There are certain sports where I think it’s widely believed, if not accepted as a cold, hard fact, that alcohol can improve performance.
Hasn't everyone's golf game improved with a little swing oil?
However, I didn't think basketball was one of the sports, at least not until Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell revealed that he dropped a cool 71 points back in 2023 with a little help from grandpa's old cough medicine.
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Back on January 2, 2023, Mitchell and the Cavs took on the Chicago Bulls .
The two teams ended up in an overtime thriller that the Cavs won 145-134, with Mitchell dropping a career-high 71 in the process.
"We played them on New Year’s Eve," Mitchell recalled on the "Cousins" podcast hosted by NBA greats Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady . "Then we had New Year’s in Cleveland. Then we played the next day. Now I will say this. I’ve never drank before a game in my life. It was New Year’s. So I did have a drink — a few drinks — the night before the game."
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Hey, many a beer leaguer has done that very thing. In fact, like I said, certain sports benefit from a few pops. Bowling is one, perhaps darts.
Hell, I've always argued that part of playing cornhole well is having a beer in your hand for balance.
"Never done that in my career," Mitchell said. "Haven’t done it since. So I tell people like that was probably what, you know, allowed me to have the night I had."
Mitchell is a professional because if that had happened to most of us, we would’ve thought, "Wait, if a few drinks equal 71 points, then it only makes sense that after many drinks I could be holding up a piece of paper with '100' written on it after the game."
Of course, that's not usually how it works...
... or is it?