BIO: Matt Garrison was born in Alexandria, Minnesota (USA). Garrison was one of Montana’s preeminent big men in the early 1990s, winning the Gatorade Player of the Year award as a senior in 1992. As a 6-foot-8 forward out of Billings Senior, Garrison signed with Montana State.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Matt Garrison made his NBL debut with the Wollongong Hawks at 26 years of age. He scored 24 points in his first game.

Comfortable at forward or centre, 204cm American Matt Garrison was a mid-season acquisition for the Hawks in 2000 season and he played out the team’s final nine games of the season. After displaying a workman like skill set and averaging 17.2 points and 7.0 rebounds the team re-signed him for 2000-01.

Prior to the start of the 2000/01 season, coach Brendan Joyce changed almost half his roster, adding Charles Thomas, Damon Lowery, Grant Kruger, Matt Shanahan and Axel Dench. In his second year with the Hawks he was primarily used as a frontcourt backup, lengthening the depth of Joyce’s bench where he injected his enthusiastic and crowd-inciting play with the team’s second unit, averaging 9.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.

After finishing the regular season in fourth with a club-best 21 wins from 28 games, Wollongong upset Perth in game one of the qualifying finals behind a 22 point, 13 rebound effort from Melvin Thomas and a 19 point effort from Damon Lowery to win at home 97–90. Garrison also contributed 8 points.

The Hawks fell short in game two in Perth, 95–106 with Garrison contributing 8 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. This set up a Game 3, held in Perth, where the Hawks won a major upset thanks to a 26 point, 16 rebound performance from Glen Saville and a 20 point game from Lowery to win 98–88. Garrison played 10 minutes in the decider but failed to score.

This set up a semi-final matchup with the Adelaide 36ers and their stars Darnell Mee and Kevin Brooks. Kruger played 11 minutes In game one, was instrumental on defence but did not score a basket yet the Hawks squeaked out a narrow 84-83 game win over the 36ers. The Hawks would return to Wollongong but lose Game 2, 100–111 Kruger added two points and three rebounds, and then in the deciding game the Hawks won game three in a nail biter at Wollongong’s WIN Entertainment Centre when Damon Lowery sunk three free throws with no time on the clock, propelling the team into the 2001 NBL Grand Final to face the Townsville Crocodiles.

The Hawks went on to face the Townsville Crocodiles in the 2001 NBL Grand Final, winning game one at home 104-101 with Garrison playing a key role contributing 12 points, 6 rebounds 3 assists and 2 blocks. The series would shift to Townsville for games two and three and the Crocodiles rebounded at home winning the second game 114–97 despite Garrison having a nice already game, in 29 minutes of court time he added 8 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 1 block. game three was a gruelling matchup, played the very next day where the blue-collar Hawks snuck out the three-point victory 97-94, Charles Thomas top scoring with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. Glen Saville would add 18 points and 12 rebounds, and claim the NBL Finals MVP while Garrison receiving only 8 minutes of court time, failing to score. The Hawks 2–1 victory saw them become the first New South Wales club to win a NBL championship.

After winning the 2001 NBL championship with Wollongong, the Hawks were unable to re-sign Matt Garrison after he was offered a ridiculously lucrative deal from Cairns Taipans. Garrison and the Taipans started the 2001-02 season very slowly with a 3-7 record and in a effort to improve (and perhaps remove themselves from his contract) the team released Garrison and replaced him with high scoring forward Jayson Wells who had finished sixth in scoring while playing in Canberra during the 1999/00 season.

Garrison spent only a few days as a free agent as he was swiftly added to the Adelaide 36ers who at the time had been playing with only one import (Willie Farley). The team then went on to win the 2002 NBL championship.

Garrison played a key role in the Grand Final series against the West Sydney Razorbacks, this included a 15 point, 4 rebound effort in game one and a 15 point, 6 rebound effort in game two of the NBL Finals.

Garrison’s back to back NBL titles with the Adelaide 36ers and Wollongong Hawks resulted in him being the first player in NBL history to win back to back titles with two different NBL team’s.

Matt Garrison played five seasons in the NBL. He averaged 11.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 106 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (815 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.