Nielsen Compares Goorjian, Popovich Greatness

Matt Nielsen is one of the modern greats of Australian basketball, and now as a coach the former Sydney King is relishing the opportunity to learn from two of the top head coaches in the history of the game.

Since retiring from playing in 2013, Nielsen has spent time as an assistant at the Perth Wildcats, before heading to the Austin Spurs of the NBA G-League. Since 2021 he’s been a trusted assistant to coaching legend Gregg Popovich.

He’s also been employed under Brian Goorjian as an assistant with the Boomers since 2020.

“The similarities that I see is they both don’t just rest on their laurels,” Nielsen told SEN of his two coaching mentors. “Pop’s the winningest coach in the NBA ever and Goorjian is the winningest coach in the NBL ever.

“They don’t feel ‘this is how I do it, this is me and this is the way it is’ … I’m very, very fortunate to be around that and all it is is winning.

“It’s pretty interesting to watch and it’s encouraging for me because I’m still learning. I still feel fresh as a coach because I haven’t been doing it that long, but you watch them, and they’ve been doing to for four to five decades at least.

“Scarily they listen to me at time, and you watch them when they take that on board, you’re like ‘holy hell, this is amazing’, and that also makes you want to make sure you know what the hell you’re talking about.

“It’s an exciting environment and I think, for me, they’re both in their 70s – sorry Goorj if you’re not yet (Goorjian is 69) – to have that passion and desire still is awesome to be around and I love it.”

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Through Nielsen’s work with the Spurs over the past few years, he’s been exposed firsthand to the increase in scouting interest around the NBL.

San Antonio currently possess some of the highest odds of receiving the number one pick in the upcoming NBA Draft but, should they fall down the draft order, could be sniffing around former Breakers Next Star Rayan Rupert.

Nielsen says the ability to scout someone like Rupert helps expose NBL talents to a wider NBA audience.

“We have guys who live on the road and just watch a million college games,” Nielsen said.

“And then fly to the NBL, which is a big credit to the NBL and Larry and what it’s created.

“Repetitively I get questions about this. They came out to watch the French kid in New Zealand, and then they see a Will McDowell-White and Xavier Cooks.

“It’s a great environment.”