A crazy first week of the 2025-26 NBA season got all the crazier in the Barclays Center on Friday night. A young fan shockingly rushed onto the court in the fourth quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ clash with the Brooklyn Nets to seemingly get a picture with Donovan Mitchell.
A fan rushed onto the court trying to get a picture with Donovan Mitchell 😭 pic.twitter.com/JoRS9E0rug
— ¹⁰ (@HoodiGarland) October 25, 2025
Mitchell understandably appeared shocked seeing a fan run at him. The 29-year-old looked to get away from the individual, who was immediately taken away by security.
While this might have seemed harmless, such behavior cannot be tolerated. You cannot set a precedent where this is allowed, as you’d be endangering the players. It wouldn’t be a surprise if this fan ends up facing charges.
You’d imagine this fourth quarter is one that Mitchell would want to forget. To go with this incident, he also saw the Cavaliers come close to losing in embarrassing fashion. They had gone up by as many as 25 points against the Nets, but saw that lead get cut down to 121-120 with less than four minutes remaining.
The Cavaliers would manage to get their act together from then on, though. They went on a 10-4 run to end the game to come away with a 131-124 win.
Mitchell, as usual, led the way for the Cavaliers with 35 points (10-15 FG), two rebounds, five assists, and three steals. This was the six-time All-Star’s second-straight 30-point game to start the season, having put up 31 points in a 119-111 loss to the New York Knicks in their opener. With Darius Garland out after undergoing big toe surgery, the Cavaliers were going to need Mitchell to step up, and he has done just that.
The Cavaliers, who were the top seed in the East with a 64-18 record in 2024-25, are now 1-1 in 2025-26. They’ll be in action next against the 2-0 Milwaukee Bucks at Rocket Arena on Sunday at 6 PM ET.
