NBA draftee Lachlan Olbrich's 'surreal' journey from suburban Adelaide to Chicago Bulls

Australia Broadcast Center

17 hours ago

Paths to the top entail hard work, as Michael Jordan knew only too well.
In a famous utterance for a footwear commercial, Jordan — who is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketballers to have ever laced up a pair of trainers — spoke candidly about the role defeat had played in his victories.
"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career," the NBA five-time MVP and six-time champion admitted in the ad.
"I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life.
"And that is why I succeed."
If the Chicago Bulls are today a household name not just in the US but across the world, it is largely because of the exploits of Jordan during the glory years of the 1990s.
"There are 30 franchises in the NBA — a lot of them are pretty anonymous to the general public but the Chicago Bulls are synonymous with basketball," reflected Dean Nyberg.
Nyberg is an Adelaide-based coach who has spent years in and around basketball, and his connection to the US club of which he speaks so highly has, in a small but significant way, just been strengthened.
In the second round of last week's NBA draft, one of Nyberg's former young charges, Adelaide local Lachlan Olbrich, was selected by the Chicago Bulls — the club of fellow Australian Josh Giddey — at pick 55.
"I've spoken to Lachie really briefly since it happened and he was very much [of the view that] this is fantastic," Nyberg said.
Nyberg, who is currently head coach with the West Adelaide Bearcats men's team in the NBL1 competition, was previously a junior coaching director at Southern Tigers at Morphett Vale in Adelaide's south.
He worked with Olbrich at both clubs.
"It's pretty surreal just to think the mornings at Morphett Vale have culminated in this and everything that's ahead of him now. It's pretty cool," Nyberg reflected.
Aged just 21, the 208-centimetre Olbrich has already notched up an impressive series of accomplishments.
Entering the NBL as a development player with the Adelaide 36ers, he joined the Illawarra Hawks in 2023 and, during the NBL off-season, played for the Canterbury Rams in the New Zealand NBL, where he was named league MVP.
He has also played college basketball in the US, and is among four Australians to have been selected in this year's NBA draft.
Sport is filled with stories of youthful precocity — of prodigies who excel from the get-go — but Olbrich was, his old coach said, something of a "late developer".
Nyberg said there were times in Olbrich's junior years when he was "overlooked for various representative and state teams".
"His work ethic never wavered all throughout that entire period," he said.
"A lot of other kids would have had setbacks and gone, 'Maybe this isn't for me'. He was just very focused on, 'Well, I'm going to show them.'"
Olbrich has also known the devastation of bereavement — his father Greg, a keen club basketballer, died last year after collapsing on court during a game.
"Greg was his biggest champion, his biggest fan," Nyberg said.
"Even when he was suffering those setbacks as a junior, Greg and his [Lachlan's] mother were steadfast in their belief in him and everything they did was to try and put him in a position to succeed.
"I think at times Greg believed it even more than Lachie did, that it would happen, so I think Lachie would be very proud of how he would make his father feel, looking down to see that."
According to Nyberg, one of Olbrich's greatest attributes is his capacity for perseverance.
He said the 21-year-old would already be focusing on "moving onto the next thing, which is getting into camp with the Bulls and then playing in their summer league team".
"That'll determine whether he makes the roster for this year or they sort of put him aside for this year and take him on next year."
In other words, while NBA selection is an achievement in itself, it is not so much an endpoint as a new beginning.
Further success will involve hard work along the way.