Nick Van Exel

Nick Van Exel
Player information
Full name	Nickey Maxwell Van Exel
Nickname	Nick the Quick
birthday	November 27, 1971
place of birth	Kenosha , United States
size	186 cm
position	Point guard
college	University of Cincinnati
NBA draft	1993 , 37. Pick, Los Angeles Lakers
Clubs as active
1993–1998 Los Angeles Lakers 1998–2002 Denver Nuggets 2002–2003 Dallas Mavericks 2003–2004 Golden State Warriors 2004–2005 Portland Trail Blazers 2005–2006 San Antonio Spurs
Clubs as coaches
2013–2014 Milwaukee Bucks (AC) Since 2014 Texas Legends (AH) 0

Nickey Maxwell Van Exel (born November 27, 1971 in Kenosha , Wisconsin ) is a retired American basketball player . The 1.86 m tall point guard earned the nickname Nick the Quick early on due to his speed . As a student, he played for Trinity Valley Community College and later for the Cincinnati Bearcats in the NCAA before being selected 37th in the 1993 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers . With this team he stayed until 1998. Until 2006 he was active in various teams in the NBA .

Player career

college

Van Exel began his college career at the small Trinity Valley Community College . There he recommended himself through his services coach Bob Huggins for the Bearcats of the University of Cincinnati . With this team he reached the quarter-finals of the US student championships called Elite Eight in his second and final year .

NBA

Van Exel was selected 37th by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1993 NBA Draft . His rookie season with the Lakers was convincing with 13.6 points and 5.8  assists on average in 81 games. In this very first year as a professional he scored over 1000 points (1099). Before him, Norm Nixon , James Worthy , Jerry West and Magic Johnson had made it to the Lakers . Van Exel was elected to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 1994. From the 1996/97 NBA season he played alongside the later MVPs Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant . Later in 1998, he was in his career into the first and only time all-star team of the Western Conference elected. Then (in the same year) Van Exel moved to the Denver Nuggets . With the Nuggets he played in the 2000/01 season with 17.7 points and 8.5 assists on average, the best season of his career. A year later, Van Exel was transferred to the Dallas Mavericks with Raef LaFrentz, Avery Johnson and Tariq Abdul-Wahad for Juwan Howard , Donnell Harvey and Tim Hardaway , where he stood on the floor alongside Dirk Nowitzki . At the Mavericks he played an important role , especially in the 2003 play-offs , with an average of 19.5 points. After the play-offs of 2003 he was then transferred to the Golden State Warriors with Evan Eschmeyer, Avery Johnson, Popeye Jones, and Antoine Rigaudeau for Antawn Jamison , Chris Mills, Danny Fortson, and Jiří Welsch . After just 53 games for Portland, Van Exel wanted to play for the title again and signed with the 2005 NBA champions, the San Antonio Spurs . When you failed in the 2006 play-offs in the second round at the Dallas Mavericks 3-4, the left-hander ended his career as a basketball player.

Coaching career

After his career ended, Van Exel switched to coaching. From 2013 to 2014 he was Assistant Coach for the Milwaukee Bucks . For the 2014/2015 season he became associate head coach of the D-League team of the Dallas Mavericks , the Texas Legends .

Web links

• Nick Van Exel - player profile on NBA.com
• Nick Van Exel - player profile on basketball-reference.com