Cleveland Cavaliers superstar Donovan Mitchell is keeping Nick Gilbert in his thoughts. The Cavs guard sent out a heartfelt message via a tweet following the death of the son of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert on Saturday.
Nick Gilbert died at the age of 27 after a lifelong battle with neurofibromatosis (NF1), which, according to NHS, “is a genetic condition that causes tumors to grow along your nerves. The tumors are usually non-cancerous (benign) but may cause a range of symptoms.”
Although Donovan Mitchell has played for only a year so far in Cavs uniform, he’s one of the part of Cleveland family inspired and whose life had been touched by Nick Gilbert.
“It is with heavy hearts that we join the Gilbert family and the Rock Family of Companies in mourning the loss of Nick Gilbert, who passed away yesterday from complications related to Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1),” the Cavs said in a statement, via Twitter after learning of the death of the son of Dan Gilbert and wife Jennifer.
Losing a family member is tough and takes time to move on from, but the support coming from Donovan Mitchell and from all corners of the NBA organization must be very comforting for the Gilbert family.
Donovan Mitchell and the Cavs will surely dedicate the next season to Nick.
In the 2022-23 NBA season, Donovan Mitchell and the Cavs won 50 games for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign– or since LeBron James left — and even made it back to the NBA Playoffs after years of absence.