Leadership, professionalism and being himself: Machado’s Mandurah aims

It’s been just under a week since Cairns Taipans superstar Scott Machado signed with NBL1 West team Mandurah, but the prolific point guard is already making an impact.

The 31-year-old is yet to pull on the Mandurah singlet, but he has commenced training and will be involved in coaching some lucky Magic juniors.

When the Taipans didn’t make the NBL21 playoffs, Machado knew he still had more to give and those around him are already feeling his presence in a big way over in WA.

“At Mandurah, I’m going to continue to expand my craft,” he says.

“I’m just going be the leader that I am and bring the wisdom of basketball to these guys.

“I’m going to just continue to be me, score as much as necessary and get guys involved.

“I just want to better myself and better the guys around me, and hopefully we can also win some games along the way.”

When the off-season was originally approaching, Machado himself started making some calls to NBL1 clubs to see if they had a roster spot available for his younger brother, who is over in the United States playing college basketball.

This led multiple NBL1 teams to believe that the Cairns guard himself wanted to play NBL1.

At first, he didn’t entertain the idea but after his agent came to him with some offers he couldn’t refuse, he decided to stay down under.

“I met Riley Parker a year ago when he was out in Cairns training out there for a little bit and he said Mandurah was the city that he was from,” Machado says.

“He said it was a great place.

“I actually got to watch a few games of theirs.

“The team was well balanced, they lost a few hard games but other than that, they were pretty well balanced.

“For me, it was a good fit and I thought why not stay in Australia and continue to play at a high level.”

Although it didn’t work out this season for Machado’s brother, the 31-year-old is hoping to get him down to Australia to “show you guys some skills”.

Not only has Machado seen some Magic games but he also had the opportunity to go and watch the Cairns Marlins in NBL1 North during the NBL season.

He says he was impressed by the standard of the competition.

“While I was over there in Cairns, I got to watch about four Marlins home games,” Machado says.

“There was some good talent and some good competition.

“There wasn’t a blowout- games stayed close.

“I got to see some young talent coming up and saw guys making a mark for themselves.

“It was fun to watch.”

Machado is particularly excited to do some coaching with the younger generation at Mandurah and showing them what it takes to reach the heights he has had with his basketball career.

“I’ll be training some kids out here and making sure that the kids are well aware of their talents and levels of playing,” he says.

“I want to make sure that if they do decide to take it seriously, they can work out with me and see the level of professionalism I have.”

For the Mandurah juniors, there’s arguably no better person to work with, as Machado has experienced hoops in the NBA with the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers.

And with Perth Wildcats legend Ricky Grace assistant coaching Mandurah’s NBL1 Men’s team, the team is set live up to their name in a big way and create some magic in the remainder of this season.