Bennedict Mathurin's NBA journey was marked by a family tragedy in Montreal and a two-year stint at an NBA academy in Mexico.
Now 20, Mathurin recalls Jeune’s tragic head injury with a steady gaze and clipped sentences, unrolling his shirt sleeve to reveal a tattoo bearing Jeune’s name and the dates of his birth and death.“A car hit him,” Mathurin said during an interview at a midtown Manhattan hotel Wednesday. “I was at home. He just didn’t come back from school. My mom was wondering what happened. She received a call. She went to the hospital. She found him. It was hard for my mom, my sister and my whole family.
“Everything I do is for my brother,” Mathurin said. “He’s always with me. We did everything together. I had one chip on my shoulder already, but [his death] put another one. I’ve got chips on both shoulders now. Whichever way people bump into me, they’re going to hit one of them.” Mathurin was the first Canadian invite at the Latin America Academy, and at age 16, he set about learning Spanish, his fourth language after English, French and Creole, and adjusting to life without his mother’s cooking.
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