INDIANAPOLIS — These NBA Finals have reunited two pairs of Canadian guards who were tied together long before they arrived on opposite sides of basketball’s biggest stage.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort for the Thunder, and Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin for the Pacers. SGA and Nembhard from Ontario, Dort and Mathurin from the same neighborhood in Montreal.
The NBA Finals — a showcase of sorts for Canadian basketball — resumes Wednesday night in Indianapolis. The series is tied 1-1.
“Obviously, we represent our teams here,” Dort said, “but at the end of the day, we represent our country as well. It’s going to be really fun. They should enjoy it.”
Dort, Mathurin representing Montreal
Lu Dort and Bennedict Mathurin grew up in the same neighborhood in Montreal. They share Haitian roots. They both played one year of college ball in the state of Arizona.
From there, their paths diverged.
Dort, who went undrafted out of Arizona State, signed a two-way contract with the Thunder in the summer of 2019.
Mathurin, after a standout season at Arizona, was picked sixth by the Pacers in the 2022 NBA Draft. A score-first, hyper-aggressive guard, Mathurin is still finding his footing with the Pacers. He averaged 16.1 points per game this season on 46% shooting. His 5.3 rebounds per game were a career high.
Dort, meanwhile, has become an all-world defender and a clutch 3-point shooter in Oklahoma City. Dort and Gilgeous-Alexander are pillars of the Thunder’s rebuild — the only remaining players from the Thunder’s 2019-20 playoff team.
When Mathurin was drafted, Dort was there in Brooklyn to support his friend from Montreal Nord — the hardscrabble area where they grew up.
“That’s a good friend of mine,” Dort said of Mathurin. “Like a brother, honestly. I’m really happy for what he’s been doing throughout his career. Now we are at this point where we’ve got to compete against each other. It’ll be really fun.”
Added Mathurin: “I think it’s a great thing. I think it’s a great opportunity for me, Lu, the whole Montreal city. I think it’s a great step in the right direction just to be able to go against each other.”
Mathurin also used the word “brother” to describe his relationship with Dort. But the niceties ended there.
“Lu’s a great friend of mine … but we’re enemies,” Mathurin said.
SGA, Nembhard go way back
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Andrew Nembhard first played against each other when they were kids.
Gilgeous-Alexander was 9. Nembhard was 7. And the biggest thing they were competing for in those youth tournaments was a good time.
“It was just fun,” Nembhard said. “We were just little kids having fun and enjoying hoops.”
Gilgeous-Alexander and Nembhard grew even closer throughout the years.
They played together for Team Canada last summer in the Paris Olympics, and Nembhard is one of only two non-Thunder players who have worn Gilgeous-Alexander’s unreleased signature sneakers in a game this season.
But he isn’t wearing them in the Finals. The two Canadians have mostly guarded each other so far, and camaraderie was left at customs.
That became clear in Game 1 when Gilgeous-Alexander drew a foul on Nembhard midway through the fourth quarter. He then gave the Pacers guard a light shove before he walked away.
Nembhard immediately walked over to an official to plead his case, and he purposely bumped into Gilgeous-Alexander in the process.
Gilgeous-Alexander paid no mind to the not-so-subtle jab. That’s to be expected when fighting for a championship.
“He’s a competitor,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Nembhard. “He’s a winner. He plays the game the right way on both ends of the floor. Really good player.”
Indiana ultimately won Game 1. The Pacers erased a 15-point deficit to steal the win, and Nembhard drilled a stepback 3-pointer over Gilgeous-Alexander down the stretch.
But OKC evened the series with a Game 2 win, and Gilgeous-Alexander erupted for 34 points. Plenty of those buckets came at Nembhard’s expense.
This series has been a back-and-forth battle between two of Canada’s brightest stars. And while the setting is now shifting to Indianapolis, don’t expect a change in sentiment between the fierce competitors.
The real fun is just getting started.
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