| Intro | Argentine-Italian professional basketball player and coach | ||||
| Is |
Athlete Sports coach Football player Association football player Basketball player Basketball coach |
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| From | Argentina | ||||
| Type | Sports | ||||
| Gender | male | ||||
| Birth | 12 May 1971, Rafaela, Castellanos Department, Santa Fe Province, Argentina | ||||
| Age: | 49 years | ||||
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Marcelo Patricio Nicola Virginio (born May 12, 1971) is a retired Argentine-Italian professional basketball player and the assistant coach of Hapoel Jeruslem from Israel . A very versatile power forward, he was a regular member of the Argentine national basketball team, and competed many years in the Euroleague.
Professional career
Nicola was selected 50th overall in the 1993 NBA Draft, but remained in Europe and won the Saporta Cup in 1996 with Taugrés, the team in which he made his debut in the Spanish ACB League. He played his best basketball for Benetton Treviso, with which he lifted another Saporta Cup trophy in 1999, and he was selected to the All-Euroleague Second Team for the Euroleague 2001-02 season. He also made it to the Euroleague 2002-03 final game.
Argentine national team
Nicola was a member of the Argentine national basketball team. With the junior national team of Argentina, he played at the 1993 FIBA Under-21 World Championship. With Argentina’s senior men’s national team, he played at the 1994 FIBA World Championship, the 1996 Olympics, and the 1998 FIBA World Championship.
Coaching career
In 2012, Nicola started his coach career as assistant coach in Liga ACB team UCAM Murcia. In 2014, after the sacking of Óscar Quintana, he was named the head coach of the team.
In February 2015, he became the head coach of Lietuvos rytas Vilnius team (Lithuania) after Virginijus Šeškus release. On November 16, 2015, it was announced that Nicola was fired from Lietuvos rytas Vilnius due to poor results.
In the beginning of 2016/17 he joined his former coach Simone pianigiani at The Israeli club Hapoel Jerusalem.