Dickel lands his dream hoops gig
Mark Dickel made the call to exit Canterbury and New Zealand basketball with a heavy heart but a clear conscience.
After the last eight years guiding the next wave of Kiwi talent, the time finally came to put his own ambitions first.
It was, for this dedicated Kiwi hoops legend, simply the right juncture to pass on the baton and take up an offer he couldn’t refuse from a deep-pocketed Philippines club.
Truth be told, he’d probably taken this thing as far as he could, and it felt right to head down a different fork in the road.
Dickel, a former Tall Black they called ‘Sparky’ for his electric play from the point guard position, is now ensconced in hoops-mad Manila, coaching TNT Ka Tropa, one of 12 clubs that comprise the Philippines national professional league.
Dickel was offered a three-year deal to be head coach after the club started the new season 1-4. Not surprisingly he jumped at it. Like most Kiwis, bar Steven Adams, his salary is private information.
The rest Dickel doesn’t mind shining the spotlight on. ‘‘What attracted me to the club was infinite resources,’’ he tells Stuff from Manila just one game into his tenure. ‘‘I’ve got eight assistant coaches, 25 staff under me. It’s a whole different world. They base everything over here on what you have in the NBA.’’
This is the thing you have to realise about basketball in the Philippines. It’s far and away the No 1 sport of a country of 108 million. And the people simply cannot get enough of it.
‘‘Everybody here watches the games, either on TV or live, and there’s a big fan base for all the teams. People know the players, the coaches. I’ve only been here a couple of weeks and coached one game, but already absolutely everybody is aware of who you are. It’s a bit different, because a cool thing about being in New Zealand is you’re anonymous.’’
Now Dickel is the opposite of anonymous. He’s in the fishbowl. Coaching in a league that essentially operates year-round in three different phases. With games nationally televised and huge stadiums packed to the rafters. There is nowhere to hide, expectations are high, and it’s exactly how this 41-year-old hoops tragic wants it.
‘‘It’s an opportunity to focus on one thing, to have a vision and take a programme in the direction I want take it in. Over here I have a far bigger responsibility and role . . . all those things appealed to me. With that responsibility, I’ve got to produce and that really excites me too. I like that pressure.’’
Plus, it was the right time. ‘‘If I was going make the move it had to be now. My oldest [of three boys] has just started high school, and I didn’t want to wait much longer. I’ve signed a three-year contract, and to have the support here, the infrastructure, the passion for basketball here, that’s kind of what sold me on it.
‘‘I went to a game last night where Ali fought Foreman in the ‘Thriller in Manila’, and there would have been 16,000 there. That’s pretty regular. In Christchurch, I had a wonderful opportunity doing something I love, but for eight years I’ve been doing different degrees of the same thing. I loved my job in Christchurch, but this is my dream.
‘‘Once I made sure the place was OK, there were schools for the kids, all the normal questions you have, the opportunity is what stood out – the opportunity to really establish myself, get better and force myself to grow again.’’
Dickel also leaves with a little ache in his heart.
For the last eight years, he has mixed jobs coaching both NBL teams and rising young talent, first in Dunedin, and for the last four years in Christchurch with the Mainland Eagles Academy. His role with the Rams was invigorating, but nurturing the best young talent in the South Island he has considered God’s work.
‘‘It’s hard to leave things that you start, but ultimately nothing is forever.’’
Dickel is on his own pathway now. It’s one he hopes, long term, will lead to some special places.
‘‘I have always wanted to coach the New Zealand national team – I’ve made no secret of that. And I would love to one day coach in America. But I’m 41 and I feel like I could coach for the next 30 years, so I’m not in a terrible hurry to get anywhere else.
‘‘I just want to make the most out of the opportunity I have, be the best possible coach I can over here and, as long as I’m successful, I’ll have opportunities at some stage to go somewhere else.’’