Reaction | Thybulle Wins Bronze

comment from Matise. It really took off. Look, Matisse has improved in a lot of ways since joining the seventy six Ers now just over two years ago, but his ability to deliver a sound bite. He came in with that talent and it has only grown Since they did not win bronze, they in fact one Rose Gold and Matt it was just so much fun to watch. It was an absolute delight of a run from start to finishtion and I'm so glad we got to sort of participate in it from afar of course, and you did

a fantastic job covering it. With the culmination being that bronze medal match. It was a one oh seven ninety three victory over Luca don Chich and Slovenia on Saturday.

If you're listening to this on time just a few days ago, the not only a bronze medal, but the first ever medal for Australia, and Matisse played a big role in the entire run, even in that in the most recent game he started, it was his first start as a Boomer, a well earned start, and cool to see the way that his teammates sort of rallied around him, because, as he has said throughout this run, he's the new guy on this team, and so for them to have

rallied around him when he just became part of the twelve man roster, but then again to become part of that starting five, it was just cool to watch the way that he progressed throughout the run and then of course came up pretty big eleven points five or six from the field, five rebounds, four assists, three steals, averaged three steals throughout the run, led the entire Olympic field in total steals. He had eighteen steals per game, three steals per game in just twenty three point two minutes

per game. And if you followed Matisse in the NBA, these stats aren't surprising to you, but honestly not. The offensive stats are what stood out to me because that was something he was relied upon a lot more in this run than he is relied upon with his Sixers teammates. Understandably so, but cool to see him really make an offensive impact and also be relied upon for the offensive impact.

It feels with the Sixers that when Matisse has contributed offensively, it's been an awesome bonus, but it's not really what they're looking for from him. The Boomers needed him to do this, and he was able to do it. Seven point eight points per game, sixty two point three percent from the field, shooting the three, confidently, driving to the basket, confidently, penetrating and finding teammates confidently. Really cool to see his offensive game grow. The field goal percentage was what I

was going to point to. I know, we did do a preview podcast after some of the exhibition games and he shot the ball well. Then he shot the ball well in the tournament itself. Just from a game by game basis, you were so locked in, how did you see him grow over the actual tournament games? Well, to me,

the growth came on the offensive end. We saw solid defense all along that five steel game in the opener, surprising maybe to international fans, not surprising to six or W And you just said the thing about first and steels and steals per game going in it. It's like we could have predicted that and it happened, and it's just so casual. But he did lead the entire tournament in those categories. But like you said, offense on a

game to game basis was impressive. Yeah, if you're asking me where the growth was, I mean, I think credit to Matiss though, because he did come into the tournament with offensive confidence that we haven't seen a ton of so far in his pro career, and then it grew from game to game, and I think some of that is credit to guys like Patty Mills and Joe Ingles who so clearly brought him in under their wing with the Olympic experience, with the authority to tell him, hey,

like we need you to contribute here, and then Matisse of course taking the challenge, rising to the occasion and I think learning a lot that's going to translate to his third year in the NBA and when it comes to shooting, just quickly to touch on this, Patty Mills was fantastic, and especially with the forty plus point game to beat Slovenia. But what an icon. What an icon. Him and some other notable players on the international scene didn't shoot it necessarily as well as we're used to

from three. So it's important four players like Matisse who have confidence in their shot when they're open in a setting like this, and I think Matisse provided that and more, which was an eye opener for a lot of fans of Australia. He was such a critical part of their team and he was seemingly just in the right spots at all times. But it was a talented team all around. I mentioned Mills, but Thyble was critical to their team

success and the run that they made. Yeah, you asked about sort of progression throughout the Olympic Games, and for me, that's where it was. It was offensive contributions and confidence in those contributions that I saw growing game by game, even if it was just in subtle ways. He really wasn't deferring at the end of these Olympics, and if he was, it was because someone had a better shot. That's something we're big fran Fraschilla people here in Studio

seventy six. But Fran pointed out that part of Boomer's culture is giving up a good shot for a great shot, and that's something that Matisse was able to sort of unlock As a passer. We've talked about him a little bit during his sixers career as like a sneaky good passer, but like a couple of cross court passes, some really

sneaky stuff. I remember a couple beneath the basket. Really cool to see him finding his teammates, so not only creating for himself, creating for others, growing and developing confidence in skills that he hasn't had as many reps performing as an NBA player and now might get more opportunities to do so. For our local Philadelphia audience, it makes me think of Villanova and Jay Wright was on the TMUSA staff but good, better best in terms of shot selection and the next pass. But how did he end

up in the starting lineup in that game? Was it a Luca don Chich thing? Because I know that was a matchup in the bronze medal game. Yeah, I mean you have to assume that that that's what it was all about. Luca was I mean Patty Mills in FIBA.

I don't know how we sort of stacked players against one another offensively, but if you really do look at all the players that were in that game, I think Luca was the best offensive player in the game, and I think Matisse was the best defensive player in the game. So to make sure that they were out there when the game started, so they could set the tone the way that they did in that game against the USA but weren't quite able to maintain, I think was important.

And I'm not a basketball coach, but I do think that the general message was we need Matisse to be out there when Luca's out there for as long as possible. And he certainly did a good job in those minutes. And lucas another guy that I'm talking about that maybe didn't shoot it as well from three as might have been expected, because he attempted a lot of contested shots throughout the entirety of all of Slovenia's games and in the last game as well. Let's talk well before we

get there. One sequence that I thought was so Matisse was at the end of the game against Slovenia, he had did they credit him with a block? He had in your final stat line tweet. It ended with three steals, but I did have one block. He did have one block, but I wasn't sure if they were going to credit him for it, and I released the tweet before there was clarity. But yeah, it looked like he had the strip, almost came up with the steel, didn't quite and then

immediate and then the putback dunk. So he displays through the end of the game, through the final buzzer, and it was a very important final buzzer for Australia, for him, for all the individual players. But he played all the way through and he had a play on the defensive end in it, and an emphatic they called it an exclamation point on the broadcast with the put back dunk. So that was just a cool way to end it for him. And I mean, just again for confidence, Like

look at the way that the sixer season ended. It was tough on everybody. I think they all had a really hard time swallowing that game. Seven loss motifs included to see him now finish a playoff like experience, coming up so big and really doing his job on both ends. It's got to be helpful for your confidence when your NBA season ended the way that it did. I love that he played in this tournament. I love that he

had the opportunity to grow in this tournament. And I think we're going to see some boomer Matisse in his third season. That's just over a month away. Yeah, that's a lie. Two months away. Sorry. I want to finish up in a few minutes with just the Boomer culture and community that you became a part of over the last few weeks. But before we go there, you mentioned the Sixers and Joel Embiid sent out a tweet saying elite in all caps, and some of his other Matis's

other Sixers teammates were showing love. So it was cool to see that with just the thought in mind that Sixers basketball is just around the corner, and like we've been talking about, this is going to do nothing but help Matisse in the NBA season. So what did you make of the MBA connections coming out about his international play. Well, of course, you love to see Joel showing love. Joel doesn't tweet that frequently, so when he does, you know

he's passionate about something. And I think it's worth noting that Joel has been a big advocate of Matisse in

his game since he was a rookie. Even just listening to media bites over these past couple of years, Joel does make it a point to talk about how impressive he finds Matisse, to name Matis as a future All NBA Defensive player, which he was this season, and when Matisse made that All Defensive team, he said that guys like Joel and Ben have been telling him since he got here that he was going to be an All defensive player. So cool to know that that's happening in

private and now it's also happening publicly. When Joel Embiide gives you gives you a pat on the back, it's a it's a hardy one and it was cool to see him do that publicly. He's called him at times a Defensive Player of the Year candidate as well, in addition to All Defense, which we saw him make the

second team. Of course, do you want to talk about the community for minutes, because let's give them a shout out and obviously we've we've given you shout outs just it was a it is a family, it seems Australian Boomers basketball. What do you want to say about how they welcomed you during the run. Yeah, thank you for giving me that little lob because I would like to complete it. It has been nothing but a pleasure to

engage with Australian basketball fans. And it's not that I didn't know that they existed, It's that I didn't know they would be as passionate and supportive of Matise. Like, first of all, they're Matisse fans, they're not Lauren fans.

But it was interesting to see this group of people sort of gravitate to me because I was able to add some extra color to what he's been up to in the last couple of years before maybe he was on the Australian basketball culture radar the way that he certainly is now, and then sort of on a human level,

these Australian basketball fans are so nice. I have gotten so many messages, DMS, mentions whatever from folks in Australia that have enjoyed this run, that have welcomed me in, that have invited me out to Australia, given me food and coffee recommendations for when I go. So, if any of you guys are listening, thank you so much for making me feel that welcome. I did not intend to make some new virtual friends, but I feel as though I have, and Australia has certainly shot to the top

of my list of places to visit. Hopefully we can continue covering some Ausi international basketball as Sixers people as well as the crossover remains relevant. But yeah, thank you to everybody that's been so kind to me. It's actually been like a little bit touching and a little bit moving, and I'm kind of sad that the run is over because of how much fun I had, being obviously a

very peripheral small part of it. You said they were curious about sixers Matise a little bit, so like, what do you if you what did you tell them or what would you tell them about sixers Matise when they were inquiring about what he's like, because if it was their first taste of him playing basketball or seeing him regularly, what do you tell them about what you have seen

over the years. Well, I think it's interesting. I think you and I started this conversation talking about the fact that if I had told you that Matisse was going to lead the Olympics and steals and steals per game in not so many minutes per game, like, that's not surprising because that's what he's been doing in the NBA. But if you haven't watched matise in the NBA, you're surprised that this dude is able to do what he does and does it with a smile and does it

with passion. And I think a lot of people didn't even know about his dual citizenship, so I don't think that he was really on the radar. So for me, it wasn't about sharing any like inside scoop or anything like that. It was more about just saying like, look, he's been doing this, like this is actually, yeah, this is what this guy does. This is how he makes his money, this is how he's going to continue to

do it. And I think it's cool for him also to now have developed a much stronger international fan base and deepen the connections that he's always had but not everybody was aware of to Australia, and the fact that he just quickly started doing all of these things that he does in the NBA, like he would come on the court and immediately intercept a pass, so there was no seemingly no learning curve, or at least like if the fans were like all right, let's see what this

guy is all about. He just got on the court and started doing those things right from the jump, which is not always easy to do again when you join any team for a short period of time with a short lead up, but a team that's so established, when they have veterans like Angles and Patty Mills that have been together for many years, many Olympics, he just came in and he couldn't have acclimated himself any better. I don't think, I mean, I would zoom out even farther

than international basketball. Anytime you start a new job or get a new gig, like there's a learning curve, and I agree with you, he didn't really seem to have one. If he did, he hit it really really well. And I think for a fan base that has wanted this medal for so long and has been so close over and over and over again, to get a piece like Matisse, who has such a unique skill set, such an impactful skill set, at exactly the right time, must have felt

really good for those fans. Must have felt really good for Matisse because he's able to look back at this run and know that he made a really interesting and really important impact. So it all sort of came together in a really great way for this program, for our guy and for these fans. So it was just so much fun to cover. It was so light and like wholesome and enjoyable, and it was just awesome. I've really enjoyed these last few weeks of coverage, despite the obscure hours.

My sleep schedule is going to thank me for going back to covering the Sixers. Now, I will say Matisse Thybal was an Olympic X factor and I as we finish up, I couldn't get enough. On the social media side of things. Even for the team account, it was who's the MVP of the game or what emoji? Pick your emoji for this player, and the comments are Thibal, Thible,

Thieble or whatever emoji represents Thible. Even if he's not an option, it seemed like people on Instagram were picking him as their player the game, or ultimately the X factor in a lot of their games. And that, of course is credit not just to the way that Matisse plays, but the way that he carries himself, the way that he speaks, the pride that he clearly had for being

a part of this program. So happy for him, Happy for the team, happy for the fan base, Thible, the Australian Boomers, bronze medalists in Tokyo, the Rose Gold medalists, Yeah, thank you, Rose Gold medalists in Tokyo, the first medal of any kind for the Boomers. And as we put a bow on this, what else do we have on the seventy six Ers podcast network? You might ask, what else can you listen to now that that event is over? Well, summer league, So there's a few different ways people can

get our summer league content, Lauren. We have our Summer Sixers interviews. You've recently spoken with Isaiah Joe of the Sixers. I've spoken with Brian Adams, who's a Sixers assistant coach coaching the summer league team out in Vegas. So that's

available on this here feed. And then if you're not already following our other feed, search seventy Sixers Scoop and over on the feed for the Scoop will have daily five minute podcasts about the Sixers and the Sixers Summer League previews recaps all of that, so more basketball to talk about. It should be fun to parlay that into some summer league Summer Sixers It never ends, really really never ends, and we will be here for it all.

Thanks again to Lauren Rosen, I am Matt Murphy, and thank you for listening.