Ronzone content as career turns full circle

BUDDIES: Former Wanganui Wolfpack coach Tony Ronzone gets chummy with NBA star Kobe Bryant during Team USA practice before the London Olympics in 2012. Photo/Supplied

Former Wanganui Wolfpack coach Tony Ronzone is firmly cemented in the world of the NBA, entering his third year with the team where it all began with for him.

Ronzone was the likeable player-coach of the Wolfpack that played in New Zealand's second division national basketball league in the late 1980s.

After his stint in Wanganui he returned to the US in 1990 as an assistant coach at Arizona State University, moving on to coach the Saudi Arabian national team in 1992, and spent five years as a coach in United Arab Emirates.

In 2008 he served as director of international player personnel for the USA men's team who won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics and he repeated the dose four years later.

But his NBA career started as a scout with the Dallas Mavericks from 1998 through to 2000 before taking up a contract with the Detroit Pistons in 2001, serving as the team's director of international scouting until 2005 and as director of basketball operations from 2005-10.

He has just retired after six years as director of international player personnel with Team USA. It was an association which brought him two gold medals (2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London) along with a world championship gold medal and ring for winning 2010 Championship in Turkey.

"Now I've got a ring for every championship from the basketball world except the ring for winning with Wanganui Wolfpack," he said.

Ronzone said he was "very fortunate" where the game has taken him: "And it also gave me some great relationships with people in Wanganui who I remember fondly."

His appointment to the Mavericks coaching team brings him full circle in his NBA career because he started as a scout with Dallas in 1998.

"Now I'm back as the director of player personnel and have been here for three years."

In 2010 he was named assistant general manager/player personnel at the Minnesota Timberwolves but that contract only lasted a year.

"It simply wasn't the place for me. But coming back to the Mavs has been great," he said.

He and his wife Tricia and their family live in Phoenix, Arizona.

In his role at the Mavericks, Ronzone works directly with owner Mark Cuban, general manager Donnie Nelson and head coach Rick Carlisle but away from that home court Ronzone's generally on the road.

Those road trips cover scouting of top college players as well as the NBA players.

"I'm also travelling the world looking at every international player for future player drafts and those free agents across the globe," he said.

"I'll get to around 50 international games a year, at least 75 college games along with at least 50 NBA games. So it's a lot of games.

"My wife Tricia and I still travel the world so basketball is still my life and the road is still my world."