Vikings rookie once mentored by former NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway
By Adam Patrick
While growing up in Tennessee, Minnesota Vikings rookie wide receiver Dillon Mitchell was lucky enough to be mentored by the former NBA star.
Of the current players on the Minnesota Vikings, a number of them have excelled in sports other than football during their lifetime.
Guys like Adam Thielen, Kyle Rudolph, Tyler Conklin, and Laquon Treadwell are among the many current Vikings who played both basketball and football during their time in high school. Minnesota rookie wide receiver Dillon Mitchell is another guy who excelled on the hardwood when he was growing up in Memphis, Tennessee.
Unlike most of his new teammates in Minnesota though, Mitchell actually had the luxury of being mentored by a former NBA All-Star when he was younger.
Former NBA star Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway was someone that took the Vikings rookie under his wing as a young basketball player in Memphis. But even Hardaway knew that Mitchell enjoyed making plays out on the football field more than he did out on the basketball court.
After a college career at Oregon, Mitchell ended up getting selected by Minnesota in the seventh round of this year’s NFL Draft. Hardaway believes the young receiver will be out to prove people wrong in 2019.
The former NBA All-Star recently appeared on a local Twin Cities radio program and he talked about how Mitchell may end up being a steal for the Vikings.
"“I felt like he dropped way too low with his talent. When I saw that seventh round, I thought ‘that is not where he should have been drafted.’ He’s going to prove a lot of people wrong, he’s more motivated than ever.”"
Hardaway knows a talented athlete when he sees one. During his NBA career, he shared the court with a number of basketball greats including Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, and Jason Kidd.
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Minnesota is hoping that Mitchell can take some of what he learned from Hardaway when he was growing up and use it to at least become a solid contributor for them in the near future.