Basketball New Zealand

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Tall Black point guard Mark Dickel (Photosport)

FIBA
New Zealand national team point guard Mark Dickel is returning to Turkey for the fourth time after leaving German league champions Brose Basket Bamberg.

Dickel and Bamberg went their separate ways on mutual terms on Monday and the 31-year-old boarded a plane later that day bound for Turkey to play for first division club Mutlu Aku Selcuk Universitesi Konya.

“This will be my fourth stint in Turkey,” said Dickel, who played for Fenerbahce in 2002-03 and 2003-04 and averaged 19.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 8.7 assists in 2004-05 at Erdemirspor Belediyesi.

“I know the country and I’m comfortable there. I like it a lot.”

In 14 BBL league games with Bamberg, Dickel averaged 3.4 points, 1.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 17 minutes of action. But in the last last seven games, Dickel has played more than 20 minutes just once.

“I just want to play,” said Dickel, who came to Bamberg in September. “Nobody wants to not play.

“As a basketball player, you have to take it for a worth. You don’t really have control of things. If you don’t play, you don’t have control. It seems the only thing I can control is when I play with the (New Zealand) national team.”

Dickel is expected to play a major role for New Zealand at the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men in Athens this summer.

But Dickel’s fate at Bamberg seemed to be sealed earlier this month when German national team playmaker Mithat Demirel was added to the club. Dickel felt he needed to leave to get another chance.

“I’m just thankful for (Bamberg coach) Dirk (Bauermann) to give me a chance,” Dickel concluded. “It didn’t work out. Oh well. I just want to move on.”

Bauermann knows basketball can be a tough business.

“After we signed Mithat, I told Mark that I would not be juggling three guards and I would look at how the guys practiced and who had good games,” Bauermann said.

“And I told him I decided on Mithat and he accepted that and was extremely professional about it. “