Who is Matt Brase? The highly-rated American with dreams of being head coach in NBA

Matt Brase, a former NBA assistant coach, is currently the head coach of Haiti's men's national basketball team and the Pallacanestro Varese in the Lega Basket Serie A in Italy. He signed with the Italian team in July this year.

But did you know that he always wanted to become a head coach in the NBA? Let's take a closer look at his coaching journey.

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Brase's journey to the NBA

Before becoming a coach, Brase played for the University of Arizona in the NCAA Division I. He spent only two seasons with the team and was mostly used as a bench player who played little over two minutes per game.

Interestingly, he is the grandson of Lute Olson, a legendary coach and inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame who guided the American national team to the World Cup championship in 1986. Brase was even coached by his grandfather during his time as a college player. With that in mind, it's quite surprising that the old timer didn't use his grandkid much in games.

Nevertheless, the young Brase only needed some basketball experience to become a qualified coach. After he graduated, Brase joined the basketball department for the University of Arizona. From there, he worked his way up until he got his big break. In 2009, Matt Brase was promoted to assistant coach of the Arizona Wildcats when the team reached the Sweet 16.

After his brief coaching stint with Arizona, he spent the next three years serving as the assistant coach for the Grand Canyon Antelopes. What was impressive about this was the fact that he was pursuing his Master's degree while coaching the team at the same time.

He got his first taste of the NBA in 2011, when the Houston Rockets hired him as the Director of Player Development. He was tasked with scouting college and international level talent.

He then became head coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in 2015. While they're just a G League team, Brase was still technically an NBA coach.

Brase climbed the basketball ladder in 2018, when he joined Mike D'Antoni's coaching staff as an assistant for the Houston Rockets in 2018.