Former Auburn All-American and All-SEC player Mike Mitchell has been selected as Auburn’s 2019 Southeastern Conference Legend. Mitchell will be honored posthumously during the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee on March 13-17.
Mitchell was 55 when he died on June 9, 2011, after his two-year battle with cancer. Mitchell was a second team All-American in the 1977-78 season at Auburn and was also a four-time All-SEC selection. During Mitchell’s four-year career at Auburn from 1974-78, he garnered three first team All-SEC distinctions.
Mitchell was born in Atlanta but became a native of San Antonio, Texas, during and following his NBA days. Mitchell was a highly productive player while at Auburn; the small forward is currently the all-time leading rebounder with 996 rebounds and second on the all-time scoring list with 2,123 points.
Mitchell also ranks second in three other categories for the Tigers: Field goals made (926), attempted field goals (1,830) and all-time scoring average (20.4).
Mitchell’s No. 30 jersey was retired in a ceremony at Auburn Arena on Jan. 19, 2013, and he is a part of the illustrious group of six players to have his jersey in the rafters.
Following his Auburn career, Mitchell was a first-round selection in the 1978 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Mitchell played in the NBA for ten seasons from 1978-87 with a brief return in 1990. During his 10-year career, he spent time with the Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs, where he averaged 19.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
Mitchell finished his NBA career with totals of 15,016 points and 4,246 rebounds with career shooting splits of 49.3 percent from the field and 77.9 percent from the free throw line.
At one time, Mitchell claimed the Cavaliers single-season scoring average and points scored in a season record until LeBron James broke the records.
1981 was Mitchell’s final season in Cleveland before being traded later in the season to the Spurs. Mitchell’s 1981 was a highly successful one — he averaged 24.5 points and 6.1 rebounds to rank eighth in the NBA in scoring along with being an NBA All-Star that year.
While with the Spurs, Mitchell got his chance in the playoffs. The Trio of George Gervin, Artis Gilmore and Mike Mitchell helped lead the Spurs to back-to-back Midwest Division titles.
In the 1982 NBA Western Conference Finals, Mitchell shined against the Showtime Lakers averaging 25.7 points and 8.3 rebounds but the Spurs would ultimately lose in 4 games.
The final 12 years of Mitchell’s 22-year professional career was played overseas in Italy. After his basketball career ended, he returned to San Antonio where he worked with at-risk children.
Mitchell, who posthumously joined the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, will be best remembered off the court as a friendly individual by his son Mike Jr. in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News’s Tom Orsborn.
“He was a people person, and he used to love (those interactions) and he loved how the city treated him,” his son said. “He could go anywhere in the city and people would recognize him as Mike Mitchell, but they wouldn’t treat him necessarily as a star. They would treat him as one of the other people, and he did the same with them.
“He didn’t treat them like he was better than them. He treated them like they were on the same level. I think that’s his legacy off the court.”
Mitchell is now one of 14 former greats from the SEC to be recognized by Auburn, joining John Mengelt, 1999; Gary Redding, 2000; Sonny Smith, 2001; Bobby Cattage, 2002; Bill Alexander, 2003; Charles Barkley, 2004; Rex Frederick, 2005; Lee DeFore, 2006; Henry Hart, 2007; Wesley Person, 2008; Doc Robinson, 2009; Chuck Person, 2010; Jimmy Fibbe, 2011; Chris Morris, 2012; Ronnie Battle, 2013; Gerald White, 2014; Chris Porter, 2015; Jack Stewart, 2016, Marquis Daniels, 2017; and Joel Eaves, 2018.
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