Matthew Peter Nielsen (born 3 February 1978) is an Australian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach and former player who currently serves as an assistant coach for the

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Division ( ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). He served as an assistant coach for the

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at RAC Arena, known colloquially as "The Jungle". Afte ...

of the National Basketball League (NBL) from 2015 to 2019.

Early life and career

Nielsen was born in the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

suburb of Penrith. He played as a junior for Newcastle Basketball Association and attended

St Marys Senior High School \ , motto_translation = With Mind & Hand , established = , type = Government-funded co-educational dual modality partially academically selective and comprehensive post-compulsory secondary day school , educational_authority = ...

.The Kings and I: captain Nielsen reaches club record
/ref> In 1995, Nielsen played for the Sydney Sky in the

SEABL The South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) was an Australian semi-professional basketball league. The league comprised both a men's and women's competition and was run by the country's governing body, Basketball Australia. The league wa ...

and made his NBL debut with the

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The Kings were formed from a merger between the West Sydney Westars and the ...

as a development player. In 1996, he moved to

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

to attend the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

(AIS). He played for the AIS in the SEABL. He was named SEABL East Youth Player of the Year in 1995 and 1996. He played six games for the Sky in 1997 and played for the Penrith Panthers in the SEABL in 2000.

Professional career

Sydney Kings

For the

1997 NBL season The 1997 NBL season was the 19th season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of 11 teams contest the league. The Hobart Devils, Geelong Supercats and Gold Coast Rollers did not return this season. Regular season The 1997 re ...

, Nielsen returned to the Sydney Kings and won the

NBL Rookie of the Year Award The National Basketball League Rookie of the Year is an annual National Basketball League (NBL) award given since the 1983 NBL season to the top rookie of the regular season. For a player to be considered for Rookie of the Year, they must be an ...

. He played in the NBL Future Forces Game and finished third in the

NBL Best Sixth Man Award The National Basketball League Best Sixth Man is an annual National Basketball League (NBL) award given since the 1996 NBL season to the best performing reserve player of the regular season. At the season's end, each club nominates one player ...

in 1997. He was named in the All-NBL Second Team in 2001 and 2003 and won his first NBL championship in 2003. In the 2003–04 NBL season, Nielsen was named league MVP, All-NBL First Team, grand final MVP and captained the Kings to back-to-back championships. He also led the league in scoring with an average of 23.5 points per game, was second in rebounds (10.1) and second in blocked shots (2.7). In 244 games for the Kings over nine seasons, Nielsen averaged 17.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. In 2013, he was named in the Sydney Kings 25th Anniversary Team.

Europe

In 2004, Nielsen began a decorated European career playing for PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece,

Lietuvos Rytas ''Lietuvos rytas'' (lit. 'Morning of Lithuania') is a Lithuanian daily newspaper. History and profile "Lietuvos rytas" was established in 1990 on a basis of newspaper "Komjaunimo tiesa". The paper is printed in Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also ...

in Lithuania,

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

in Spain, Olympiacos Piraeus also in Greece, and

Khimki Khimki ( rus, Химки, p=ˈxʲimkʲɪ) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, 18.25 kilometres northwest of central Moscow, and immediately beyond the Moscow city boundary. History Origins and formation Khimki was initially a railway station tha ...

in Russia.

National team career

Nielsen won the gold medal at the 1997

FIBA Under-21 World Championship The FIBA Under-21 World Championship was a men's under-21-only basketball competition organized by the International Basketball Federation The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organization ...

with Australia's junior national team. He was also a member of the senior men's

Australian national basketball team The Australian men's national basketball team, known as the Boomers after the slang term for a male kangaroo, represents Australia in international basketball competition. Since the late 1980s, Australia has been placed among the world elite t ...

. With Australia's senior national team, he won gold medals at the

2001 Goodwill Games The 2001 Goodwill Games was the fifth and final edition of the international multi-sport event. The competition was held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia from 29 August to 9 September 2001. A total around 1300 athletes took part in 14 sportin ...

, the 2003 FIBA Oceanian Championship, and the 2005 FIBA Oceania Championship. He represented Australia at the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Coaching career

Clubs

During the 2013–14 NBL season, Nielsen served as a big-man coach for the

. In 2014, Nielsen joined the

coaching staff in a player development role, on a contract that ran through to the end of the

2015 NBA Summer League The 2015 NBA Summer League consisted of three pro basketball leagues organized by the NBA: the Orlando Pro Summer League, Utah Jazz Summer League, and Las Vegas Summer League. Ten teams participated in the week-long Orlando Pro Summer League a ...

. 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, Nielsen was appointed assistant coach of the

Austin Spurs The Austin Spurs are an American basketball team in the NBA G League based in Cedar Park, Texas, and are affiliated with the San Antonio Spurs. The team plays their home games at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. The team has made the postseason in 8 ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. On 10 November 2020, he was promoted to head coach of the Spurs. On 8 September 2021, Nielsen was appointed assistant coach of the

National team

On 8 December 2020, Nielsen was named as assistant coach of the Australian senior men's national team under head coach

Brian Goorjian Brian Warwick Goorjian (born 28 July 1953) is an American-Australian professional basketball coach and former player served as the head coach of the Bay Area Dragons of the East Asia Super League (EASL). He is also currently the head coach of th ...

EuroLeague career statistics

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2005–06 , style="text-align:left;",

, 19 , , 13 , , 25.8 , , .464 , , .357 , , .703 , , 5.2 , , 1.7 , , 1.1 , , .3 , , 12.4 , , 13.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2007–08 , style="text-align:left;", Lietuvos Rytas , 13 , , 13 , , 24.1 , , .495 , , .250 , , .805 , , 4.8 , , 1.5 , , .8 , , .5 , , 9.9 , , 12.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2010–11 , style="text-align:left;", Olympiacos Piraeus , 14 , , 9 , , 16.0 , , .386 , , .143 , , .750 , , 2.9 , , .6 , , .6 , , .1 , , 4.4 , , 3.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2012–13 , style="text-align:left;",

, 15 , , 2 , , 11.5 , , .462 , , .000 , , .500 , , 1.7 , , 1.6 , , .3 , , .3 , , 1.7 , , 3.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 61 , , 37 , , 19.6 , , .459 , , .261 , , .729 , , 3.7 , , 1.4 , , .7 , , .3 , , 7.4 , , 8.5

References

External links

NBL profile

Euroleague.net profile

ACB.com profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Matthew 1978 births Living people Australian expatriate basketball people in Greece Australian expatriate basketball people in Spain Australian men's basketball players Australian Institute of Sport basketball players Basketball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics BC Khimki players BC Rytas players Liga ACB players Olympiacos B.C. players Olympic basketball players of Australia P.A.O.K. BC players Power forwards (basketball) Sydney Kings players Valencia Basket players 2010 FIBA World Championship players Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games