Matthew Dellavedova says Boomers can win an Olympic medal in Rio

AUSTRALIAN basketball star Matthew Dellavedova says the time is right for the Boomers to create history in Rio and win a first Olympic medal.

Boomers training at MSAC. Matthew Dellavedova . Pic: Michael Klein

AUSTRALIAN basketball star Matthew Dellavedova says the time is right for the Boomers to create history in Rio and win a first Olympic medal.

The gritty Cleveland guard who sparked “Delly-mania’’ in last year’s NBA playoffs has his eye on some other precious hardware as he hopes to capture a title alongside Cavs teammate and superstar LeBron James.

While James and the rest of the NBA’s best gathered in Toronto for the All-Star weekend last month, the seven Australians playing in the world’s best competition met in San Diego.

Dellavedova, Patty Mills, Andrew Bogut, Dante Exum, Joe Ingles and Queenslanders Cam Bairstow and Aron Baynes will form the core of Australia’s tilt for a medal in Rio.

Their few days of relaxation together in the California sunshine reinforced the camaraderie they hope will carry them through to the business end of the Olympics.

“A lot of us have grown up playing together in junior Australian teams or at the AIS and most of us have been in the Boomers program for a while now so we are really good friends. There’s a strong bond there,’’ Dellavedova said.

“We had a great time hanging out together in San Diego and we might make it an annual thing.

“As a little kid I always dreamt of going to an Olympics and I was lucky enough to go to London. I can’t wait for Rio. All of the guys are really excited about Rio.

Andrew Bogut will be one of the Boomers stars in Rio.

“We’ve got a really strong squad with a lot of experience from playing in the best leagues around the world.

“We feel like the time is right to do something special.’’

Dellavedova, who has become an ambassador for iconic US sports goods brand Spalding, is unsure whether college star Ben Simmons will be suiting up in the green and gold.

“He’ll have a pretty busy off-season if he decides to declare himself for the draft with all the workouts, the draft itself and the summer league,’’ he said.

“I saw Ben earlier in the year and I asked him about the Olympics and he didn’t really know what he was going to do at that stage. It would be nice to have him though, he can really play.’’

The first order of business for the 25-year-old is going one better with the Cavs this season after Cleveland fell to the Golden State Warriors in last year’s NBA finals despite his best eye-catching efforts early in the series.

The NBA title appears a race in three with the Warriors, Cavs and San Antonio the standout teams but Dellavedova says it is not that clear-cut to him.

“The only constant in the NBA is change. Those teams will probably finish at the top of the standings after the regular season but there’s 20-odd games to go. Teams can get hot or fall away in that time,’’ he said.

“Anything can happen in the playoffs too. It will be exciting to see how we go in the East. It’s not going to be easy.

“We feel like we’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure we are peaking at the right time.’’

Dellavedova said he was “oblivious’’ to the hype, headlines and, in some cases, hate he attracted during last year’s playoffs when he upset rival sides by diving aggressively on loose balls.

“I was so focused on the job I had to do that I really didn’t take any notice of what was being said about me,’’ he said.

“In Australia, you are taught one way to play and that’s go in hard and get the loose ball. The first one on the floor and the person that goes in hardest wins the ball and doesn’t get hurt.’’

Dellavedova was amused when told about an online poll in the US that rated himself, Bogut and New Zealander Steven Adams as the three dirtiest players in the NBA.

Patty Mills is another Australian NBA star set for Rio.

“Those people might be shocked if they saw a Boomers v Tall Blacks match then. It’s not a place for the faint-hearted,’’ he laughed.

He knows James has his back.

The biggest name in the game publicly supported Dellavedova when he came under fire during the play-off series against Atlanta last year.

“This is my guy, this is my teammate and this is a guy that goes out and works his tail off every single night and people are trying to give him a bad rap,’’ James said. “He doesn’t deserve it and I don’t like it.’’

Dellavedova said it was at the Cavs’ Christmas Party at the end of last year that James also showed why he is such a good teammate.

“LeBron walked up to my mum and dad and started chatting away. He was asking mum a lot of questions and was really interested in what she had to say,’’ he said.

“It was really nice of him to make that effort to make them feel welcome but anyone who knows him, knows what a genuine person he is.’’

Originally published as Matthew Dellavedova says Boomers can win an Olympic medal in Rio