All About Nick Van Exel

He was born on November 27 1971. Nick Van Exel's mom Joyce raised Nick growing up. He attended St. Joseph high school located in Kenosha, Wisconsin and scored over 2,200 points and over 700 as a senior!!

He played for them 2 out of the 4 seasons he averaged decent numbers in his first season his team went 18-12 and he averaged 12.3 PPG, 2.9 APG and 1.3 SPG. In his 2nd season his team record was 29-5 and the Bearcats went to March Madness but got deafeted in the final four by Michigan's fab five in that season he had better numbers 18.3 PPG, 4.5 APG.He was 3rd team All-American and was nominated for the wooden award

Nick Van Exel played for many teams but the team he played for the longest and also got drafted to were the Los Angeles Lakers he played for the Lakers for 5 seasons and averaged 14.9 PPG and 7.3 APG. He also played for the Denver Nuggets for 4 seasons averaging about 17.7 PPG and 8.4 APG. He also contributed to the Dallas Mavericks for 2 seasons providing 12.7 PPG and 4.3 APG. He attended 3 1 and done teams with only 1 one year of action. The San Antonio Spurs averaging 5.5 PPG and 1.9 APG, the Portland Trail-Blazers giving them 11.1 PPG and 4.3 APG and last but not least Golden State Warriors with an emotional last year of NBA action he put up decent numbers like 12.6 PPG 5.3 APG.

When you think all time assist leaders in the NBA you might think John Stockton, Jason Kidd or Steve Nash but one of the most underrated passers of all time: Nick Van Exel he ranks 38 all time in assist. That's not that bad for a guy that people don't even think about passing the ball!

Yes Nick Van Exel was a coach for the Texas Legends who are currently 17-18 He served as an assistant coach in 2014–15 to Eduaro Najera on the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League, before replacing Najera as head coach prior to the following season.

Maybe you can catch a glimpse of him coaching the Texas Legends. What is the D-League you might ask well it is a league for players who don't get much minutes playing for there real NBA team so they go to the development league to do what they love!

Nick Van Exel was very embarrassed one day when he found out this his son, Nickey, was found guilty of murder in 2010 for shooting his best friend, according to the Dallas morning news. What was the motive for the crime? Nickey believed his friend planned on snitching about armed robberies the two had participated in that year. Nickey claimed the murder was an accident, however, his actions following the murder showed otherwise. Nickey wrapped his friend in plastic, pulled him to his garage, and put him in the back of his Chevy SUV. He then dumped the body and went back to the scene to clean. This murder sounded like something from a Dexter episode, not an innocent accident.

Nick Van Exel doesn't exactly have much of a rivalry with anyone he ever played but if someone else ever wanted to get back at him was probably Grant Hill. When Grant Hill went to the NBA and he was drafted by the Detroit Pistons 3rd overall and was one of the best rookies in the draft but that came to a disappointment when he met Nick Van Exel in his first ever career NBA game although Geant hill had 25 points 10 rebounds and 5 assists but the Pistons lost by 17 from Nick Van Exel's 35 points!

Nick Van Exel didn't really have much of a favorite teammate but he did like how Kobe Bryant's competitivness made his teammates better. He had this to say about Kobe

When Kobe Bryant came into the league, Nick Van Exel was a fourth year veteran in the midst of a 13 year NBA career. 20 years later, Bryant is now in the midst of a season long farewell tour celebrating his Hall of Fame career, and Van Exel says that while he wouldn't have predicted this level of greatness from Kobe so early, there were signs that his constant drive to improve would make him a special player.

"I'm sure people around here have seen him grind, grind, grind, and the kid was like that when he came into the league, his work ethic, his drive, it was unbelievable," said Van Exel, now head coach of the Texas Legends in the NBA D-League. "He's always been a real competitive person from day one."

Van Exel recalled one of the Lakers' first tastes of Bryant's competitive drive.

"I do remember one time we were having a shootaround, and in the shootaround we were just walking through the plays, just trying to figure out the defenses as you're walking through them," said Van Exel. "And [Kobe] was going really really hard at Eddie Jones, and we all just started laughing. And he was the only one not laughing, like the coaches was laughing, everybody.

"[Kobe] was not laughing. So finally, Del [Harris] had to tell him 'we're not going 100% yet!''

The man formerly known as "Nick the Quick" chuckled at the memory, and while some have called Bryant a bad teammate throughout his career for his tendency to be just as hard on the players wearing his own jersey as his opponents, Van Exel argued the opposite.

"Any time we would go against that second group, we really had to play for real. He wouldn't allow us to go through the motions, and I think he was making us better players because he competed so hard."

- He was the last player to score in the Boston Garden on a buzzer beater before they rebuilt it.

- He was known for shooting his free throws about a foot behind the line.

- He finished top 15 in 8 of his 13 seasons.

- His high score in points is 44 and his career high in assist is 23 and in that game the scorekeeper didn't show the right amount of assist under Nick Van Exel's name.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/v/vanexni01.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ast_career.html

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/nick-van-exel-1.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIOHzrJgipg

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Van_Exel#Coaching_career