Beyond the Bench
Pickles and Perseverance: The Matisse Thybulle Story
From Metro League star to the NBA, Matisse Thybulle’s journey to basketball’s biggest stage has demanded all the grit and focus the former Crusader can muster.
Number four for the Portland Trail Blazers – number one in your hearts – Walker Stadium go nuts for Matisse… Thybulle!
Matisse Thybulle finds himself with a pickle in his hand, a grimace on his face. The 27-year-old raises his hand to the sky, and the crowd roars. Matisse is throwing the first pitch for the Portland Pickles, a collegiate summer baseball team.
Thybulle, of course, is not a professional pickle-pitcher. Born in Arizona, Matisse spent his early years in Sydney, Australia. His father was a Haitian-born engineer, and his mother was, as Wikipedia labels her, a naturopath: someone who uses natural therapies and “non-invasive” healing. In Australia, Thybulle was more focused on swimming than basketball; he never really played the latter sport until he moved back to the United States.
He was a quick learner, however. Living in Issaquah, Washington, Thybulle quickly progressed from the freshman team to the varsity squad in his first year at Skyline High School. In just his second game on varsity, Skyline took on Bothell High School and their star guard Zach Lavine, a future Chicago Bull and arguably the best player in the state of Washington. Thybulle shut down the future lottery pick in front of Washington Huskies head coach Lorenzo Romar and Louisville head coach Rick Pitino (thankfully, the latter didn’t seem to take interest in him).
Thybulle transferred to the Metro League ahead of his junior season, playing for Eastside Catholic High School. Eastside Catholic was more renowned for its football program than its basketball team, coming off a decade that saw a flurry of losing seasons.
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Thybulle, however, propelled the school to new heights. He averaged double-digit points per game and led Eastside Catholic to an appearance in the Washington 3A Championship game. In his senior season, Thybulle took his team to the state semifinal, averaging 18.2 points and 8.2 boards. Renowned for his defense, Thybulle was considered a four-star recruit, and his relationship with Husky coach Lorenzo Romar (yes, the same one attending his freshman game at Skyline) led him to choose Washington over Cal and Gonzaga.
However, Thybulle’s story wasn’t quite a fairy tale, as tragedy struck at the culmination of his senior high school season: his mother died from acute myeloid leukemia on Super Sunday 2015. Thybulle was very close with his mom, and her passing came just two days before his Senior Night on Tuesday. On that Tuesday, Thybulle’s tearful entrance to the gym came alongside his father, grandparents, and aunt. Despite a potential emotional distraction, Thybulle played one of the best games of his high school career — recording a whopping 32 points and throwing down three next-level dunks.
Thybulle runs up to the pitcher’s mound and heaves his pickle as far as he can. The throw is perfect.
“Yes, yes!” Matisse yells as he runs to retrieve his pickle.
“Yay, let’s hear it for Matisse!”, a less-than-enthused announcer says.
Like his pickle pitch, Matisse’s high school career was exceptional. Being ranked as a four-star recruit comes with great status.
Still, at this point, it’s nothing special for a college prospect. Sure, Thybulle amazed with his defensive prowess, but he was barely a four-star, considered a three-star by ESPN. The Huskies were among the better teams in the Pac-12, but the conference was considered the worst at basketball of the power five (perhaps a factor in its eventual dissolution). They had barely exceeded .500 in their previous three years and hadn’t made an NCAA tournament since 2011.
After arriving at UW, Thybulle played well in his freshman season, starting all 34 games and averaging around six points and three rebounds. The team also improved that year, finishing with a 19-15 record in 2015.
In 2016, the Huskies had high hopes for their hoops team. They expected to return stars Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss, to go with five-star recruit Markelle Fultz. Unfortunately for the ‘Dawgs, the pair left for the NBA, leaving Fultz, Thybulle, and a lackluster supporting cast. U-Dub went just 9-22 in the 2016 campaign. Said Fultz of the missing teammates, “I think we would be No. 1 in the country. We would have gone to the (NCAA) tournament and won”. For his part, Thybulle improved upon his freshman season. In the opener against Yale, the forward scored 20 points and blocked six shots. He averaged 10.5 points a game on the season to go with 65 steals.
After the season, the Huskies fired head coach Lorenzo Romar. Romar had been the head coach since 2003 and had recruited Thybulle to Washington. Romar had also recruited the number one player in the nation, Michael Porter Jr., to the Huskies, and with the former’s departure came the latter’s. The situation seemed disastrous, with the Huskies’ bright 2000s fading into a bleak 2010s, especially with Fultz leaving for the NBA draft.
Still, the Huskies had grit, and Thybulle was at the center of it. Their new head coach Mike Hopkins pushed defense and a team effort. This was perfect for Thybulle. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Matisse called defense “literally half the game”. Nicknamed the “Human Bruise”, Matisse played impeccable defense, attacking opposing players. On offense, he was selfless, forever ready to make the extra pass. Thybulle again started every game. He set a school record with 101 steals, led the team with 49 blocks, averaged 11.2 points a game, and played 32.3 minutes a contest. Washington barely missed the NCAA tournament. In both the Pac-12 Tournament and the Not-Invited Tournament, Thybulle dominated, scoring double-digit points in several games.
Thybulle was named the 2018 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year for his elite defensive play.
2018 brought even more improvement for Thybulle. In his senior year, he dominated on the defensive end of the floor, averaging 31.1 minutes, 2.3 blocks and 3.5 steals a game. Thybulle was first-team All-Pac-12, was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year for the second season in a row, and most importantly, took home the 2019 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, beating out Zion Williamson for the honors. The Huskies finished the season 27-9, were Pac-12 Runner-Ups, and made the NCAA tournament, knocking off Utah State before losing to North Carolina. The season was a tremendous success for the Huskies, and even better for Thybulle, who finished college with UW’s school record for steals and sixth in blocks. Given his string of individual success, Thybulle entered the 2019 NBA Draft and set his sights on the National Basketball Association.
Matisse, pickle in hand, gives the mascot, Mr. Pickle, a hug. He goes around the stadium, taking meeting and taking pictures with fans. Thybulle sits down in a booth overlooking the stadium, his 6-foot-5 frame barely fitting under the canopy.
“Can I get shots for everyone?” he says. These are shots, of course, of pickle juice.
“A defensive ace… You will not find defenders that gifted very often… Has the ability to stay in front of players regardless of speed… Will be in the league for a long time just from his defense… Gets a ton of steals… Offensive game is still a work in progress, but has made threes at a decent clip… Ball has no reason to be in his hands on offense… This needs to change for him to take the next step”
That was Matisse Thybulle’s scouting report coming out of college: a defensive-minded forward with scoring deficiencies. Even with those drawbacks, the Philadelphia 76ers saw the talent in him. Thybulle was drafted 20th overall in the 2019 NBA draft (technically by the Boston Celtics, but he was immediately traded to Philly).
The 76ers were coming out of a period known as “The Process”. Philadelphia was a historic NBA franchise, winning the title in 1983 and making another finals appearance in 2001 with MVP Allen Iverson. However, in the next decade, the 76ers stumbled into mediocrity. This led them to embrace a “tank”, losing games on purpose for better draft picks.
It seemed to work: after 4 subpar seasons, a core of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons brought the ‘6ers 52 wins and a conference semifinals berth, where they barely lost in seven games. The franchise was on the upswing.
In his rookie season, Thybulle came mostly off the bench. The scoring and offensive play was lackluster, with Thybulle averaging 4.7 points and 1.6 rebounds in 19.8 minutes a game. But the defense… oh, the defense. Thybulle averaged 1.4 steals a game and played terrific in his limited action. Adjusting Matisse’s stats for 36 minutes a contest would put him in defensive player of the year contention (at least, that’s what a Philly-based sports site claimed). In Bleacher Report’s redraft of the 2020 draft, Thybulle went 4th. The hype around him was tremendous.
Thybulle looked promising again in 2021, improving upon his play and gaining more experience. Philadelphia was the number one seed in the East. The 76ers found themselves locked in a tight battle in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Thybulle was in the game in crunch time. While the Sixers went on to lose that game, it showed the trust that they had in him (Ben Simmons thought so well of him, he passed on a wide-open dunk just to give Matisse the ball!).
Thybulle was on the Australian National team in the summer of 2021. He helped the “Boomers” win bronze in the Summer Olympics that year.
In year three of his NBA career, Thybulle put it all together. He played in 65 games and started 50 of them, improving his statistics across the board. Thybulle was a menace defensively, taking home NBA All-Defensive Second Team honors in 2021 and 2022. It looked like Matisse would be a pillar for Philly for years to come.
Then, it all came crashing down.
“That’s disgusting” says Matisse, sipping on pickle juice. As he attempts to hold it in, laughter erupts around him.
The 2022 season was the last season directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID had done a lot to the league, from shutting it down in 2020 to leading a shortened 2021 season. In 2022, most restrictions had been lifted – if you were vaccinated, that is.
The 76ers made the playoffs as the No. 4 seed and drew a matchup with the Toronto Raptors. The city of Toronto required players to be vaccinated in order to play, and Thybulle was not. He only received the first of two required coronavirus shots. Thybulle was forced to miss the ‘6ers away games in that series, totaling three absences in Games 3, 4, and 6. He was fined for it, too.
Philadelphia still won the series, but Thybulle’s professional career was now marred by this absence. Prior to this series, fans were furious (a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion article even called Thybulle “the worst sort of teammate”, flaming him for his absence). Thybulle’s biggest drawback was his lack of offensive production. That alone put a ceiling on his career. Now, massive questions were brought into play, with both his availability and apparently his character.
Through the first half of the 2023 season, Thybulle’s minutes plummeted. He went from starting several games and averaging over 25 minutes a contest to playing just 12 minutes a game off the bench. With that, his scoring totals dropped by three points a game. It was clear that Thybulle’s time in Philly was over. He was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers before the deadline, cap fodder in the Josh Hart deal.
A move from a contending 76ers team brimming with talent to a rebuilding Blazers team meant more minutes for Thybulle. With Portland in the latter half of 2023, he averaged a career-high 7.4 points a game and played 27 minutes a contest. Last year, in 2024, Thybulle’s totals dropped again (though not as drastically as they had in his previous season). He was not selected to play for Australia’s national team in the 2024 Olympic games.
Thybulle will turn 28 years old this upcoming season: middle-aged for a professional athlete, and his future in Portland now seems murky, as they continue through a rebuild (he’s the third-oldest player on the team!).
“Can you sign my ball?” A young fan comes to Matisse.
“Of course,” he says. Portland seems to have taken a liking to their 27-year-old star.
Of course, that’s not to say it’s completely over for Thybulle. There is interest in Thybulle’s skillset. He’s an ace defender, someone you can plug in off the bench to give your starters a rest. The Dallas Mavericks offered him a contract ahead of the 2024 season (one that the Trail Blazers matched). Big-time minutes aren’t on the table, but big-time minutes were never on the table. Thybulle isn’t a pure scorer, plain and simple. Despite that, he could have value to a championship contender, especially one that needs a spark on the defensive end (Milwaukee, anyone?).
From the broadest of lens, Thybulle has had a successful basketball career. Since being drafted, he’s earned north of $23 million, with two years remaining on his current deal. He played a key role on a contending 76ers team for four seasons. In college, Matisse took home National Defensive Player of the Year honors and guided his team to the NCAA tournament. He started all 135 games in his college career, setting school records. In high school, he was a state-runner up, laying the foundation for an eventual powerhouse Metro League team.
Compare Thybulle to the man who went just one pick before him: Luka Šamanić, who didn’t make it to a second season with his draft team and is currently plying his trade in the Turkish league. Thybulle is in the NBA, with a decent role and a strong resume. Most basketball players don’t work out; this guy did work out, and relative to other players who are fortunate to enter the league at all, he’s worked out tremendously.
It’s tough to project the rest of Thybulle’s career. Best case scenario, he plays out his contract with the Blazers, then signs with a title contender and becomes a key rotation player on a championship team. Worst case? Thybulle’s defense wanes as he ages and his offense continues to be a liability.
Thybulle could still have a long career ahead of him, especially if he maintains that defensive prowess that’s so often lacking the NBA. He has a mental drive and skills that few others in his profession possess, so if Thybulle can keep refining and honing his game, he’ll keep representing the Metro League on basketball’s biggest stage.