Bennedict Mathurin is making history.
The 20-year-old combo-guard out of Montreal, Quebec is off to a historically good start to his NBA career.
Through eight games, the No. 6 overall selection in the 2022 NBA Draft is averaging 20.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.1 assists on 42.9 per cent shooting from three (on 6.1 attempts per game) despite coming off the bench for the Indiana Pacers.
After scoring 104 points through his first five games, Mathurin became the first Canadian player and the first Pacers player in history to score 100+ points in their first five NBA games.
But Mathurin wasn’t always this mature, level-headed, skilled and professional scorer. It took a lot of hours in the gym and a lot of different coaches to help bring the best out of him, and the Pacers are reaping the rewards.
I talked to Mathurin’s coaches at every stop along the way, from the NBA Academy in Mexico City (where Mathurin was the first Canadian to attend between 2018-20) to the University of Arizona (2020-22) to the Pacers (2022-present), to learn more about Mathurin’s basketball journey and ultimately figure out why he has been able to so seamlessly translate his game to the NBA. Here’s what they had to say:
Hernan Olaya, Player Development Coach and Recruiting Coordinator of NBA Academy Mexico (2018-2022)
I learned about Mathurin from the technical director of the Quebec Basketball Federation, who told me that there was an interesting high school prospect in Montreal (Mathurin was a four-star recruit at the time). I went to Montreal and scheduled a private session with him in a community centre where mostly Haitian kids go to play. Mathurin came late, he couldn't even look in my eyes. But I put him through a series of drills and immediately could see that he was special: Super athletic and he was like a sponge, absorbing information right away.
I told Mathurin right after the session: ‘you’re coming with me to Mexico. I'm offering you a full scholarship to go to the NBA Academy in Mexico City.’ At the time, from what I understood, he was on the edge as far as joining the wrong crew and getting involved with the wrong people, starting to deviate from basketball and school. So that was the specific moment where Mathurin was incentivized to leave the North Montreal neighborhood he grew up in because otherwise he could have gone down the wrong path. His family pushed him to go.
So we jumped on a plane to Mexico. I remember the very first day we arrived, our team was playing a prep team from the United States, and we put Mathurin in the game even though he hadn’t yet practiced with our team. Ben started fighting these guys right away. He just went off, and our head coach had to remove him from the game. I told him, ‘this is not how we do things here. You have to be respectful.’ So it wasn't easy for him that first year, especially the first six months, being in a foreign country, not knowing the language, different types of food, culture, getting to know different kids from different nationalities. He was very shy and he couldn't communicate well.
That year was his adaptation year, but at some point something clicked in him where he realized that he could actually be an NBA player. And it was more of a mental change in terms of the approach to practice, practicing harder, putting in an extra workout here or there, doing specific workouts for the type of player that he wanted it to be, and becoming a leader. He became a pro, and part of that was learning how to channel that feistiness that he possesses towards the positive, to where he can now use it in games to attack whoever is between him and the rim.
I think the NBA Academy was an excellent platform for him because one: it separated him from a tough environment in Montreal. And two: he was our most talented player, so he had to become a leader and an example to the other kids looking up to him. And playing in different tournaments all over the world, practicing, lifting weights, and the amount of work he had to put in here, being exposed to that NBA-like environment prepared him for the league.
Jack Murphy, Associate Head Coach with the University of Arizona men’s basketball program (2019-present)
From day one at Arizona, Mathurin had an amazing work ethic. I mean, he came in as a freshman on his own in the mornings and would shoot, and then he’d get shots up before practice, and then he would come back in at night. I mean, he was always in the gym, including in his sophomore season after he could have probably gone to the draft (Mathurin had a promise from a team in the second round of the 2021 NBA draft but he valued himself higher than that and went back to college, sources say). And so when a guy's doing that, at that age, who's already had the wild success Ben had here in college, you know that he has something special because it's not going to stop when he has a little taste of success — It's probably going to make him hungrier.
I knew he could be a 20 PPG scorer in the NBA because of his focus and his attention to detail on the offensive end of the floor. I mean, he understands what he's capable of athletically. He understands what he's capable of skill-wise. And even now when I watch him, he doesn't go outside and do things that he's not capable of excelling at. So for example he’ll take one or two dribbles to the rim, a direct line drive. And he's scoring off cuts, off offensive rebounds, in transition, making open threes, all of that stuff plays right into his skill package. It would almost be like talking about a baseball player who doesn't get outside of their strike zone. Mathurin knows what he's really good at, and he's sharpened those skills a lot over time.
The amazing thing about Ben is that you will watch him workout and leave almost saying to yourself, ‘hmm, yeah, he got in the gym, he worked, but it didn't seem like he was going very hard. It didn't seem like it was difficult for him.’ And then you'd watch a game and he'd make the same move that he just worked on in practice and he’ll do it so effortlessly in the game and it’ll work, and you'd be like, 'Maybe that's just him. Maybe that's what separates him from other guys.' Ben would just pick up stuff and kind of almost slow it down and he'd be working it through in his mind, and then he could go and put it into a game a couple of days later. He had that special characteristic where he almost made it look easy.
He's one of those guys that's been through a lot in his life. It's been well documented, but he doesn't let it affect tomorrow. He's always looking forward.
Ronald Nored, Assistant Coach with the Indiana Pacers (2021-present)
Watching Mathurin in the pre-draft workout and watching film of him at Arizona, he was impressive. First of all, he looked like an NBA player, body-wise. Plus, his ability to score in different ways, whether it was from cutting, coming off screens, shooting catch-and-shoot threes, or shooting off the dribble, he did all of that at Arizona.
But I didn’t realize how NBA-ready he was until NBA Summer League. I coached the Pacers Summer League team in Las Vegas so I got to work with Mathurin there, and I just remember the difference between how he played in the games and in practice. Because it wasn't like Ben was destroying everyone in practice, so I was kind of curious how he would play when the games came. And boy, when that first game came along, we played Charlotte in the main gym and Ben scored 23 points in 20 minutes. I was like, ‘okay, this guy is for real.’ He was always putting in the work and going hard, but man, when the lights turned on he just found a way to execute, attacking people, putting pressure on the rim, making timely shots, getting to the free-throw line (which he is doing 5.5 times a game in the NBA, second-most among rookies). It was impressive.
Ben is a really hard worker. He loves working on the game, his craft. He really believes in himself and backs it up in his work. A lot of guys believe in themselves but they don't put in the work to back that up. And so I think it starts there: he believes that he belongs in the league and he works hard to get better because he loves the game. That mindset has put him in a position to have some really early success.
