{"id":791772,"date":"2026-07-10T17:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791772\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T17:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:13:08","slug":"miami-heats-davion-mitchell-seeks-giannis-bond-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/791772\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat’s Davion Mitchell seeks Giannis bond in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 When your new teammate is one of the best players in the NBA, you can\u2019t settle for meeting him halfway.<\/p>\n

So when it comes to Davion Mitchell\u2019s planned offseason workouts with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greece it will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately after I found out, I got his number and I texted him,\u201d said the Heat point guard, whose offseason workouts also have included time on the makeshift practice court the Heat have set up for the Las Vegas NBA Summer League. \u201cAnd now in the middle of the summer, I\u2019m going to Greece on the 19th just to work out with him. Just to build that chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to commitment to the game, Mitchell has made clear he\u2019s ready anywhere and everywhere, with an everpresent basketball in his hands, be it on flights or strolling the streets of Miami.<\/p>\n

Now with Antetokounmpo as a teammate<\/a> after the Heat\u2019s trade with the Milwaukee Bucks, Mitchell is dribbling off to Greece in a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to Spain,\u201d Mitchell said of a plan already in place with the players\u2019 union. \u201cThey have this thing for the NBAPA called the Sanctuary, and I\u2019ll work out there. And Greece ain\u2019t that far. So I\u2019m like, all right, I might as well just go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was originally supposed to be in the Sanctuary for two weeks, but now I\u2019m only going to be for one weekend, and one week with Giannis over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there isn\u2019t much of a previous connection, Mitchell appreciates the need for a point guard to seize any opportunity to establish chemistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously, we were with the same agency, and I changed agencies. But we kind of knew each other from there,\u201d said Mitchell, who will be entering his third season with the Heat and the final year on the two-year, $24 million free-agent contract\u00a0he signed last summer<\/a>. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t really know each other. We just knew of each other because we had the same agent. But, obviously, I know him a little bit from Bam (Adebayo), because they got the same agent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually asked him, \u2018Yo, what are you doing in the summer? I\u2019m honestly trying to work with you and build some chemistry.\u2019 He was like, \u2018Do you ever go to Europe?\u2019 And I was like, actually, \u2018I\u2019m coming to Europe.\u2019 He said, \u2018All right, well, what are you doing from these days?\u2019 I told him and he said, \u2018All right, then, you can pull up to Greece if you want.\u2019 I said, I\u2019m there. Immediately, I said, I\u2019m there. So, I\u2019ll pull up there, and we\u2019re going to work out. It\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

First up will be Antetokounmpo\u2019s formal Heat introduction Thursday at Kaseya Center.<\/p>\n

And then it will be back to his home turf to meet up with Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Already, Mitchell said his workouts have been Giannis-centric.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kind of knew he might be there, so you kind of got to change your workouts a little bit in a way,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cYou got to try to master this role. And I know I\u2019m going to get a lot of catch-and-shoots, so I\u2019ve really been working on catch-and-shoots \u2014 but not just regular catch and shoots. Just a lot of off-rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Mitchell, it all is about turning the page, even as it means 2025-26 teammates Tyler Herro, Kel\u2019el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis moving on to the Bucks in the deal for Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis, and Norman Powell moving on to the Chicago Bulls in free agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve dealt with it, being in the league for six years,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cLosing one of my closest friends on the team when I was in Sacramento, Tyrese (Haliburton). Losing him in the middle of my rookie year, not realizing what the business was. I already knew it was hard. But now that I\u2019ve been in the league long enough, I\u2019ve been traded a couple of times and I had relationships with other people. So I kind of understand it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I think they\u2019re going to get another opportunity and maybe more of an opportunity to show what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Mitchell said, the change doesn\u2019t change there, also with a desire to re-sculpt his stocky 6-foot build.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things I\u2019m working on,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, getting in shape so I can become better defensively. I think I\u2019ve lost a lot of pounds. Honestly, I don\u2019t know how many. I just don\u2019t ask, but I know I lost a lot, for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was definitely the goal. That was really the main goal, getting in shape, losing a lot of weight. And I\u2019m doing a really good job of that. And the good thing is, it\u2019s still not even close to the season. So I\u2019ve got so much work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Including the work with Antetokounmpo in Greece.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kind of had a feeling that he was going to move somewhere,\u201d Mitchell said of the trade. \u201cAnd we were one of the teams he wanted to move to. So, I kind of knew it. It was obviously exciting when you have a Hall of Fame player on your team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 When your new teammate is one of the best players in the NBA, you can\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,3914,7223,590,85],"class_list":["post-791772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}