Wesley Matthews · Biography

On January 17, 2015, Wesley Matthews passed Terry Porter’s 773 three-pointers to become the Portland Trail Blazers’ all-time leader in threes made. Less than two months later, on March 5, 2015, he tore his left Achilles tendon against Dallas, and his season was over. Wesley Joel Matthews Jr. was born on October 14, 1986, in San Antonio, Texas. He is an American shooting guard who went undrafted and still played 15 NBA seasons, from 2009 to 2024, with Utah, Portland, Dallas, New York, Indiana, Milwaukee, the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta.

Family and Wisconsin roots

He is the son of Wesley Matthews Sr., a former NBA point guard who won two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, in 1987 and 1988. His mother, Pam Moore, was an All-American in track and basketball. Matthews grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and played basketball and soccer at James Madison Memorial High School. In 2005 he was named Wisconsin Mr. Basketball.

Four years at Marquette

His father had played for Wisconsin, and there was pressure on him to do the same. He chose Marquette instead and played there from 2005 to 2009. On December 16, 2008, he scored a career-high 30 points against Tennessee, making 15 of 18 free throws. On January 7, 2009, he went 10 for 10 from the field against Rutgers, a school record for accuracy with at least ten attempts. That season he was named second-team All-Big East. Over 127 college games, 117 of them starts, he averaged 13.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists.

Undrafted, then a starter in Utah

No team picked him in the 2009 NBA draft. The Utah Jazz signed him to a one-year deal in September 2009, and by February 2010 Jerry Sloan had made him the starting shooting guard. On March 14, 2010, he scored 29 points against Oklahoma City. In July 2010 he signed a five-year, $34 million offer sheet with Portland. Utah chose not to match it, and the deal was completed on July 21, 2010.

The Portland years

Matthews averaged 15.9 points in his first season with the Trail Blazers. He played 250 consecutive games before a left hip injury kept him out on December 10, 2012, a streak that earned him the nickname “Iron Man.” In the 2014 playoffs, Portland beat the Houston Rockets 4-2 in the first round, the franchise’s first playoff series win since 2000. Matthews scored 27 points in Game 5, and Damian Lillard closed the series with a buzzer-beating three on May 2, 2014. The three-point record came in January 2015. The Achilles injury followed in March.

Dallas and the move around the league

On July 9, 2015, he signed a four-year, $70 million contract with the Dallas Mavericks. On December 6, 2015, he scored 36 points against Washington. In January 2019 he became the first undrafted player in NBA history to make 1,500 three-pointers. On January 31, 2019, Dallas traded him to the New York Knicks, who waived him on February 7 after two games. He signed with the Indiana Pacers three days later and scored 24 points, with six threes, in a comeback win over New Orleans on February 22, 2019.

Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Atlanta

Matthews signed with the Milwaukee Bucks on July 12, 2019. He moved to the Lakers on November 22, 2020, and averaged 4.8 points over 58 games. He returned to Milwaukee on December 3, 2021. On Christmas Day that year, his three-pointer with 30 seconds left completed a comeback from 19 points down and gave the Bucks a 117-113 win over Boston. He re-signed with Milwaukee in July 2022 and joined the Atlanta Hawks on July 22, 2023, for his final season as a player. He finished with 986 regular-season games, 757 of them starts, and averaged 11.4 points. He also played 66 playoff games.

From the court to the broadcast booth

Matthews made his name as a perimeter defender who could also shoot from outside, and coaches often assigned him to the opponent’s best scorer. In the 2014 series against Houston, Portland regularly used him to guard James Harden. In October 2025, the Bucks and FanDuel Sports Network named him an analyst for select games of the 2025-26 season, with Lisa Byington calling play-by-play.