Miami Heat forward Kevin Love wished Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell a happy birthday in a Thursday tweet.
“Happy Birthday @spidadmitchell,” Love wrote. “Sep 7 is the day!!!!”
Mitchell, a four-time All-Star and one-year Cavalier, turns 27 on Thursday. The former first-round draft selection finished the 2022-23 season with career-highs in points per game with 28.3 and field goal percentage with 48.4%. He was named an All-Star starter for the first time in his NBA career in January.
“I appreciate it,” Donovan Mitchell said on NBA on TNT in January. “I’m definitely blessed and humbled to be a part of this. To be a part of my fourth All-Star, and now to be a starter, man, I couldn’t be happier.”
Love turns 35 on Sept. 7. The five-time All-Star spent nine seasons with the Cavs, winning an NBA Championship in 2016 and leaving a legacy in Cleveland that went far beyond basketball. Love wished his former Cavs teammate a happy birthday in a 2022 tweet, almost one month before the two took to the Wells Fargo Center during a preseason matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers and a few days after the blockbuster trade that sent Mitchell to Cleveland.
“Happy birthday to ME, @spidadmitchell and no one else!!!” Love wrote.
Love and Mitchell combined for a spectacular 16 made 3-point attempts during an October win over the New York Knicks. They both sank eight of their 13 long-range shots. Forward Dean Wade knocked down six 3-point shots of his own during the early-season victory in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
“In the Cavaliers’ win today, Donovan Mitchell and Kevin Love each made 8 threes, and Dean Wade chipped in with 6 of his own,” an October tweet from ESPN Stats and Info read. “Their 22 combined 3-pointers are the most by a trio of teammates in a game in NBA history.”
The Cavs will tip off in a preseason matchup with the Atlanta Hawks at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Oct. 10 in State Farm Arena.