This podcast is part of the seventy Sixers Podcast network search seventy Sixers podcast wherever you get your pods. This week's edition of Tom's Talks features seventy Sixers guard small forward Matisse Thible among the league leaders and steals, deflections, and for his position blocks. Thible's numbers are amazing for a second year player. Furthermore, his overall defense is rare in an Eric chock full of so many offensive talents
off the court. His video diaries or vlogs captured the attention of a white swath of America during the NBA bubble last summer in Orlando. He's an incredibly well rounded and likable seventy Sixers players. And here's my conversation with Matisse Thible. Welcome to another edition of Tom's Talks, and we're joined by Sixers guard forward Matise Thible. Matise, thank you so much for doing this. I totally appreciate it. And for you guys to go home after Boston have
a little break in the road trip must feel good. Yeah, it's been. It's been. It's been a tough stretch. We've had a long West coast trip and then to come back and then get right back on the road. Any days we can get in Fili are good days for you. Like what I mean, this pandemic has been tough on all kinds of people, including all of us. But when you think back in your first two years years from now, you're gonna go, WHOA, that was a lot in terms
of the disrupted season. Yes, last year, and then everything that's involved in this year and two coaches have been a lot of change. Yeah, it's kind of funny, Like I'm, like you said, I'm going to look back on these years and just being a part of them. It's like I yet to experience a normal NBA season at the end of the season. I have been two years in and it's like I haven't played a normal eighty two
games yet. And I mean, I'm taking it as they come, rolling with the punches, but I'm excited for things to get back to normal so I can see what the NBA's supposed to be like. But to be winning and to be in a position you guys are and makes it a little bit easier, I would think, right, winning
makes everything better. Your season has been great, just it's amazing, Like even that game against Boston with Joel I mean you were you guys were so tired Sunday and understandably so, had a little bit of a blip there, but then two days later to have your MVP candidate and just see what the possibilities are. It's just it's uplifting, is
it not. Yeah, I mean, I think the stretch that the Roach are be going on without him, and then last game to show how versatile we are as a team and how talented we are as individuals as a collective, and with all of us healthy and everyone well rested, I think it's gonna be It's gonna be hard for a lot of teams to match up with us, and especially on defense, which obviously you play play a big part, but as a player, you know, and certainly early in
the game you were watching from the sideline. Like what I think people don't under stand. They talk about Joel with rim protection, but and you know this from going up against big players like a Yokitch or whomever, but their path to the basket beers off or they pull up a dribble fitter. His impact is way more than blocking shots. I mean, it's literally paint protection. To talk
about that. Yeah, that's one of those things that you have to really have an eye for basketball or to really know the game to see it, because as players it's and for me specifically being a defender and I'm playing with Joe and when I'm not, it's almost nine and day just because of the impact he has on the ball handler, because guys and you build up a reputation in this league and these things stick, and Joe's reputation being a rim protection, so guys are scared. Guys
don't want to go up against him. Guys defer a lot of the times when they get downhills, So I think it's guards like me a chance to get back in front or get like my rear view contests when guys try to pull up at the nail and I get those blocks, it's he takes He takes the ball handler's out of their comfort zone and it makes a lot of opportunities for guys like need to make more plays.
Did you then press out maybe a little bit more defensively, knowing that you have a insurance policy back there where maybe you would sag just a hair or just that if you didn't have them back there. Yeah, I think
we saw that. We saw that last game just with how how intense we were on the ball, the ball pressure hasn't picked up throughout the game because we kind of remembered what it was like kept Joe Beck and to realize that we have that that force back there, that the land of defense going the rim, so we could get into the ball handlers and that trickles down through everything defensively. If you make it hard for the ball handler, guys got to work harder to get open.
Shots aren't coming on time, and it just goes out one on a sink. Speaking of reputations, have you found in your second year now that you have this league wide reputation and with the officials that things and you still i know, get some calls against you, but where that's kind of carried a little bit more weight for you both as as a player, with the opponents and with the referees. Yeah, I will say I'm pleasantly surprised
with how quickly it kind of came on. But I think the team, like my teammates, have done a great job of building me up as being a defender and then just for me to live up to the standard they've set for me is kind of allowed this reputation to build from other players to the referees, and it's been nice to get the respect, but also with that comes a greater challenge of trying to prove it not in that out because now I'm tasked with guarding some of the best players on the other team, and it's
their job every night to make sure whoever's guarding them can't stop them. So it's a challenge and I'm excited about it. I welcome at every game, but I'm definitely excited about where I'm at in year two and just what comes from the future. How much did the film work where you guys are sitting down with the coaches or you personally, where you're going over the tendencies of
the opposing players. Do you actually see that? Did you see the translation in the game like, oh, he always rejects the screen this guy, I know how this works
with this spelt. Does it come to fruition like that? Yeah, we actually do a really good job with film, and Doc pulled me aside early in the season and just told me that tendencies, like you said, we're going to be something that would set me apart this year and come playoffs is what really allows you to lock guys down, and I mean before games, we watch film and it's like if if you see it at a home game,
if you're there early enough, you can see us. We all go sit down and sometimes be groups of us where we watch. We watched the film and one of the video coordinators, d mac he we caught We basically is like we're going to class. We called our two credit Classic Defense and we go sit down and he's breaking down guys tendencies and he also breaks it down
like player by players. So like for me, I'm going to be guarding a lot of guards people coming off of pin downs and dhos and ball screens, and knowing tendencies in those situations will be different from like Tobias or Mike Scott. We're gonna be guarding the guys saying the screens and the way they break it down for us really allows you to just have the success possible.
When we were younger players, me, you know, you were taught not to reach, and the whole thing in a playground you reach out to teach all that, but you're reaching is really kind of like a poke away. It's almost like a precision. So one a you don't want to get beat where you're in that position where you're behind the guy. Yeah, but you're pretty adapt at poking that ball without getting called for the fun because you're
not reaching across his body. You're just making one last little effort, and oftentimes that poke away goes to Danny or Ben or whomever. You talk about that for a moment. I'll talk about it, but I don't know that anybody, any basketball coach or a parent who's listening to this is gonna hate it. Because I'm growing up. This is this is a play I've made and I've been doing since I was a kid. Just for whatever reason, I had to natural instinct for it. And every coach I've
ever played for us hated it. And I mean even at this level, they don't like it. And you kind of have to make exceptions. And this goes for defensive offense. But guys who take bad shots and make them you kind of got to live with it. Guys who like you, when I make that reach and get the steel, you kind of got to live with it. And that's a
risk that I take. And it's like a calculated risk I try to monitor in games is just not taking too many but it's yeah, it's not a position you necessarily want to put yourself in, but for some for whatever reason, when I find myself in being able to get my hands on enough, and you've even seen it through Ben and Danny, I've been getting a lot of
them recently, and it's just been fun. And it's it sucks as an offensive player just have the ball just poked away from me like that and we're immediately in a fast break. It's it's deflating for me. Last thought, But try to sum it all up. The recipe that makes you a great defender. You your length, you have a huge wingspan, your athleticism, your intuition, and the want a lot of people don't want to play. It's it's tough, it's gritty, all of those things. But what say you?
What makes you a great defender? I think, and you said it, But I've always said I just care. I want to play defense, and I put in the effort to play defense. And I think you've you've seen it. And this is not a knock on Tobias, but he hasn't really been a defender throughout his career. But I'd say within these last two years that i've been with him, like you've seen the growth. And Tobias is a defender where we've we've put him on other guys, best players.
We've we've watched him shutdown Julius Randall, We've watched him last night shut down Jaln Brown. And for him, tobiases, he's been six nine and athletic and law for most of his career, but he's developed this desire and I think it's part of just a culture that we've created here and that docs created here at the Sixers, and
and that's just defense. And the more people get bought in, I think it's going to be more surprising the more great defenders that we have, because at the end of the day, we all have what it takes physically to do it, and think about what it takes for us to do it mentally, and it's just within us to just want to put effort into it. Well said, speaking of Tobias, he's your friend. He took you under his
wing as a rookie player. Part of what Coach Rivers is trying to preach to you guys is, you know, the shared sacrifice, the camaraderie, what it takes to be a successful team. That part of that is reveling in the success of your teammates. Well, I don't think it takes a lot for you to enjoy the play of your friend. Your teammate Tobias Abert paris having an incredible season.
It has to bring you and your teammates great joy to watch him and how he's excelling right that absolutely, and I mean and like I just said, it is both ends. Just watching him do it on both ends at such a high level, and it's so cool to be able to know you can count on someone as consistently as he's played. It's just when it comes on the crunch time or when it's things get slow and we just know to run his play and get into a spot and we got it better than what feels
like at he's gonna score by dodds. I feel like when when devices binder stand the odds are always in our favor, that's something's good, it's going to happen. And yeah, as as his friend as a fan, like watching to buyas this season has been so fun and then being able to play with him just makes super better. And I would imagine you guys have learned a lot from
each other. He's a little bit older, whether you guys are going over books or going to a bookstore, and then to take it even a level further for everything we're going through as a country, but specifically last summer with the marches and the efforts in the area of social justice to when you were there, but to watch your friend be a leader and show it and be out there, that had to be special and pretty cool. No,
it's great. I mean, he he's influenced me to grow in a lot of those areas where he's really devoted and interested in. And like the march that you saw us that he texted me and was like, hey, let's go. I was like, I'll be there. And he's for me. He's been like a big brother and the greatest role model and big brother and you could ask for. And just being able to have him as someone you can talk to and he's I mean now to buys me
and him talk about this offical things. We will discuss lectures from Alan Watts and like reading things, and it's it's just been it's been cool to see him going and I think this it's kind of just been a narrative of he's just been growing immensely as a human being. And to be a friend watching it a part of it has been great and it just makes me more and more excited to see what he has in the future, hopefully more Golfer's commercials. That's great. Those are so funny.
That's another great relationship. Let's turn if we could to your vlogging, your video diaries, the YouTube and obviously like photography and using the camera was a hobby for you. Yeah, but it went, you know, viral in the literal sense.
It went national. It was crazy. People love seeing the inside stuff, and you have a you're a very likable person and a great personality, and you know, even as we watched you go through the gift bag in Orlando and you're like, oh, I don't like this, not like that, people just really wrapped their arms around that and exploded. Tell me a little bit hard. I think for me
it was just kind of it was good timing. And like you said, everyone wants to see the inside and the bubble was one of the most closed off situations that we've seen in sports, and for me to be able to give people a glimpse, I think part of me wants the thing that I did a good job, but the other part of me as to acknowledge that people were gonna watch regardless just because they wanted to know what was going on. Yeah, I go on Twitter
occasionally and everything. I always see people tweeting like we gonna start vlogging and making videos again, And you said it, but for me, it started as a hobby and it got to a point in the bubble where I was like, this feels like it's my job, and I was like, I can't lose sight of the fact that I'm here because of my real job, and that's to be an
NBA player. And so for me, this season has been mostly about finding myself on the court and like devoting myself more so of that, and then when things get more comfortable, if they ever get more comfortable, finding more time to I do my hobbies, make videos, photos, those kinds of things. As you said, other people did it, but you did it better. I mean, you were really
really good at technical aspects. But like when we would get the notification that like Matissa is going to be talking to the La Times or the New York Times Morning America definition of blowing up, that ended it. And you were that when they brought you back to Philly and I believe it was ESPN. You must have was a pinch me moment. I would think, right, I mean I would I would text my friends or call my
friends after. I think my agent called me and he would be like, so Jimmy FOWLN once you be and I'm like, okay, cool, cool, and then I would pick up, I hang up, pick up my phone, call my friends, mean you got Jimmy Fowl Like, I think, it was so hard for me to wrap my mind because videos photography is stuff I've done, like throughout my life, throughout college, Me and my friends did it. We still do it
at similar levels. And to think that it became something that was so big and so widely enjoyed, it's it's still hard for me to believe. I sometimes go on YouTube and if I see the views on those things, I'm like, wow, it's incredible your generation, you know, like the editing and when my kids are outside doing do perfect shots and there's one like the dog shot, I'm like, they're I'm giving that. So it's not that unnatural to be to, you know, with the new medium and social
media and whatnot. But like when you went to Sedona and you know, like you're and I was in television, so I did photography and all that, so I know. But even today, like my kids are like my son's like, oh, he had to run back and put the camera there and get in order to get those walking shots. You know, there's a there's a part of it that is like more than just click and shoot, right, I mean, you
have to know a lot more. Yeah, And it for me, like this is sometimes I'm pretty passionate about So I've given a lot of time to learning like the art of making a video and just I find a lot of joy in the shooting of it and the editing and yeah, so being able to go out there and I've been I've been a fan of people who've created
in this field for a long time. So trying to emulate my favorites like these guys like Casey Nice that Peter McKinnon or YouTubers I've loved, and to be able to put my own twist on things I've learned from them, It's been cool, and it's just it's nice. I think for other people, it's nice to see an athlete doing things that they're also interested in or things that they also enjoy outside of basketball. Because and all kids, everyone
my age and younger. We watch YouTube like that's what we do and to sort of see an athlete that they like also become a you tuber like the like is I bring two worlds together. That just makes it even better. And so as you go back on the road, you might end up guarding Zion. Oh my right, I mean talk about that and just that you I know you don't get ahead of yourself, but different players and you might have to check Williamson. Yeah, yeah, I mean
it's every night, it's something different. Like I when we were going to play who was it? When Blake Griffin is on the pistons And I didn't even know it's gonna guard Blake Griffin until the game it started, and you look at you look at some of these physical matchups and you're like, well, how can I gain an advantage in this situation? And in that game, I was
able to find one and take advantage of it. And I think going into this next game, I'll probably be a little bit more prepared and just look for those advantages that you can take because even though they're guys are great in certain areas, they have everyone has weaknesses you can exploit and it's just looking for those and also having four other guys on the on the court who can have my back and help me with my
weaknesses and let me play to my strengths. It bringing the whole picture together is really when makes makes the defensive team. Lastly, the stretch run is really packed. I just looked at this week and may you guys play five games in seven days, so there's a lot to go before the playoffs. But what's the ceiling? How can this end with the best possible outcomes for your team of Philadelphia seventy six years. I mean, the way we look at it, there's I don't think there's any games
on our counter that we mark as potential losses. We go into every game expecting to win, and I think at this point a lot of a lot of people expect it too. And even though these the stretches brutal, it's not just us, Like as much as we complain about being tired or banged up, every team are playing against going to the same thing, some worse, and it's just this. It's it's what's the NBA right now? And like we said at the beginning of this, it's not
a normal year. And I haven't experienced one yet, but this is why we're the pros. We had to be able to adapt and be prepared to play at a high level regardless. And I think it's just going to be a mental a mental game at this point because everyone physically is going to be beat up and whoever can fight through it the best and I think that we have a pretty good chance of doing that. Well, thank you so much. We'll let you get on your way.
We appreciate it. Natis good luck to thank you for talking. If you like what you're hearing, consider subscribing to the seventy six ers podcast network Feed or giving us a follow wherever you get your pods, and if that happens to be on Apple Podcasts, we'd love for you to give us a rating. I'm Tom McGinnis. Talk to you down the road.