Utah Jazz point guard Donovan Mitchell apparently isn’t over his former teammate, Royce O’Neale, being traded to the Brooklyn Nets.
According to screen grabs on Twitter, Mitchell appears to have posted and deleted a message to O’Neale on his Instagram Story that read: “Aye @rolls_royce00 I know y’all are teammates and all but …. [sic] @bensimmons.”
Mitchell appeared to include a photo of O’Neale and Simmons together at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, where the new teammates have been sitting courtside during NBA Summer League.
When some Twitter critics accused Mitchell of shading Simmons, he tweeted, “No shade just jokes relax,” with a crying laughing face emoji.
Mitchell’s friendship with O’Neale, 29, dates back years, as the two played together while representing the Jazz in the NBA summer league in 2017. Mitchell, 25, would often post videos to his Instagram Story trolling O’Neale during training and workouts.
The Nets recently acquired O’Neale in a trade for a 2023 first-round pick, the team confirmed on June 30 — the same day Kevin Durant requested a trade out of Brooklyn.
O’Neale’s move from Utah to Brooklyn also came days after Kyrie Irving received permission from the Nets to seek a sign-and-trade.
“I mean, I ain’t got nothing to do with that. I don’t know nothing about that,” O’Neale said about the Durant-Irving situation in Brooklyn. “But definitely with all those guys, it’s a special group we got right now. I think we can do something special. It’s going to be fun.”
O’Neale appeared in and started 77 games for Utah during the 2021-22 season — averaging a career-high 7.4 points on 45.7 percent shooting from the field, with 4.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.1 steals in 31.2 minutes per contest.
“[I’ll help] any way I can,” O’Neale said. “Just try to be the guy I’ve been doing, not be anyone I’m not. But I know what got me here and what’s going to keep me being here, so just learning any way I can and doing what I got to do offensively and defensively.”