The Bennedict Mathurin File
- 6th Overall Pick in the 2022 NBA Draft
- 2022 PAC-12 (NCAA) Tournament MVP
- PAC-12 (NCAA) Conference Player of the Year, 2021-22
- Consensus All-American Second Team (NCAA), 2021-22
- First player in NBA history to make at least 40 threes and 80 free throws through the first 16 games of his career
No stranger to adversity
Bennedict Mathurin is the type of player NBA teams and fans will come to love. He’s an easy guy to root for, one that has overcome adversity, much more than hopefully any of us will ever have to deal with. Mathurin’s older brother, Dominique, passed away at the age of 15 after being involved in a bike accident. Using that as fuel, Mathurin continued his dream of trying to make it into the NCAA and eventually the NBA.
As a Canadian high school basketball player, Mathurin realized he didn’t get enough attention from scouts, so he tried an alternate path that is not often traveled. He opted to leave Canada for Mexico, joining the NBA’s Latin American Academy in Mexico City at the age of 16. The first Canadian born athlete in that academy didn’t speak any Spanish, but as Mathurin has proven time and time again, he finds a way.
“I embraced it basically,” Mathurin told reporters at the NBA Combine. “I just felt like it was great for me to go somewhere where I didn’t know where I was going. Didn’t know how school was gonna work, how basketball was gonna work. I just hit the challenge of going somewhere far from where I’m from and just do my best to succeed in life.”