Where Are They Now: Nick Van Exel
“Soprano the rock, handle like Van Exel” – Jay-Z
There was a reason why Hova would name drop Nick Van Exel’s name in a verse. Nick the Quick was everything you wanted out of a small guard: a smooth south paw stroke, crafty dribble moves, great court vision and money in the clutch. And best of all, everything he did, he did it with style.
Van Exel had swagger, played with flash and loved to talk trash on the court. You either loved him or hated him. Like Tim Hardaway and Isiah Thomas, he could fill out highlight tapes without going above the rim.
A second round pick out of Cincinnati in 1993, it wasn’t long until Van Exel was a starting guard in the NBA. In his first five seasons with the Lakers, Van Exel and Eddie Jones brought back “Showtime” to the L.A. by forming one of the most exciting young backcourts in the NBA at the time. Van Exel was also on the Lakers during the early part of the Shaq and Kobe era. He made the All-Star team in 1998.
After being shipped off to Denver in 1998, Nick continued to open eyes. He had his best statistical year (17.7 ppg and 8.5 apg) during the 2000-01 season. Denver traded Nick midway during the ’01-02 season to Dallas, where he and Steve Nash formed one of the best point guard combinations in the league. Van Exel also made stops in Golden State, Portland and finally San Antonio before retiring in 2006.
Contrary to his on-court persona, Nick the Quick has been relatively quiet since hanging up his sneakers. This year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in both his high school (St. Joseph High School in Wisconsin) and his junior college (Henderson County Junior College in Texas). A few weeks ago, he landed a FT gig as an assistant coach at Texas Southern University.
“I said I was going to retire in ‘06, take two years off and try to get into coaching,” Van Exel told KRIV-TV in Houston. “It didn’t work out as planned. So here I am my fourth year retired, couldn’t sit around in the winter this time. Coach (Tony) Harvey brought me on the staff. It’s going to be something exciting.”
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October 30th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Seany T says:
Hey Dime,
Whats up with this choice you normally use this slot to highlight players that didn’t get their chance/messed up/or went crazy. I don’t believe Van Exel was any of those things….
October 30th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
karizmatic says:
Van Exel was my man back in the day. He did his thing.
October 30th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Steve A says:
definitely had a kids size van exel jersey as an 8 year old…
October 30th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
mosduff says:
JJ the Rapper!
“Sometimes rappers wanna be athletes, like Master P once attempted, but more often, it’s athletes trying to be rappers. Kobe Bryant once tried it, Allen Iverson did too, but Shaq was the only one to really make any head way in that area. However, Orlando Magic’s shooting guard, J.J. Redick, wants a chance to prove his skills on the mic, and is planning to drop new music with a new rap group, who currently remains without a name. “We actually haven’t come up with a name from the group, we’re throwing around some ideas right now,” he said. “
October 30th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Cameron says:
Van Exel was easily one of the most skilled point guards of his time. The Lakers completely blew it by trading him for Tony Battie(!), blaming their meltdown in the playoffs against the Jazz on him (a little later they fired Del Harris, were still disappointing, Kurt Rambis took over, they got even worse… finally they hired Phil Jackson and started playing to expectations demonstrating their problem was coaching).
October 30th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Cameron says:
And the Lakers let him go because they thought they had something in Derek Fisher? A guy who can’t create shots (for himself and others alike), can’t play defense, especially on quicker players (taking a couple of charges once in a while does not qualify as defense… rather, desperation… otherwise, Vlade Divac would be talked about for his defense) and has nothing to offer in athleticism.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Kermit The Washington says:
@ Cameron:
I know, what were them Lakers THINKING? Did they think they would suddenly become a powerhouse and cop a bunch of rings? Oh wait…
October 30th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Kermit The Washington says:
And @ Mosduff:
Please….pleeease tell me you’re joking. You’re joking, right? RIGHT??
October 30th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
mosduff says:
too bizarre to joke about my man
hoopshype.com…
October 30th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
JoeCozi says:
he was a kings killer on the mavs…
October 30th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
BRUCE says:
Shawn Kemp at the 0:35 Mark!
October 30th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
BiG ShoT BoB says:
Yeah still remember the three point line free throw he had…LOL Also remember hanging out with him at the club when he played for the Warriors and thinking he seemed alot more bigger in person. But it could of been the short Filipino girl he was trying to hollar at that made him look that way.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Dank says:
He was my fav laker after majic retired. I still get goose bumps from the sa playoff game where he hit two three’s from the parking lot to send it into ot, the another to win the game. He is also the only player I ever seen serve Bean, and bean admit to it. U can tell he held a grudge every time he gave us the bizness!!!
Nick at night
October 30th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Pet Society Help says:
Kemp on coke 0:32 seconds.
October 31st, 2009 at 3:10 am
Bballfan says:
love that laker team…..Vlade, Nick the Quick, Eddie Jones, Ceballos, Shaq may have been there too
October 31st, 2009 at 4:59 pm
KnicksFan84 says:
He was my favorite player growing up and I loved that Laker squad back then!
October 31st, 2009 at 6:03 pm
shake&bake says:
I like the behind the back pass to the same side at :44 and 1:40.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Dodge Taylor says:
I have hated Derek Fisher for years purely because the Lakers decided to trade Van Exel so they could hand him the pg reigns to the team. Unbelievable decision
I’m a Celtics fan but I loved Nick the Quick. For all the reasons mentioned above: short point guard, great handle, highlight reel plays (from below the rim), swagger, big-time clutch shooter.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Cameron says:
@Kermit
You missed my whole point. Their problem was coaching. The Lakers won despite Derek Fisher and not because of him.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Cameron says:
@Kermit
You missed my whole point. Their problems stemmed from poor coaching. The Lakers won despite Derek Fisher and not because of him.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Jacqueline Mitchell says:
In Roland Lazenby’s book “The Show” it talks about how he and the Lkers coach at the time, Del Harris had more than a few battles and that may have factored in Nick being traded.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Ekstor says:
@Cameron
Just a clarification… while Nick was traded for Battie directly, Battie never suited for the Lake-show, we turned him around and traded him for the rights to Tyronn Lue.
Coaching was definitely to blame for the Lakers struggles against the Jazz. I was working in Utah that year they swept us and even the Jazz fans were telling me how bad our coaching was.
That said, I believe it was Shaq who ultimately wanted Nick out. I remember when Nick first came back into town as a Nugget and scorched the Lakers for 40+ and nearly had a triple double (I think his final statline was something like 41pts, 9ast, 8rebs). I remember sending an email to a friend titled “Smoked Fish” (in reference to DFish getting waxed by NVE). The Lakers still won but when Shaq was asked about Nick’s performance, he replied, “he’d still be here if he played like that.”
The following year, Shaq campaigned for a “thug” forward and a shooter. We signed Rodman, fired Harris, hired Rambis, went on a 10-game winning streak, and then traded Jones/Campbell for Glen Rice at which point we struggled the rest of the year.
Back to Nick, my favorite memory of him though was as a Maverick squaring off against the Kings in the playoffs. He lit up Bobby Jackson at home and then after Bobby swore that Nick would not do it again in Sac-town, Nick lit him up again and had former teammate Vlade Divac calling out Nick as the reason the Mavs won the series.
As for anyone who claims he wasn’t a team player, I remember another game where he was getting a breather and his backup, Sedale Threatt, came in and got hot… nailing jumper after jumper. Del Harris went to go ask Nick to come back into the game and Nick told Del to leave Sedale in b/c he was on fire. Another memory was when Peter Vescey scheduled an interview with NVE. Nick supposedly asked Peter if he was the writer who had slammed teammate Elden Campbell in a prior article. When Peter confirmed it, Nick refused the interview.
The “little dude with the ‘tude” and quite possibly, one of my all-time favorite players.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
RobertGingebreadman says:
#22 Esktor I’m Diggin The Van Exel Facts And You Know What You’re Actually Rite. Good Shit!!!!
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
JDub says:
@ Mosduff
Master P actually was playing at the University of Houston in college but dropped out. He could actually hoop. He’s an exception. He was a hooper before he started rapping. He, Silk and C-Murder were all pretty good. Not nba good but around the way good.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Ekstor says:
Thanks Robert… one more story just to link NVE to the whole Kobe-Shaq ordeal… I recall shortly after NVE joined the Nuggets, Jim Rome had NVE on the show. At this time the tension from Shaq to Kobe was starting to get media attention. Kobe hadn’t yet fired back in any way… but Shaq’s comments had even Wilt Chamberlain jumping in Kobe’s defense in the newspaper.
Anyway, Jim asked Nick about his time as a Laker and the situation with Shaq. Nick said that both he and Eddie wanted to make life easier for Shaq by sharing the load and continuing to establish the outside/perimeter threat, but Shaq instead, always wanted the ball (you may recall a remark from Shaq criticizing his own team for thinking they were all a bunch of Rex Chapmans). Then when Jim Rome asked Nick what he thought about the Shaq-Kobe situation, Nick responded that Kobe was the hardest working player he had ever met… “you don’t understand… this kid is the first one in the gym and the last one out… he’s CONSTANTLY working on his game.” When asked about Shaq’s work ethic, Nick paused and said something to the effect of “I’d rather not get into that.”
That same year, the Lakers were in Denver and Kobe took over the game in the 4th… no one on the Nuggets could slow him down. Nick could be heard screaming in the huddle that someone had to stop him, but to no avail. The next day, the LA Times ran an article stating that the question regarding who would be the Lakers go-to guy down the stretch (now that Nick was gone) had been answered. Nick after that game told the media, “we all knew this day was coming… I knew… Del knew it.” While Nick didn’t clarify any further, it was obvious Nick was talking about Kobe’s ascent into becoming their top gun… keep in mind that Del was still coaching and the Lakers were still two years away from winning their first ring with Shaq and Kobe.
Love Nick’s honesty.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Da_Griff says:
Nick the Quick ruled, but the lakers traded him because he was erratic, had trouble picking up the plays and freelanced too much. Also his D was terrible.
Plus it would have cost too much to keep him.
I sure did love watching him play though. All the way back to his college days. I remember staying up to 2am in the morning to watch the NCAA replays on TV here, and watching Nick just kill it. Awesome.