'You got a fan in me': NBA star Donovan Mitchell pays respect to retiring Jarryd Roughead
Jarryd Roughead captured all the headlines with his incredible six-goal haul in his farewell match in Round 22, and has caught the attention of an NBA star.
Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell, teammate of Australia's Joe Ingles, who is currently down under with Team USA for its two exhibition matches against Ingles' Boomers, took to his Twitter account to send his well wishes to the Hawks great.
"Congrats (Jarryd Roughead) on a great career!" Mitchell tweeted. "You got a fan in me."
News of Mitchell's Hawks fandom impressed Ingles, with the 31-year-old also taking to Twitter.
Roughead's spectacular performance has caught the eye of one of the NBA's biggest young stars AAP
"I knew there was one reason I liked you," Ingles tweeted in response to his teammate.
While the duo have combined to great effect for the Jazz over the past few seasons, competition between the two will be heated when they meet at Marvel Stadium this season.
"We joke a lot and goof off in practice and compete. I'm expecting a lot of trash talking from him and I'm excited about it," Mitchell told reporters at Team USA practice.
"I think we've been looking forward to this ever since I told him I was playing for the US team.
Mitchell is expecting a lot of trash talk when he takes the floor against Utah teammate Joe Ingles on Thursday AAP
"It's going to be a lot of fun to go out and challenge each other."
Mitchell also expressed how he and Ingles had chatted about the development of the game in Australia.
"He's expressed to me how much it's grown," he said.
"Obviously basketball's growing when you've got guys like him, Patty Mills, (Andrew) Bogut, (Aron) Baynes, all these guys coming over and playing.
"The fact that we're playing in front of 50,000 to 60,000 fans says a lot in itself."
