Daniel Michael Kickert (born 29 May 1983) is an Australian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach and former player who most recently served as an assistant coach for the

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and play their home games at Qudos Ba ...

of the National Basketball League (NBL). He played professionally for 15 seasons throughout Europe and Australia, with his stints in the NBL including

Melbourne United Melbourne United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. United compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at John Cain Arena. The team made their debut in the NBL in 1984 ...

(2014–16),

Brisbane Bullets The Brisbane Bullets are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL) based in Brisbane, Queensland. They competed from 1979 to 2008, and returned to the league in 2016. Brisbane were one of ten NBL ...

(2016–18) and Sydney Kings (2018–21). In 2017, he became the first player in NBL history to join the exclusive

50–40–90 club 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

, an achievement he replicated the following year. Kickert played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for Saint Mary's, leaving in 2006 as the program's all-time scoring leader. He spent the next eight years playing in Europe, winning a Ukrainian SuperLeague championship in 2013 with BC Budivelnyk. He also played for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

at the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup and

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that was held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

. He retired from basketball in June 2021.

Early life and career

Kickert was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Victoria, where he attended Aquinas College. In 2000, he played five games for the Nunawading Spectres in the

South East Australian Basketball League The South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) was a semi-professional basketball league in Australia comprising both a men's and women's competition. The SEABL began in 1981 and operated for 38 seasons until it was disbanded in 2018. The ...

(SEABL). In 2001, Kickert moved to

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

on a scholarship with the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

(AIS). He played for the AIS men's team in the SEABL in 2001 and 2002, where in his second year, he averaged 18 points and seven rebounds in 30 minutes per game while being named to the All-SEABL Eastern Conference team.

College career

In his freshman season at Saint Mary's in 2002–03, Kickert earned All-Freshman team honours by ''CollegeInsider.com''. He finished the season as the only Gael to start all 30 games, tied for 11th in the conference in scoring and had the third-best field goal percentage (52.0%) in the conference. In those 30 games, he averaged 12.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. In his sophomore season, Kickert was named to the All-West Coast Conference first team and earned the Shamrock Office Solutions Classic Most Valuable Player award. He was also named to the Top of the World Classic All-Tournament team. In 31 games (all starts), he averaged 14.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. In his junior season, Kickert was named to the All-West Coast Conference first team for the second straight year. He was also named to the USBWA All-District 9 first team and the NABC District 14 second team, while earning WCC Player of the Year honours by ''CollegeInsider.com''. In addition, he was named to the WCC All-Tournament team after averaging 22.0 points and 4.5 rebounds against Santa Clara and Gonzaga. In 34 games (all starts), he averaged 16.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game. In his senior season, Kickert was named to the All-West Coast Conference first team for the third straight year and earned the Shamrock Office Solutions Classic Most Valuable Player award for the second time in his career. In 28 games (all starts), he averaged 16.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game. He finished his career ranked as the all-time scorer in SMC history with 1,874 points.

College statistics

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2002–03 , style="text-align:left;", Saint Mary's , 30 , , 30 , , 25.5 , , .520 , , .447 , , .782 , , 3.7 , , .7 , , .3 , , .6 , , 12.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2003–04 , style="text-align:left;", Saint Mary's , 31 , , 31 , , 28.1 , , .506 , , .390 , , .766 , , 5.9 , , .7 , , .4 , , .5 , , 14.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2004–05 , style="text-align:left;", Saint Mary's , 34 , , 34 , , 30.9 , , .538 , , .471 , , .846 , , 6.6 , , 1.0 , , .4 , , .7 , , 16.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2005–06 , style="text-align:left;", Saint Mary's , 28 , , 28 , , 33.5 , , .454 , , .457 , , .880 , , 5.6 , , 1.0 , , .6 , , .7 , , 16.7 , - , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 123 , , 123 , , 29.5 , , .504 , , .447 , , .816 , , 5.5 , , .9 , , .4 , , .6 , , 15.2 , -

Professional career

Europe (2006–2014)

After going undrafted in the

2006 NBA draft The 2006 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2006, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City and was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. c ...

, Kickert played in Italy for his first professional season, averaging 10 points per game for Basket Livorno during the 2006–07 season. He spent the next three seasons in Spain, playing the 2007–08 season with

CB Breogán Club Baloncesto Breogán, S.A.D., also known as Río Breogán for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Lugo, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB. The club was founded in 1966 by the Varela-Portas brothers. The team pla ...

before joining

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spain, Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa. the island had a population of that constitut ...

. He parted ways with Canaria in July 2010 after two seasons. On 2 February 2011, Kickert joined Polish team Turów Zgorzelec for a three-day trial. Following the trial period, he signed with Turów for the rest of the 2010–11 season. He averaged 9.3 points and 2.8 rebounds over 25 games. Though he came off the bench for most of the season, Kickert moved into the starting lineup for the Polish League finals and produced 13.6 points and 4.9 boards in the seven-game series as Turów nearly upset Asseco Prokom for the title. On 25 July 2011, he re-signed with Turów for the 2011–12 season. In 2012, Kickert moved to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, where he spent the next two years. He began the 2012–13 season with BC Dnipro, before finishing the season with BC Budivelnyk. He played the majority of the 2013–14 season with BC Azovmash, but left the country to return to Spain in March 2014 due to the Ukraine's military conflict with Russia. He finished the 2013–14 season with Iberostar Tenerife.

Australia and New Zealand (2014–2021)

On 13 August 2014, Kickert signed with

for the 2014–15 NBL season. In 28 games for Melbourne, he averaged 13.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. On 10 June 2015, Kickert re-signed with United for the 2015–16 season. He came very close to becoming the first NBL player ever to join the exclusive

. He did reach the required splits—finishing the season with figures of 52.5/47.2/90.5—but fell four made free throws short of the minimum requirements. Kickert helped United win the minor premiership in 2015–16 with a first-place finish and an 18–10 record, while earning All-NBL First Team honours. In 28 games, he averaged 14.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. On 8 April 2016, Kickert signed with the

. After coming close in 2015–16, Kickert became the first player in NBL history to join the 50–40–90 club in 2016–17. He averaged 12.8 points per game and shot 54.4 percent from the field, 45.9 percent from three and 95.0 percent from the line. In the 2017 off-season, Kickert had a stint with the South West Metro Pirates of the

Queensland Basketball League NBL1 North, formerly the Queensland Basketball League (QBL), is a semi-professional basketball league in Queensland and Northern Territory, Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. In 2020, Basketball Queensland partnered wit ...

, and competed at the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup with the Australian Boomers. With the Bullets in 2017–18, Kickert recorded 50–40–90 numbers for the second consecutive year, averaging 14 points per game while shooting 52.2 percent from the field, 41.8 percent from three and 92.2 percent from the line. On 27 April 2018, Kickert signed a two-year deal with the

, with a team option for the second year. The Kings took up that option on 29 March 2019. In April 2019, Kickert joined the

Hawke's Bay Hawks The Hawke's Bay Hawks are a New Zealand professional basketball team based in Napier. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Pettigrew Green Arena. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as th ...

for the 2019 New Zealand NBL season, but injured his back in the first game. He returned to action in mid-May, but only managed seven games for the season due to the back injury. On 3 September 2020, Kickert re-signed with the Kings on a one-year deal. At age 37, he was the league's oldest player in the

2020–21 NBL season The 2020–21 NBL season was the 43rd season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of nine teams contested in the 2020–21 season. The regular season was played between January and June 2021, followed by a ...

. On 11 June 2021, Kickert announced his retirement from professional basketball.

National team career

Kickert competed for the Australian Boomers at the 2006 Stanković Continental Champions' Cup,

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 b ...

, 2011 London Invitational Tournament, 2017 FIBA Asia Cup, and

. In July 2018, Kickert was involved in the Philippines–Australia basketball brawl during the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualification. As a result, he was suspended for five games.

Coaching career

In September 2021, Kickert joined the

coaching staff as an assistant coach and player development coordinator. He won two NBL championships during his time as an assistant coach, parting ways with the Kings in March 2025.

Personal

Kickert's parents are Rudy and Jenny. His wife's name is Erica. He holds a Dutch passport. As of February 2020, Kickert was studying a Master of Business (Sport Management) at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

References

External links

Brisbane Bullets player profileSaint Mary's bioEuroleague.net profile"Daniel Kickert: Back-to-back threes"
at nbl.com.au
"Knocking on the door of the 50-40-90 Club"
at nbl.com.au {{DEFAULTSORT:Kickert, Daniel 1983 births Living people 2006 FIBA World Championship players Australian expatriate basketball people in Italy Australian expatriate basketball people in Poland Australian expatriate basketball people in Spain Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States Australian Institute of Sport basketball players Basket Livorno players Basketball players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Basketball players from Melbourne BC Azovmash players BC Budivelnyk players BC Dnipro players Brisbane Bullets players CB Breogán players CB Canarias players CB Gran Canaria players Centers (basketball) Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists in basketball Hawke's Bay Hawks players Melbourne United players Power forwards Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball players Sydney Kings players Turów Zgorzelec players Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Australian men's basketball players 21st-century Australian sportsmen