competes in the Superliga Profesional de Baloncesto (SPB), and has won the national championship six times. The Cocodrilos' home ...

of the Venezuelan League.

Guangxi Rhinos (2016)

On July 2, 2016, Mitchell signed with the

Guangxi Rhinos The National Basketball League () is a professional basketball minor league in China, called the Chinese Basketball League (CBL) before 2006. It is commonly known as the NBL, and this name (spelled out in letters) is often used even in Chinese. ...

of the China NBL.

Maccabi Haifa (2016–2017)

On August 9, 2016, Mitchell signed with Israeli club

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa () is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football, Basketball, Weightl ...

for the 2016–17 season. On February 10, 2017, he was released by Maccabi after appearing in 17 games.

Star Hotshots (2017)

On late February 2017, Mitchell signed with the

Star Hotshots The Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots, or simply known as the Magnolia Hotshots, are a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association. The team is owned by San Miguel Food and Beverage, San Miguel Food and Beverage, I ...

of the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

as the team's import for the 2017 PBA Commissioner's Cup.

Metros de Santiago (2017)

On May 24, 2017, Mitchell signed with

Metros de Santiago Metros de Santiago is a professional basketball team based in Santiago de los Caballeros, Santiago, Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in ...

of Dominican Republic for the 2017 LNB season.

Hapoel Gilboa Galil (2018)

On February 22, 2018, Mitchell returned for a second stint in Israel, signing with

Hapoel Gilboa Galil Hapoel Gilboa Galil () is a professional basketball club that is based in north-east Israel. The club plays its home game in the Israeli Basketball Premier League (the top tier of Israeli basketball) in a 2,250-seat arena in Gan Ner. History T ...

for the rest of the season. However, on March 7, 2018, Mitchell was released by Gilboa Galil before appearing in a game for them.

Second stint with Cocodrilos de Caracas (2018)

On May 8, 2018, Mitchell was reported to have returned and signed with

of the

Liga Profesional de Baloncesto The Superliga Profesional de Baloncesto, commonly known as the SPB, is the Venezuelan first division national professional basketball league. Founded in 1974 as the Liga Especial de Baloncesto, it adopted the name Liga Profesional de Baloncesto i ...

(LPB).

Fubon Braves (2018–2019)

On August 4, 2018, Mitchell was reported to have signed with Al Wasl of the

UAE National Basketball League The UAE National Basketball League is the top professional basketball league in the United Arab Emirates. The league was founded in 2013 and features 7 teams.NLEX Road Warriors The NLEX Road Warriors is a professional basketball team owned by Manila North Tollways Corporation, NLEX Corporation, a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) since the 2014 ...

of the

as the team's import for the 2019 PBA Commissioner's Cup.

Leones de Ponce (2020–2021)

On September 28, 2020, Mitchell signed with the Leones de Ponce of the

Baloncesto Superior Nacional The Baloncesto Superior Nacional, abbreviated as BSN, is the first-tier-level professional men's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1929 and is organized by the Puerto Rican Basketball Federation. T ...

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Personal life

Mitchell was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but grew up in Dallas, Texas. His parents are Angie L. Mitchell and Tony L. Mitchell Sr., and he has a younger brother, Antonio and younger sister, Adriana.

References

External links