Donovan Mitchell won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest -- good news for his dad in the Mets front office

The best of the NBA convened at Staples Center in Los Angeles for All-Star Saturday Night, with various skills competitions lined up as part of All-Star Weekend. 
Arguably one of the most popular competitions, the Slam Dunk Contest, took place in the evening and featured a pretty dramatic (and gravity-defying) showdown between the Cavs' Larry Nance Jr. and Jazz shooting guard Donovan Mitchell Jr. It was Mitchell who ultimately won, thanks to ridiculous feats like dunking over comedian Kevin Hart and his family:

Both Nance's father (who played 13 seasons in the NBA) and Mitchell's father, Donovan Sr., are no doubt proud of their respective sons -- but were you aware of Donovan's connections to baseball, specifically the Mets? Well, he's the team's director of player relations and community engagement.

Here he is at the 2012 First-Year Player Draft with Mookie Wilson: 

Before settling on a career in the front office, Mitchell played various positions in the Astros' Minor League system, making it as far as Triple-A in 1998.
Apparently, he was quite a ringer:

Once he transitioned to an executive position, his son -- little Donovan Jr. -- was often spotted around the team, quite a lot:
"He'd go to all the Mets games, come down and spend time with me during spring training and when I was managing, he would get on the bus with me and ride to different games," Donovan Sr. said. "All the players that he was around when he was younger, they're all rooting for him. They're all hitting me up on Facebook and everything else asking me 'is that the same Donovan that was in the locker room with us?'"

It might come as no surprise to find out that while he was in high school, Donovan Jr. played both basketball and baseball ... though he'd make the decision to focus on basketball, something that seems to be working out just fine these days.