Nick Van Exel beat the odds after being selected with the 37th overall pick of the 1993 draft. He played 13 NBA seasons before retiring in 2005-06, averaging 14.4 points and 6.6 assists per game on 40.5 percent shooting overall and 35.7 percent from beyond the arc.
But Van Exel’s surprisingly lengthy career and solid numbers certainly don’t do his legacy justice. For a specific kind of basketball fan, the former Los Angeles Lakers point guard represents a blend of style, flair, and streak-scoring excitement that’s come to define many superstars of the modern era – as this rare and wildly enjoyable highlight video makes abundantly clear.
The diminutive lefty was many things, but perhaps most notably as über-talented as he was maddeningly inconsistent. But that inability to fit the mold of a traditional point guard is what made Van Exel so fun to watch and so clearly before his time.
He joined Ray Allen and Reggie Miller as the only players throughout the span of his career to launch at least 4,200 triples. The difference between Van Exel and the league’s all-time first and second most prolific three-point shooters? Allen and Miller shot 39.9 percent and 39.8 percent on threes from 1993-94 to 2005-06, respectively, over four points better than Van Exel’s mark.
The Cincinnati product was no marksman in the defining sense, basically; his propensity for throwing up threes with abandon sometimes hindered his team’s performance as much as it helped. But that’s of no concern to us now.
Flaws and all, he was an absolute aesthetic delight. His obvious penchant for drama was lasting, too. Van Exel made eye-popping plays like this seem commonplace whether a member of the Lakers, Denver Nuggets, or Dallas Mavericks.
https://i.giphy.com/TlGKRIyhU5WCI.gif
And it’s time the basketball world remembers him for it.
