'Tip your hat to Canada basketball': Rick Carlisle on the development of elite talent

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle discusses the demeanour of Andrew Nembhard and Benn Mathurin along with the influx of impactful talent from Canada in the NBA.

Video Transcript

RICK CARLISLE: Well, both of them have uncommon courage and moxie for those situations. Benn Mathurin just was-- he was kind of born for this kind of thing. He just is undaunted and he loves to compete. And he's just unafraid, you know? Categorically unafraid. And Drew's, Drew's similar. Their personalities are different, but their qualities are similar.

And look, I mean, I think you just got to really tip your hat to Canada basketball, what they've done and the players that they've churned out the last several years. I can't name them all, but I mean, this has become a real hotbed for basketball, high level basketball development. And that's saying a lot.

- You said that all three Canadians played well tonight. What did you like about Benn more specifically? Or Benn [INAUDIBLE] [? how ?] [? he ?] played tonight?

RICK CARLISLE: He just-- he plays with the attitude. He plays with attitude. And you know, he's learning all the time. Look, we put him on Fred VanVleet to start the game. So we're taking a guy who's one of our best scorers and telling them, look, we need you to defend tonight and to pick spots to score. And he's not going to-- and he wasn't really the main featured scorer, you know? So you know, that's how you-- that's how you have growth with young players. That's how you gain maturity.

That's how you understand the importance of team and the commitment and that kind of stuff. So you know, I was happy for him. These guys, they all have a long way to go with respect to their careers, but the progress that they've made this year, Drew and Benn and Isaiah Jackson and Chris Duarte. Chris has had some bad luck with some injury stuff, but these guys are all growing and getting better.