Mark Robert Dickel (born 21 December 1976) is a New Zealand-Australian former professional basketball player and coach.

Early years

Dickel attended Logan Park High School in

Dunedin, New Zealand Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. In 1993, he joined the Otago Nuggets of the New Zealand National Basketball League and played there until 1996 when he left for college in the United States. In 1998 off-season, following the conclusion of his sophomore season, Dickel joined the Wellington Saints for the 1998 New Zealand NBL season.

College career

Dickel played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

at the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...

from 1996 to 2000, tying for the team lead in assists his freshman year of 1996–97 and leading the team in that category in his remaining three seasons. In his senior year of 1999–2000, his 9.0 assists per game led

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I men's basketball, and he finished his career third on the school's all-time list for total assists. In 2000, Dickel was named an Associated Press All-American.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the 2000 NBA draft, Dickel returned to New Zealand and joined the North Harbour Kings for the last two games of the 2000 New Zealand NBL season. Later that year, he signed with the Victoria Titans for the 2000–01 and 2001–02 NBL seasons. In 2002, he re-joined the Wellington Saints for the 2002 New Zealand NBL season. Later that year, he signed with Fenerbahçe of Turkey for the 2002–03 season, where he led the league in assists with 5.6 per game. He then re-joined the Otago Nuggets for the 2003 NZNBL season. In mid-2003, he signed with Telindus Oostende of Belgium for the 2003–04 season. In December 2003, he left Oostende. In January 2004, he re-joined Fenerbahçe for the rest of the 2003–04 season. In mid-2004, he signed with

Erdemirspor Erdemir Spor Kulübü, also referred to as Erdemirspor or Erdemir Zonguldak, is a professional basketball team based in the city of Zonguldak in Turkey that plays in the Turkish Basketball League. The team was founded in 2000. Their home arena is ...

of Turkey for the 2004–05 season. In 24 games, he averaged 19.3ppg, 4.1rpg, and 8.7apg. In 2005, he signed a two-year deal with Lokomotiv Rostov of Russia. In August 2006, Dickel returned a positive drug test for cannabis use and was suspended by Basketball New Zealand for two matches against

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

imposed an additional 10-day suspension, meaning Dickel missed the first three matches of the

2006 FIBA World Championship The 2006 FIBA World Championship was the 15th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. The tournament was hosted by Japan and held from 19 August to 3 September 2006. It was co-organised by ...

. The suspension subsequently made Lokomotiv terminate the second year of his two-year contract and in September 2006, he signed with

WTK Anwil Włocławek WTK may refer to: * Noatak Airport, Alaska, IATA airport code WTK * Watakataui language, ISO 639-3 language code wtk * We the Kings, an American rock band * ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'' (''Das wohltemperierte Klavier'', WTK), a book of musical wor ...

of Poland for the 2006–07 season. In January 2007, he left Włocławek and signed with Maroussi B.C. of Greece. However, after just one game, he was forced to leave after a season-ending back injury. In July 2007, Dickel signed with reigning German

BBL A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...

champions

Brose Baskets Bamberg Brose Bamberg is a German professional basketball team from Bamberg, Franconia / North Bavaria. The club has won the German Championship title nine times and the German Cup five times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketb ...

. In January 2008, Dickel left Brose Baskets Bamberg following the end of Euroleague play and returned to Turkey, signing with

Selçuk Üniversitesi BK Konyaspor Basket was a Turkish professional basketball team from the city of Konya. History The club was founded by Selçuk University in 1987. In August 2014 the club changed its name to Konyaspor Basketbol in order to gain more support from t ...

for the rest of the 2007–08 season. In January 2009, Dickel signed with the Trikala 2000 B.C. of Greece for the rest of the 2008–09 season. In 14 games, he averaged 7.1 points per game to help Trikala avoid relegation. In December 2009, Dickel re-signed with Trikala for the rest of the 2009–10 season. In November 2010, Dickel signed with the

Southland Sharks The Southland Sharks are a New Zealand basketball team based in Invercargill. The Sharks compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Stadium Southland. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the SBS Bank S ...

for the

2011 New Zealand NBL season The 2011 NBL season was the 30th season of the National Basketball League. In 2011, the Auckland Pirates debuted in the league but the Christchurch Cougars did not take part due to the effects of the 2011 Canterbury earthquake. The Harbour He ...

, which saw him play under his brother,

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

. In December 2010, Dickel signed with the Sydney Kings for the rest of the

2010–11 NBL season The 2010–11 NBL season was the 33rd season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of nine teams contested the league. The regular season was played between October 2010 and April 2011, followed by a post-season involving the to ...

. His debut with the Kings was delayed until 8 January 2011 due to a calf injury. On 30 January 2011, he tore his calf in the final quarter of a 94–91 away loss to the Gold Coast Blaze. He returned on 6 March 2011 and played a further five games. In September 2011, Dickel signed a two-year deal with the

Otago Nuggets The Otago Nuggets are a New Zealand basketball team based in Dunedin. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at the Edgar Centre. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the Night 'n Day Otago ...

. He also took up the role of Basketball Otago's director of development. In January 2014, he was appointed player-coach of the Nuggets for the 2014 season.

Coaching career

Dickel was the head coach of the Albania national team from 2010 to 2011. On 15 August 2014, Dickel was named the head coach of the Canterbury Rams, effectively ending his 21-year playing career after signing a two-year deal with the club. Dickel and his Mainland Eagles' staff coaches were able to facilitate US basketball scholarships to 10 players. On 29 April 2016, he signed a four-year contract extension with the club. Following the 2018 season, he left the Rams and joined the coaching staff of the PBA's

TNT KaTropa The TNT Tropang Giga is a professional basketball team currently owned by Smart Communications, a subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) since 1990. The fr ...

. In January 2020, Dickel was named interim coach of the Philippine national team for the first window of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.

National team career

Dickel was first selected for the

New Zealand national basketball team The New Zealand men's national basketball team is the senior men's national basketball team of New Zealand. The team is nicknamed the Tall Blacks. The ''Tall Blacks'' name is one of many New Zealand national team nicknames related to the All ...

in 1994. In 1995, Dickel was both junior and senior Tall Blacks player of the year. In 1997, he played in the World Under 23 championships in Melbourne and averaged 16 points and 6 assists being recognised as a top 5 player at the tournament. He represented New Zealand in the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

and the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. He played in the

2002 FIBA World Championship The 2002 FIBA World Championship was the 14th edition of the competition now known as the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the international world championship for men's basketball teams. The tournament held by the International Basketball Federation i ...

, finishing the tournament ranked third in assists per game. He played only two matches in the

, due to a drugs suspension. Dickel played for the Tall Blacks for more than 100 games.

Personal life

Dickel and his wife Ashley have three children: Jalen, Madden and Boston. Dickel's father, Carl, played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for Otago and was the

New Zealand women's national basketball team The New Zealand's elite women's basketball team is affectionately known to their home fans as the Tall Ferns. The team has been coached by Guy Molloy since 2018. The assistant coaches are Aik Ho and Jody Cameron. The Tall Ferns have a FIBA worl ...

head coach for 10 years and coached the Otago Nuggets for four years from 1994 to 1997. Dickel's brother,

, is a well known coach in and around Australia and New Zealand, having coached the Waikato Pistons, Otago Nuggets, Southland Sharks and Adelaide Lightning, as well as Southland Under 17, Under 19 and Under 21 teams. Dickel's nephew, Luke Aston, also plays in the New Zealand NBL.Canterbury Rams respect struggling Hawks in National Basketball League
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References

External links