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Delly doesn't fit the NBA mould

9th June, 2015
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The Australian Boomers kick off their Olympic Games campaign with a clash against France. (Erik Drost/Flickr)
Expert
9th June, 2015
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Let me get this straight. LeBron James says this of Matthew Dellavedova:

“He defended. He rebounded. He made timely shots. He gave us everything and more.”

But ESPN personality Colin Cowherd tweets this:

To be fair, Cowherd added a later tweet calling Dellavedova the Finals MVP, but in many ways, we’re right back to square one.

When the Cavaliers closed out the Atlanta Hawks, the debate was whether or not Delly was a dirty player. Now, even after he’s once again stepped in for Kyrie Irving and shut down MVP Stephen Curry in Game 2, plenty of American fans and journalists still don’t believe.

Why?

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Because Delly doesn’t fit the NBA mould.

First of all, let’s address the elephant in the room. He’s white in a league that is 75 per cent African American.

He doesn’t have tattoos. He doesn’t have an entourage.

While his teammates show up for postgame press conferences in designer clothes, Delly usually sports a jacket that looks like it came from General Pants or The Gap.

He’s the anti-JR Smith.

And although he makes better decisions and better clutch plays than Smith, I doubt many kids are running around inner-city playgrounds with a basketball, saying, “Look, at me, I’m Matthew Dellavedova.”

By coming from Australia, Dellavedova is already a different breed of cat from an NBA perspective.

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We love to think that Americans know all about Australia – and many do – but there’s still a large proportion of the population that believes Andrew Bogut when he tells them he has a koala for a pet and that kangaroos run rampant in Melbourne streets.

An Australian in the NBA means something else too: unselfish, team-oriented, not flashy.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article entitled ‘Why every NBA team needs an Australian’. The sub-heading was ‘Andrew Bogut and Matthew Dellavedova reinforce Australia’s reputation for producing industrious, selfless role players’.

When you think of a guy like Joe Ingles in Utah or remember the contributions Luc Longley made to those Bulls’ championship teams this makes perfect sense. Aussies are team-first guys, bound by a code of mateship and ready to do anything for the cause.

That is, however, a bit of a quandary for many American fans and journos who think – and in many ways may be right – that the NBA is more about glitz and glamour than role players and hard working average Joes.

Witness the craziness that ensued after Delly had the gall to dive on the floor for a loose ball.

But not only is Dellavedova is white, Australian and an unspectacular role player – who some think is dirty – he was also ignored in the NBA draft.

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And although he was a star in college, he played in the West Coast Conference (WCC), a relatively obscure league of small, mainly Catholic schools in the western US.

So the actual number of NBA fans who really know what Dellavedova is capable of is probably minuscule.

And yes, I know that two of the NBA’s greatest point guards – John Stockton and Steve Nash – came out of the WCC, but they were outliers. Dellavedova is not Stockton, he’s not Nash, but keep in mind, those guys had their doubters as well because they didn’t fit the mould either.

Basically, what we have is a guy who is unknown to the majority of NBA fans (outside of Cleveland, of course) stealing some of the limelight from the true superstars of the game. And some people can’t handle it. If you don’t believe me, check the comments section beneath any article about Delly: at least half the responses are negative.

There is some good news. Dellavedova’s defensive performance in Game 2 was so great that people had to start looking past things like the clichéd ‘worst player to get major minutes in the Finals’ line. Any time you shut down the league’s MVP and force him into a terrible shooting night, you’ve done a remarkable job.

The NBA Finals have been full of non-sexy heroes. Bruce Bowen, Craig Hodges and Robert Horry all made huge contributions to title teams despite being relatively unspectacular players. You could even throw Warriors’ coach Steve Kerr in there when he played for the Bulls and Spurs.

Dellavedova has made a big impact so far, but we’ve only played two games. If Stephen Curry comes out in Game 3 and lights it up, the media will undoubtedly take their shots at Delly.

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And I’m sure he’ll accept that, take the bad with the good, and get back to work – just as he’s been doing all season long, whether people know who he is or not.

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