Mark Madsen

Mark Madsen

Mark Ellsworth Madsen (born January 28, 1976) is an American assistant basketball coach and former professional basketball player.

Madsen played NCAA basketball at Stanford, where he finished his career ranked in the school's career top 10 in blocks and rebounds. In addition, Madsen helped the Cardinal to four NCAA tournament appearances, including a Final Four berth in 1998. Perhaps his signature moment at Stanford was his dunk and free throw that gave Stanford a lead over Rhode Island, propelling the team into the Final Four, where it lost to eventual champion Kentucky. Madsen was a two-time All-American and a two-time All-Pac-10.

The Los Angeles Lakers selected Madsen in the first round (29th pick overall) of the 2000 NBA Draft. He contributed to the Lakers' NBA championships in 2001 and 2002, and became well known for the way he danced at the victory parades for those championships.

Talking about his prime with the Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal said that the only player who could thwart him from his dominant play was Madsen. "He used to beat me up in practice”, O’Neal said.

Madsen signed with the Timberwolves as a free agent before the start of the 2003–04 NBA season. He played six seasons for the Wolves.

On July 20, 2009, Madsen was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers along with Craig Smith and Sebastian Telfair in exchange for Quentin Richardson. On August 21, 2009, he was waived by the Clippers.

His lifetime NBA averages are 2.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists and 11.8 minutes played per game.

Following being waived, Madsen received an offer from a Greek basketball team and an offer to try out for an Eastern Conference NBA team. Ultimately he took an offer to do assistant coaching for the Utah Flash of the NBA's D-League. In 2012, he was hired as an assistant coach at Stanford.