The Philadelphia 76ers will host the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at The Well and welcome back Matisse Thybulle to South Philadelphia for the first time since he was traded at the NBA Trade Deadline. 

Thybulle was moved at the deadline in a trade package that landed Jalen McDaniels in Philly. In his Portland debut, Thybulle went 4-of-6 from three point range and scored 14 points in 26 minutes, shooting 5-of-9 from the floor while adding six rebounds, two assists, three blocks, and a steal to the final box score. 

After the game, Thybulle spoke with the media, and told reporters that “it felt good to be wanted” by the Trail Blazers. 

Now, in a new story from Keith Pompey, Thybulle spoke more on his time in Philadelphia saying that “for me, specifically, I feel like there was a lot more fear-based play in Philadelphia as opposed to what I’m doing here in Portland.”

Matisse Thybulle: Fear-Based Play

Look, Matisse is a nice kid. We sent him a bunch of free t-shirts from TLL at his request when he DM’d us on Instagram (never posted or said thanks btw), we had his back when he decided he didn’t want to get vaccinated, we also defended him when someone vandalized his mural in Fishtown and even joked around when the Market Street signs in the city were updated to Matisse Street. 

However, we should be very clear on this…

Matisse should honestly just shut his mouth and stop talking about “his time” in Philadelphia.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why he’s saying shit like this. For the most part, Thybulle was nothing but loved here in the city of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, he did not live up to expectations. While his defense was certainly elite from the jump, he lacked any progression offensively. 

He’s also a professional basketball player. Fear-based play? From who? The coaching staff or the fans?

Honestly, it doesn’t even make sense but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter.

Here in Philly, you either perform or you don’t.

Fear-based play my ass. Trail Blazers vs Sixers tonight. 

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