SEATTLE – Twenty-six is too young to be an NBA vagabond, and three years in the league can’t possibly be enough for someone to be called a journeyman.
And then there is Dan Dickau, whose five teams in 12 months would qualify him as both.
The Gonzaga product has been to the end of the line so often that Greyhound was considering a Dickau Line. He’s fought off career extinction so many times that felines were beginning to envy his escape ability.
Nine lives are nothing. Try six different NBA cities.
After the way he’s performed in his latest stop, Dickau looks like he just might have found a home.
“There were so many people telling me I couldn’t make it,” said Dickau, who will face the Seattle Sonics as part of his sixth NBA team, the New Orleans Hornets, tonight. ” ‘You’ve been in the league two years, and you still haven’t done anything. You shouldn’t be in the league anymore.’ I’ve heard that from a lot of different people.
“People a lot of times are pessimistic. But my attitude is that I’m going to keep trying until I prove that I can’t do it.”
Dickau hasn’t heard from many detractors lately. After averaging just 2.9 points per game in his first five NBA stops – Sacramento, Atlanta, Portland, Golden State and Dallas – he’s caught fire with the lowly Hornets.
Dickau has filled in for injured Baron Davis as the starting point guard, averaging 14 points per game since being traded from Dallas in early December. Over the past 11 games, Dickau’s averaging 18.3 points and 6.7 assists.
“I told him he would get an opportunity here,” Hornets coach Byron Scott said. “He’s gotten that, and he’s been a pleasant surprise.”
As Scott himself was quick to point out, opportunity comes around for plenty of NBA players – most of whom forget to open the door. After sitting at the end of the bench for five other teams, Dickau has made the most of his chance to shine.
“I’ve always had confidence, since I came into the league, that I could be a good player,” Dickau said. “I just needed the opportunity.
“The first few places I’d been, I never really got a chance. It was frustrating, but I’ve got such faith that I knew God was going to give me direction somewhere. I just knew I had to stick with it, and eventually I’d get a break somewhere.”
Dickau’s rise from NBA obscurity didn’t just happen overnight. A solid 3-point shooter at Gonzaga, Dickau has worked hard on his mid-range jumpers and craftiness in the paint over the past two offseasons. He has added both dimensions to his game, and some nights looks like a star in the making.
That once seemed impossible for a 6-foot guard who has seen his name in almost as many trades as The Player To Be Named Later.
“People looked at him as a throw-in,” Scott said. “I think a lot of teams slept on him, because he is a guy who can play in this league.”
Dickau said that the barrage of trades – he’s been dealt five times in his NBA career, including a draft-day deal that sent him from Sacramento to Atlanta – never rattled his confidence. While the rest of the league seemed to have given up on Dan Dickau, he didn’t buy into the doubt.
“Never,” he said. “I’ve always kept plugging away, knowing that I’d get my break.”
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