By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Philadelphia 76ers guard-forward Matisse Thybulle enjoyed his first run with Australia’s Boomers in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics this past summer which ended in a bronze medal for the nation, their first-ever in the Summer Games.
He was one of the revelations of the Olympic tournament, with an event-best 3.0 steals per game, while he also averaged 7.8 points per game en route to the podium. Thybulle reflected on his Olympics journey and how it helped him improve in his career, in a recent interview with ESPN Australia’s Kane Pitman.
“It’s cool to see the reaction of the (Sixers) coaching staff”, commented 24-year-old Thybulle. “The biggest thing they said when I got back is that I’ve gotten so much better. It’s funny because most people equate getting better to having an offseason of training and working on your game and I didn’t have any time to do that. That was the most growth I’ve made in my career even though it doesn’t necessarily show up but my value that I bring to the team has definitely grown and the coaches see that.”
“Everyone is kind of scared, and this is not the case with the Boomers”, he explained. “Guys are scared of playing in the offseason and doing too much, [but] you’ve seen Patty, Joe, Delly and Baynes do this forever. Just putting together massive years of playing basketball. I think that’s a testament to why their careers have been so long-lived and why they’ve been able to be so consistent in the NBA and I’m definitely trying to take a page out of their book in that sense.”
Photo: FIBA