There are certain sports where I think it’s widely believed, if not accepted as a cold, hard fact, that alcohol can improve performance.
Hasn’t everyone’s golf game improved with a little swing oil?
However, I didn’t think basketball was one of the sports, at least not until Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell revealed that he dropped a cool 71 points back in 2023 with a little help from grandpa’s old cough medicine.
Back on January 2, 2023, Mitchell and the Cavs took on the Chicago Bulls.
The two teams ended up in an overtime thriller that the Cavs won 145-134, with Mitchell dropping a career-high 71 in the process.
“We played them on New Year’s Eve,” Mitchell recalled on the “Cousins” podcast hosted by NBA greats Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady. “Then we had New Year’s in Cleveland. Then we played the next day. Now I will say this. I’ve never drank before a game in my life. It was New Year’s. So I did have a drink — a few drinks — the night before the game.”
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Hey, many a beer leaguer has done that very thing. In fact, like I said, certain sports benefit from a few pops. Bowling is one, perhaps darts.
Hell, I’ve always argued that part of playing cornhole well is having a beer in your hand for balance.
“Never done that in my career,” Mitchell said. “Haven’t done it since. So I tell people like that was probably what, you know, allowed me to have the night I had.”
Mitchell is a professional because if that had happened to most of us, we would’ve thought, “Wait, if a few drinks equal 71 points, then it only makes sense that after many drinks I could be holding up a piece of paper with ‘100’ written on it after the game.”
Of course, that’s not usually how it works…
…or is it?
