Sunday night, reporters for the first time got to talk to Matisse Thybulle about his COVID-19 vaccination status, which is making him ineligible to play in Toronto. He revealed that he’s had one dose of the vax, and explained it this way:

One shot. One opportunity…

This is a new one we haven’t seen from athletes. Dipping your toe into the vaccine. It’s funny to me Matisse got the first shot and was like, “You know what? This isn’t for me.” It’s like trying brussels sprouts. Maybe he’ll grow to like them or maybe he’ll swear them off forever. Who knows.

It doesn’t surprise me that Matisse was the one to be unvax’d. Him having a holistic lifestyle was going off at -5000 odds. He walks around the Wells Fargo Center constantly barefoot and reads books in random Fishtown parks under trees. I don’t love that he’s not playing in Toronto, but if the Sixers can’t beat the Raptors in round 1 without him for potentially three games then they never deserved to make a run at the title. This team has many bigger problems than Matisse Thybulle. File him being a Red Bull athlete, but afraid of the ingredients in Pfizer vaccine, under irony.

Kinkead: Canada changed their vaccine rules on January 15th. There was a prior exemption for athletes, but now they need to be fully vaxxed, so in this case, Matisse’s one shot doesn’t qualify