He played American college basketball for UC Irvine, where he was named the 2017 Big West Conference Player of the Year.

He was named British player of the year in his age group for three consecutive seasons.

For all 4 seasons at UC Irvine, Nelson helped the team make a postseason appearance of some kind.

After going undrafted in the 2017 NBA draft after playing in the NBA Summer League with the Los Angeles Clippers, Nelson signed his first professional contract with Herbalife Gran Canaria in Spain's Liga ACB and EuroCup competition.

[8] Nelson has competed for the Great Britain senior national team since graduating college and is usually the starting shooting guard on the squad during competition.