Ники Ван Эксель: Баскетбол өмірі мен трагедиясы

American basketball coach and former player

Nickey Maxwell Van Exel (born November 27, 1971) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who last served as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Van Exel played for six NBA teams from 1993 through 2006. He was an NBA All Star with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1998. Van Exel played college basketball for the Cincinnati Bearcats, earning third team All American honors as a senior in 1993. He was selected by the Lakers in the second round of the 1993 NBA draft. In his first season, he was named to the NBA All Rookie Second Team.

Van Exel was raised primarily by his mother, Joyce. He attended St. Joseph High School, a private high school in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He played from 1987 to 1989 and scored 1,282 points, including 772 as a senior. He led the WISAA (private schools) state tournament in scoring as a junior and senior when his team lost in the finals both years. He was named to the Associated Press all state team as a senior.

Van Exel was the last Laker to score in the Boston Garden when he nailed a three pointer at the buzzer to give the Lakers the win. He hit a pair of clutch three pointers for the Lakers in game 5 of the 1995 Western Conference Semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs. The first one sent the game into overtime, while the second one decided the game. He recorded a career high 23 assists on January 5, 1997, against the Vancouver Grizzlies. This record has come under scrutiny when it was admitted by the scorekeeper for the Grizzlies that he intentionally inflated Van Exel's assist total due to the scorekeeper's displeasure with the NBA's scorekeeping system and wanted to prove its inaccuracy. He finished in the top 15 in assists in eight of 13 seasons. Coming into the 2005–06 season, Van Exel was first all time among Los Angeles Lakers in three point field goals made with 750. Midway through the season, he was surpassed by Kobe Bryant. He twice scored a career single game high of 44 points, both for the Nuggets—on April 15, 2000 against the Los Angeles Clippers (along with eight assists) and on November 1, 2001 (again with eight assists) against the Milwaukee Bucks. Van Exel was famous throughout his playing career for his peculiar free throw routine, in which he took his free throw attempts while standing well over a foot behind the free throw line.

Van Exel once appeared on an episode of MTV Cribs. Van Exel is name dropped in the lyrics of the 2003 Beyonce and Jay Z song "Crazy in Love." On January 31, 2013, Van Exel's 22 year old son, Nickey Van Exel, was convicted of murdering his friend and sentenced to 60 years in prison. Nickey fatally shot his best friend and dumped his body in Lake Ray Hubbard. This was done in fear that his friend, Bradley Eyo, would tell authorities about a string of robberies the two had committed together.