Former Sixer Matisse Thybulle on his Garage Fishtown mural, love for Philly, and impending free agency

The City of Brotherly Love has been everything to Matisse Thybulle.

“It’s what the NBA has been to me,” said Thybulle, who was back in town with the Portland Trail Blazers to face the 76ers for the time Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center. “It’s what being a professional or what being an adult has been. Yeah, Philadelphia has been home.”

It is still hard for Thybulle to quantify all that the city has done for him at this point.

As a result, it made sense for Thybulle to tag the mural painted on the Frankford Avenue side of Garage Fishtown before his early-morning flight to Portland on Feb. 10, the day after the Sixers traded him to the Trail Blazers.

“It was a cool way to say goodbye in a symbolic way,” he said of tagging his mural.

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Thybulle is not upset that someone later defaced the mural with paint, leading Garage Fishtown to take it down.

“It’s sad,” he said. “But as with anything with my career in Philadelphia, all things come to an end. Everything evolves into something new.

“That mural was always something pretty crazy to me to think that I had a mural, a painting of myself in the city on a building. And my little sign off was a nice way for me to feel I could just give something back in a sense.”

The Boston Celtics drafted Thybulle with the 20th pick in the 2019 NBA draft. The Sixers sent the Celtics the Nos. 24 and 33 picks in exchange for Thybulle, who they promised to draft. As a result, was in Philly for 3½ seasons, and he still has love for the city.

While here for the game, Thybulle stayed in his apartment and hung out with friends during his free time. Just like old times.

Matisse Thybulle is in line to become a restricted free agent this summer if Portland gives him a qualifying offer in June.

With his Bird Rights, the Blazers will have the right to match any offer sheet that he signs with another team as a restricted free agent. But Thybulle is expected to remain in Portland.

“That’s the thought behind it,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said of trading for him. “He’s the type of guy that we like, that’s going to compete on the defensive end and is going to play a selfless game on the offensive end. And he’s just a winning spirit.”

And there’s mutual interest.

The Blazers are close to his hometown of Seattle. Portland and the Dallas Mavericks were the final two teams in the mix to acquire Thybulle and were among teams that wanted to sign him to his next deal. For Thybulle, the perfect landing spot would be with a team that saw value in him long-term.

“Realizing that when the trade went through was a really good feeling to feel like I wasn’t going somewhere to get out of a situation,” Thybulle said. “I’m going somewhere where I can potentially thrive.”

Some new players have a tough time being themselves in NBA locker rooms. It’s sometimes easier to go with the flow.

Thybulle doesn’t have that problem, and Billups loves that about him.

He first realized that in Thybulle’s early days with the team as he spent time in the locker room before his first couple of games.

“Everybody is in there vibing [with] headphones on listening to this and that,” Billups said. “Matisse is sitting at his locker with his legs crossed. You got a book in his hand, a cup of coffee or tea or whatever he had. I’m laughing like, ‘He’s a grown up. He’s an actual grown up.’

“I love guys that have the courage and confidence to be who they are. Period. Just be who they are. I don’t have to conform to this is what NBA players should be doing before the game. I’m comfortable with who I am. I love that, man. I love that.”