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

Early years

Dickel attended Logan Park High School in Dunedin, New Zealand. 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 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 ...

at the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the ...

, 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 College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

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 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 PBC Lokomotiv Kuban () is a Russian professional basketball team based in Krasnodar. It participates in the VTB United League. Their honour list includes a EuroCup Basketball, EuroCup championship in the 2012–13 season, and two Russian Basketb ...

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, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French language, French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. FIBA defines the rules of basketball, specifies the Basketball equipment ...

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 b ...

. 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 wo ...

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 champions

Brose Baskets Bamberg Bamberg Baskets 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 six times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketball ...

. 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 professional men's 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 know ...

for the

2011 New Zealand NBL season Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number) * One of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''Eleven'', a 1970 collection of short stories by Patricia Highsmith *''Eleven'' ...

, which saw him play under his brother,

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

. In December 2010, Dickel signed with 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 ...

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 t ...

. 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 professional men's 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 ...

. 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 The Canterbury Rams are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Christchurch. The Rams compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Cowles Stadium. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as Th ...

, 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 PBA's

TNT KaTropa The TNT Tropang 5G 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 fran ...

coaching staff 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 () represents New Zealand in international basketball competitions. The team is governed by Basketball New Zealand. The team's official nickname is the Tall Blacks (). Over their history, New Zeal ...

in 1994. In 1995, he 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-five player at the tournament. He represented New Zealand in the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. He played in the

2002 FIBA World Championship The 2002 FIBA World Championship was the 14th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. The tournament was held by the FIBA, International Basketb ...

, finishing the tournament ranked third in assists per game. Due to a drug suspension, he played only two matches in the

. 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 Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

, 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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

and was the

New Zealand women's national basketball team The New Zealand women's national basketball team represents New Zealand in international Women's basketball, basketball competitions. They are nicknamed the Tall Ferns. The team has been coached by Guy Molloy since 2018. The New Zealand women' ...

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

, is a basketball coach and has coached in New Zealand and Australia. 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