‘I didn’t want to be like Mike’: Machado
GROWING up in Queens, like most in New York – Scott Machado was a big-time Knicks fan.
When the Cairns Taipans’ leading man was in his younger years, those same Knicks kept running into the greatest of all time in the Eastern Conference playoffs: Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan.
So, if the best player in the world is constantly beating the team you have grown up following, what do you do?
For Machado, he changed his name.
A 29-year-old Americanborn Brazilian point guard named Scott has lit up the NBL this season, but all those years ago when he was born on June 8, 1990 – he was known as Michael Scott Machado.
Born to Brazilian parents Luiz and Solenir Machado, the NBL MVP hopeful was sick of being made fun of by his brothers for having the same name as the great MJ.
So, he made the change – switching his middle name to his Christian name.
“My second oldest brother was a big Michael Jordan fan and he would tease me all the time about it,” Machado recalled this week.
“The person that would always end the Knicks’ seasons was Michael Jordan. They would always call me Michael and I would be like “I do not want to be Michael”.
“I kept thinking ‘ I do not want to be Michael, he keeps beating my team the Knicks’ – so I became Scott.”
The import point guard noted this week that it was funny, in hindsight, that he changed his name to his middle name, being Scott, which was the name of Jordan’s sidekick and star teammate, Scottie Pippen.
“Now, I understand it, those guys are legendary,” Machado said.
“They changed the game for everyone, I respect them, but when I was a kid I was stubborn and did not like them.”
The NBL’s leader in assists is still a frustrated Knicks fan, with the team having not lifted a title in Madison Square Garden since 1973, and been rarely competitive over the last decade.
And, while everyone in FNQ refers to the Snakes guard as Scott, what do they call him back home in the Machado household?
“My mother still calls for me Michael, and my brothers do it here or there playfully, but everybody really calls me Scott,” he said.
Regardless of what Machado is being called, there is no doubting the former NBA guard has changed the trajectory of the Cairns franchise.
Teammates DJ Newbill and Cameron Oliver were also nominated as top 15 chances for the NBL MVP trophy, but without Machado the team just does not run the way it does now.
“He has always had the ability to score but when he first got here, he was feeling out the situation and see what his role would be, and I was the same too,” coach Mike Kelly said of Machado.
“I was getting to know him better and how he interacts with this group. He has been great and just does what the team needs him to do.
“He has a great feel for the game and improves his teammates with his assists.
“At times he needs to score as well and he has done a great job of having that balance.”
NBL legend Andrew Gaze has Machado in the top three for MVP voting, alongside Lamar Patterson and Bryce Cotton.
“He is one who has been incredibly impressive this season, with Machado in particular, he makes others around him a whole lot better,” Gaze told the
Courier Mail’s Greg Davis.
“The way in which he controls the tempo and distributes the ball and even on the defensive end, he’s been really good.
“In big moments, the ball is in his hands and they play through him.
“He finishes plays but he also creates for others, that’s been his real strength.”
Tonight Machado faces a former league MVP in Jerome Randle and Randle’s teammate Kevin White says Adelaide need to force the Taipans leader to shoot, instead of allowing him to distribute the ball.
“Cairns do a great job of putting him in situations where he can manipulate and make the defence move,” White said.
“Coming off those pick and rolls, it opens up and makes it tough, that is one of the hardest things to defend in basketball.
“When he is shooting the ball well, it presents a whole lot more challenges.”