After playing his college ball for the Arizona Wildcats, Bennedict Mathurin was selected by the Indiana Pacers with the sixth overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. He’s quickly become one of the league’s rising young stars, leaving fans wanting to know all about him and his life away from the basketball court.

Here’s more on the athlete and his family, including the tragedy that struck long before he fulfilled his dream of playing in the NBA.

Bennedict Mathurin’s age and ethnicity

Bennedict Mathurin was born on June 19, 2002, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was raised by Elvie Jeune, a single mom and Haitian immigrant who worked night shifts as a nurse.

In a piece for The Player’s Tribune, Bennedict wrote that his mother “always made sure we knew that part of our heritage, and felt connected with our roots. The music we would listen to, the FOOD she’d cook for us … everything. I’m so proud to be Haitian-Canadian. It’s an important piece of who I am.”

Bennedict is multilingual. In addition to English and his native Haitian Creole, he also speaks French and Spanish.

Bennedict, his brother Dominique, and his sister Jennifer grew up in the borough of Montreal-Nord, one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods. 

He recalled: “My mom really did her best for us. She cared about our futures, you know what I mean?? That’s not to say we didn’t have tough times. A lot of nights when we’d go to bed, we’d hear gunshots going off. The streets where we lived were full of drugs and all types of other stuff. That wasn’t easy.”

While the area was plagued by gangs and violence, Bennedict and his siblings focused on playing sports. He played  ice hockey and football but when Jennifer began playing basketball, Bennedict took an interest in that sport as well.

“She showed me what was possible,” Bennedict said. “She has sacrificed everything in life. She wanted her younger brothers to have a better life. When she was in college, she talked about leaving college to work just so we could have a little bit of money.”

He added that he “was raised by so many strong women. And that strength they showed me, it’s really been with me my whole life — and it’s only grown through the challenges I’ve had to face.” 

Tragedy struck before Bennedict made it to the NBA

Before Mathurin was drafted in the NBA, his family dealt with an unimaginable loss.

In 2014, when he was 12 years old, his brother died in a bicycle accident. Dominique was just 15 years old.

After hearing the heartbreaking news, Bennedict “couldn’t understand it. Dominique My brother???? … Someone who I loved was just GONE. Someone who’d always had my back was just GONE. But as hard as it was to accept, I also knew I had to face it.

“Life couldn’t just be about going to the park and going to school anymore. That couldn’t be my only focus now. With my older brother gone, it was my job to take care of my family. I had to stop being a kid, and become a young man. So that became my mission: I gotta do whatever it takes to make sure my family good. In the years after Dominique died, basketball wasn’t just a game to me anymore — because I wasn’t just playing for myself.”

Bennedict shared: “One thing I always want to make sure the world knows is that it was Dominique’s dream to make it to the NBA, too. It was a dream we wanted to achieve together. So while I’m on this journey, I bring him everywhere with me. I refuse to ever let him be forgotten.”