Why Pacers' Bennedict Mathurin called out LeBron James and what it means about the rookie
INDIANAPOLIS -- Bennedict Mathurin appeared just as calm and confident following his first summer league practice with the Pacers as he was before, during and after the NBA Draft process.
After finishing up some shooting drills at the tail end of a practice last week, Mathurin strolled over to the media to field questions about a “fun” first day with the team. Mathurin repeatedly expressed his eagerness to play in the summer league as he smiled down at his No. 00 Pacers jersey.
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Yet amid all of the excitement, Mathurin is focused on just doing his job. He’s in Indiana to compete and win for a long time, but isn’t making specific individual goals yet.
“There's really no expectations for myself,” Mathurin said. “I've just got to go out there and do what I do. Compete every day, every single game, I'll bring the energy. But also just having fun, playing basketball, it’s what I love to do.”
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However, Mathurin does have one goal in mind — to compete against LeBron James. Prior to the NBA Draft, Mathurin spoke with The Washington Post and his comments about playing James went viral. He told the Post, “(James) is going to have to show me he is better than me.”
Mathurin clarified the comments weren’t a slight towards James or his status as one of the best NBA players of all time. Instead, Mathurin wanted to voice his confidence in himself and his excitement about playing against guys like James this season.
“It’s about me being confident,” Mathurin said. “I think he’s the best player to ever play the game. … But me just coming into the league, I won’t say anybody’s better than me. That’s me being confident. I know who LeBron James is. There’s no (other) LeBron James, there won’t be again.”
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Mathurin’s main agenda during summer league is to learn the NBA game and be as prepared as possible heading into the regular season. He wants to get adjusted to the spacing in the pro game, the deeper 3-point line and the league’s pace.
Learning how to play defense in the NBA is another objective for Mathurin and it’s something summer league coach Ronald Nored stressed on Day 1 of practice. Nored put down X’s on the court to signify where each player needs to be on defense. He’s also teaching the young guys how to guard pick and rolls in the NBA and pick up on different schemes.
Mathurin is embracing the early learning process during summer league. He wants to prove to the team how versatile of a playmaker he can be and how great of a teammate he intends to be.
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Nored and second-year Pacer Chris Duarte said they’re excited to learn more about the Arizona product and watch him progress throughout the summer. But after the first practice, it was clear to everyone Mathurin has a winning, competitive attitude and there’s no doubting his pure athletic ability.
“The athleticism and the natural ability is real,” Nored said. “His the ability to put the ball on the floor, gets to the rim, he made the right reads today, he did a great job. We're working a lot on reading for everybody. We're all young and need to learn. But we did a good job with it. And then just the spirit around the gym, he's having fun with the guys. Everybody's having fun with him. It's a really good environment.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers: Why NBA rookie Bennedict Mathurin called out LeBron James
