Luguentz Dort and Bennedict Mathurin are going head-to-head on the court — but off it, their families are on the same team.
While Dort’s Oklahoma City Thunder battled Mathurin’s Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, the players’ mothers and sisters watched side by side in Montreal, coming together to celebrate two homegrown talents with deep ties.
“This is about unity,” said Berline Dort, Luguentz’s sister. “It’s not about rivalry.”
The Mathurin Family Foundation and the Maizon Dort Foundation collaborated for a charity watch party — one of many across the city — at Verdun Auditorium.
Basketball moms Erline Mortel (Dort) and Elvie Jeune (Mathurin) sat together and posed for pictures in the arena’s viewing area, not long after Dort swiped the ball from Mathurin’s hands six minutes into Game 2.
“They came here for a better opportunity. They came here to offer their children a better life,” said Jennifer Mathurin, Bennedict’s sister. “Our families are sitting here, cheering family members in the NBA … it means the world.
“At the end of the day, we’re all champions.”
Born to Haitian immigrants, Dort and Mathurin grew up blocks away from each other in the rough-and-tumble Montreal North borough, home to one of Canada’s largest Haitian populations.
Having not one but two players from their neighbourhood on the sport’s biggest stage is an inspiration for future hoopers in the community, Jennifer Mathurin said.
“A lot of Haitians play basketball because it’s very inexpensive,” she said. “It gives hope to the next generation. It inspires them to think that, ‘Me too, I can get to the highest level.’”
A former college baller for NC State, Jennifer Mathurin is now also Bennedict’s manager. She flew to Montreal from Oklahoma City after Game 1 just to organize the community event, citing the Haitian motto ‘union fait la force,’ which translates to ‘unity makes strength.’
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“It was important for us to show up together, both families, both foundations,” she said. “It was a no-brainer.”
Jennifer Mathurin will be back on a plane Tuesday morning ahead of Wednesday’s Game 3 in Indianapolis with the best-of-seven series tied 1-1.
Dort and Mathurin — separated by three years — played youth basketball together on the Parc Ex Knights and each honed their craft in the Brookwood Elite AAU basketball program.
As Mathurin followed Dort’s footsteps through college to the NBA, they only became closer.
“They’re very tight, they’re proud of each other,” Berline Dort said. “They just want to uplift each other, and it’s like a brotherhood.”
The way they impact the game, however, is different.
Dort is known for his smothering on-ball defence and locking opponents up in his so-called ‘Dorture Chamber.’ The 26-year-old swingman — built like a brick wall at six feet four, 220 pounds — went from undrafted to becoming a key starter for the Thunder.
Meanwhile, Mathurin was a top prospect in the 2022 NBA draft thanks to his scoring touch and explosive athleticism.
When the Pacers selected the six-foot-five, 210-pound guard sixth overall — the highest-ever pick for a Montrealer — Dort was there to support him, despite his own draft nightmare of being passed over in 2019.
“Says a lot about the kind of character Lu is and the relationship he has with Benn,” said Joey McKitterick, who coached both at Brookwood Elite. “He must have had PTSD from that night, so to go up there and relive it, it says a lot about his selflessness.”
When Dort and Mathurin were young teenagers, McKitterick didn’t imagine they’d one day meet in the NBA Finals. Only three players who call Montreal home have previously won an NBA title.
Bill Wennington won three championships with the Chicago Bulls from 1996 to 1998, Joel Anthony claimed two rings with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013, and Chris Boucher captured the Larry O’Brien Trophy with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.
Now, Montreal is guaranteed a fourth.
“It’s amazing,” said Anthony, the co-owner and general manager of the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Montreal Alliance. “They’ve been making everyone proud in the city.
“This is the matchup probably everyone in the city would have wanted.”
‘GROWTH IN OUR GAME’
Dort and Mathurin aren’t the only Canadians in the NBA Finals.
Hamilton’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — this year’s MVP — leads OKC, while Andrew Nembhard of Aurora, Ont., features for Indiana.
“Shows tremendous growth in our game, not just that they’re on the teams that are in the Finals, but also the roles that they’re playing,” said Rowan Barrett, the general manager for Canada’s men’s basketball team.
Barrett highlighted Dort’s defensive task guarding Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, while Mathurin — who’s still developing — could help decide games with his scoring off the bench.
The basketball talent in Montreal, Barrett said, goes back decades to 1988 Olympians Dwight Walton and Wayne Yearwood, among others. The difference now is that more players are finding a pathway to the NBA.
“There was always talent there. Always,” he said. “This isn’t new, but I do think that more and more of them have gotten into the stream and found the ways to grow their games and be able to make the cultural shift, maybe eventually leaving Montreal, going into the NCAA.”
Anthony believes the talent level across the city is reaching new heights — and Dort and Mathurin are just two examples.
“Definitely seen a big boom,” he said. “Everyone notices when those players are coming in at the highest levels in the NBA, but at lower levels, also at the collegiate level.
“A huge increase in the amount of talent.”