After a strong rookie season in the NBA, Montreal basketball star Bennedict Mathurin made a triumphant return to his home neighbourhood of Montreal North Tuesday.
He was there to shoot some hoops with kids from the area, dissuade them from vaping and deliver a message of hope.
The 20-year-old just wrapped his first season playing for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.
He grew up in Montreal North, one of the city’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods. As a teen, he resisted many temptations to take the wrong path, stayed focused on basketball, and is now playing at the highest level.
“Our main goal is to motivate the kids to stay off the street and pretty much just stay focused in school. There’s a lot more than just being in the streets,” Mathurin told reporters at École Secondaire Henri-Bourassa, where he met with young basketball players and gave them pointers.
After being picked sixth overall in the last NBA draft, Mathurin finished fourth in voting for the league’s Rookie of the Year Award. He averaged 16.7 points per game and is signed to a four-year, US$30-million contract.
“He’s kind of my idol, because he went from nothing and to today playing the NBA,” said 14-year-old Michelene Derival, a secondary two student at Henri-Bourassa.
Lubens Douze, a gym teacher at the school, said he played against Mathurin in the neighbourhood’s parks when the two were teens.
“He was the guy that was playing in the park just right there maybe ten years ago,” Douze said. “I think it’s great for the kids to actually be motivated and actually have a goal, and have someone that actually reached the goal that not many people from our neighbourhood did.”
For kids in Montreal North who have seen their area in the news for the wrong reasons over the years, Mathurin is a beacon of hope.
“Montreal North is not only a poor neighbourhood full of criminality, full of everything like this. We have athletes and we are the next generation,” said Derival.
Mathurin was on hand promoting a campaign from the Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec and the Conseil québécois sur le tabac et la santé, trying to convince young athletes not to vape.
“It affects the lungs, reduces performance and all that stuff,” said Mathurin.
He credits his sister Jenn with keeping him away from smoking and making sure he stayed on track.
“Vaping has effects on anxiety, stress, pulmonary diseases and stuff like that. I think it’s good that Benn was able to come back here with the impact that he has on kids and deliver a positive message,” Jenn Mathurin told Global News.
Mathurin, who moved to Indianapolis to be close to her brother, said she was happy to be back in the neighbourhood they came from.
“It’s the kids from where we grew up, kids that look like us and have similar backgrounds. It’s really nice that he got to come back here,” she said.
Mathurin hopes he motivates the students to aim high, and speaking to those who got to rub shoulders with him, it seemed he accomplished his mission.
“Where we live is not an excuse for what you want to do in life,” said secondary five student Marck Chery. “Anybody from anywhere can do anything in life. Ben is proof, he came from the same place we live.”
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