Matthew Nielsen


Matthew Peter Nielsen is an Australian former professional basketball player who is currently an assistant coach for the Austin Spurs of the NBA G League. Between 2015 and 2019, he served as an assistant coach for the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League.

Early life

Born and raised in the Sydney suburb of Penrith, Nielsen attended St Marys Senior High School where, three times a week, he needed permission to leave early in order to train with the Sydney Kings as a development player. As a 17-year-old in 1995, Nielsen appeared in two games for the Kings before moving to Canberra in 1996 to attend the Australian Institute of Sport.

Professional career

In 1997, Nielsen returned to the Sydney Kings and won the NBL Rookie of the Year Award. He played a further seven seasons with the Kings and helped the club win championships in 2003 and 2004. In 244 career games for the Kings over nine seasons, he averaged 17.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.5 blocks per game.
In 2004, Nielsen began a decorative European career playing for PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece, Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania, Valencia in Spain, Olympiacos Piraeus also in Greece, and Khimki in Russia.
On 10 October 2013, Nielsen was named in the Sydney Kings 25th Anniversary Team.

Coaching career

During the 2013–14 NBL season, Nielsen served as a big-man coach for the Perth Wildcats.
In 2014, Nielsen joined the San Antonio Spurs coaching staff in a player development role, on a contract that ran through to the end of the 2015 NBA Summer League.
On 29 July 2015, Nielsen returned to the Perth Wildcats, signing with the club as an assistant coach ahead of the 2015–16 NBL season. On 10 April 2019, after three championships in four seasons, Nielsen parted ways with the Wildcats in order to pursue coaching opportunities in the United States.
On 5 November 2019 the Austin Spurs announced that they had named Nielsen as assistant coach.

Australian national team

Nielsen won the gold medal at the 1997 FIBA Under-21 World Championship with Australia's junior national team. He was also a member of the senior men's Australian national basketball team. With Australia's senior national team, he won gold medals at the 2001 Goodwill Games, the 2003 FIBA Oceanian Championship, and the 2005 FIBA Oceania Championship.
During the Boomers 2012 Olympic campaign, Australian Football League player Scott Pendlebury noted Nielsen's athletic ability, and mentioned that he could have played in Australian Football League, had he not chosen to play basketball.

EuroLeague career statistics