“The Most Confident” Player In The NBA?
According to Tyrese Hailburton, maybe it’s Bennedict Mathurin (Skip to 1:25:40)
“What makes Ben so special is his confidence, to say he’s confident is the biggest undersell I’ve ever heard in my life.”
I’m listening.
“He is the most confident person I have ever met in my life, like ever.”
Well ok then, Tyrese.
Oh let’s edit that, the most confident ‘person’, I should say (for accuracy purposes) but you get the picture.
I find learnings and statements like this really interesting because to start with, it’s coming from, you know, a 100% credible source in his teammate and secondly, it just makes you think about what Mathurin is actually like as a person.
What does that confidence actually look like?
I’m curious what type of confidence he would display on a daily basis but I kind of get the feeling it would be a strong, bold confidence but not in an extremely outspoken way. If that makes sense.
If asked the right questions you’ll get some uber positive answers, but maybe he wouldn’t be the kind to talk crazy unprompted, but I’d be happy to be wrong about that.
‘That’ LeBron James quote
Speaking of answering questions his own way:
“A lot of people say he’s great. I want to see how great he is. I don’t think anybody is better than me. He’s going to have to show me he’s better than me.”
The above quote was the first thing many fans probably saw from Mathurin, and it’s amusing to look at when you realise he was talking about LeBron James.
Many people’s GOAT, but Mathurin apparently wanted LeBron to prove himself to him.
Our first taste of that elite confidence that Hailburton was talking about, and he did it essentially on day 1 of being a NBA player. One of his first interviews with the media.
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Bold.
Mathurin’s first game against LeBron
I need to go back and see what LeBron’s boxscore looked like in his first game against the rook last season, not that he would likely get motivated by a comment like this after dominating the league for 20 years but hey, we’ve seen LeBron hold onto similar things in the past and to be honest, I love it.
Alright I caved, in a slightly amusing series of events, in their first encounter Indiana beat LA by 1 point and Mathurin scored more points and grabbed more rebounds than LeBron in less minutes.
Sorry to phrase it like that LBJ.
Talked the talk and walked the walk
You need a fair bit of confidence to average 17 PPG as a rookie too, which reading that back makes me think that Mathurin’s rookie season may not have been spoken about enough. I guess he was the 6th pick so people may have expected something similar from him, anyway.
Young players don’t lack any confidence
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about the NBA it’s that young players aren’t afraid to show supreme confidence / borderline arrogance, especially around draft time. Hearing them aim to “be the best ever” or “one of the best ever” at their position is becoming the norm.
But I understand it more now, why would you aim lower? Why would you set yourself a ceiling?
Especially once you’re on a high after being drafted and not having any “welcome to the NBA” moments yet.
Just imagine someone coming onto the draft couch after reaching their childhood dream and being like “look, my chances of having a great NBA career isn’t high but I’m just happy that I’ve at least made it here.”
Part of the reason why they make it to the NBA is the confidence in themselves. Yes aiming to be the greatest ever on day dot can sound crazy but they are good for a reason.
I still raise my eyebrows at it, but I get it.
The most confident in the league?
I’m now wondering who else would be in the conversation for most confident in the NBA… but I’m 100% going to be paying closer attention to Bennedict Mathurin’s quotes and media appearances from now on.
Podcasts with players is a massive win
Last note, player-podcasts remain the best source of media or news, whatever you’d like to call it. Words coming straight from the players mouth in a setting with plenty of context (usually), it’s just a big win for mine.
They can say what they want, how they want (and probably edit it afterwards if they really want to) and in a pretty comfortable environment also.
It’s a great listen, and Paul George’s Podcast P is my current favourite. Love what those guys are doing over there.
