Australian athletes bring a special edge to competition

ONE of two NBA stars will soon join a select few Aussies to hold an NBA title. We look at why they are so vital to any winning team.

Atlanta Hawks v Cleveland Cavaliers - Game Four

WHEN Andrew Bogut and Matthew Dellavedova take the court on Thursday for the first finals game between the Cavaliers and the Warriors, they will make history.

Regardless of the winning team, one player will join an elite group of just four Australians ever to win an NBA title, along with the likes of the Chicago Bulls’ Luc Longley and San Antonio’s Patty Mills.

When the 2015 champion is crowned, most will undoubtedly argue superstars LeBron James and Steph Curry are the ones responsible for their teams’ success, and to an extent they would be right.

Having an in-form superstar player on your roster will certainly do wonders for your season results, but they can only carry a team so far.

Without a strong platform for your top players to perform even the greatest can crumble. You need the base players, the consistent, the grinders. It is the players willing to shine in positions where fame and glamour are much harder to come by that will help win championships.

That’s where the Australians come in.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Australian players are different to Americans. Unlike their flashy US counterparts, Australians don’t seek superstardom, they just stick their heads down and get on with the job.

This may be why Australians seem to excel in the supporting role positions that young, cocky up-and-comers in the US basketball scene reject.

The essence of Australian sport: pride, mateship and hard work, seem to have had a bigger impression on the NBA court than ever before.

St. Mary’s college basketball coach Randy Bennett knows this all too well, having recruited 15 Australian players into his side throughout his career, including the likes of Mills and Dellavedova.

His reason: because they are the ultimate team players.

Bennett has found that Australian players often care more about the team than their own personal success, to the point where individual awards make them uncomfortable.

“They weren’t good with that,” he told the Journal.

“It was awkward for them to talk that way.”

Australians are attracting increasing attention from college coaches, largely due to the fact that their attitude makes them easier to coach than some US products.

Not only that, coaches also love the energetic Southern Hemisphere larrikins for their contribution to team culture off the court.

Andrew Bogut said the relaxed Australian stereotype bodes well off the court, but when it is game time they mean business.

“We’re very laidback in Australia, but when it’s time for work and time to get after it, I think people don’t mind putting their hard hat on.”

Spurs forward Patty Mills showed just how hard the Aussies work on the court in last year’s final two championship games, where despite coming off the bench, Mills outscored both Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Not only was he big for the Spurs on the scoreboard, prior to the finals Mills was best known in the NBA for the racking up the highest distance covered across the full 48 minutes, meaning he was physically working harder than any other player.

As Golden State and Cleveland launch into the NBA Finals series, it will be interesting to see how the rival Aussies match up.

One thing is for certain: they will leave it all on the court.