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The 2015 NBA Finals were an up and down ride for Australians Andrew Bogut and Matthew Dellavedova.
For Dellavedova, it was a case of “up then down”. After Kyrie Irving fractured his kneecap in game one, Delly’s star rose rapidly over the next three contests. He burst out of the gates and into the stratosphere during games two, three and four, before tumbling back down to earth in the final three match-ups.
During that initial stretch, Delly played outstanding defence on MVP Steph Curry, as Cleveland focused all their efforts on shutting down the Splash Brothers and forcing the other Warriors to beat them.
Dellavedova averaged 13 points, 3 assists to go along with 12 floor dives and 10 name mispronunciations in 37 minutes a night. The relentless Aussie’s play was part of the reason (along with the minor detail that was LeBron’s unprecedented finals tear) that Cleveland took a highly unlikely 2-1 series lead.
His small stature, sheer hustle, funky floaters and career-long underdog status captured the imagination of the basketball world and mainstream media.
Dellavedova seemed to be all any basketball fan was talking about, and briefly had the top selling jersey at America’s largest licensed online sports retailer Fanatics.
Over the final three games, Steph Curry remembered he’s Steph Curry, much to the ongoing misfortune of Cleveland professional sports. He found his stroke and was no longer bothered by (or seemingly even aware of) Dellavedova’s presence.
Delly also went cold with the ball against Golden State’s league best defence, averaging just 5 points and 2 assists on 19 per cent shooting in 33 minutes a night.
Meanwhile, Delly’s Boomers teammate Andrew Bogut kicked off the series in his regular, defensive anchor role. Bogut averaged 3 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in 23 minutes per outing over the first three games.
Down 2-1 and having lost their offensive mojo, the Warriors inserted eventual finals MVP Andre Iguodala into the starting line up, deciding to take position-less small ball to new heights.
Suddenly, the man who most folks believed needed to stay on the floor for Golden State to win the title, found himself benched as the Warriors went on to do exactly that.
Bogut played just under 3 minutes in game four, and didn’t sniff any action at all in games five and six.
Unlike Iguodala at the start of the season, Bogut, who Steve Kerr called a “victim of circumstance”, didn’t have a problem with Kerr drastically changing his role and playing time.
Instead, the Bogey Man opted to take it on the chin like a champ, understanding that it was a necessary sacrifice to make his squad exactly that, champs.
While Dellavedova shifts his focus to next season, Bogut becomes the third Australian crowned NBA champion in the last two seasons.
All year the Warriors’ success has been driven by each player buying into their roles within Kerr’s system.
As we approached the business end of the series, Bogut made perhaps the biggest sacrifice, and claimed the greatest prize of all.
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