After a long NBL season, Matthew Dellavedova was planning a family holiday. A phone call from Mike Brown changed everything, writes TOM READ.
Matthew Dellavedova had it all planned out. After a long NBL campaign and a few games for the Boomers, the veteran Australian guard had arranged to get the family together, escape the city and spend some quality time on the shores of Lake Tahoe.
Tahoe is a beautiful place in July. The snow capped mountains are melting and the smell of barbecue is in the air from the Nevada casinos to the south to Kings Beach in the north.
Dellavedova was ready to kick back.
Then Mike Brown called.
After a successful six-season stint under Steve Kerr at the Golden State Warriors, which included three NBA Championships, Brown had just accepted the head coaching position with the Sacramento Kings.
“I think it was on Wednesday and he said, ‘Hey, do you want to come out to Vegas and play with the guys? Just see how it goes?’” Dellavedova recalls. “There wasn’t a promise of anything more than that.”
Dellavedova was intrigued. Instead of driving to Tahoe, he flew to nearby Las Vegas. It wasn’t the first time in his life that a phone call from Coach Brown had changed Dellavedova’s plans and, ultimately, his career trajectory.
The veteran coach has been a constant influence throughout Dellavedova’s career.
Brown first came across the 6-foot-4 guard during his storied college career at Saint Mary’s. Brown’s son, Elijah, was being courted by the Gaels and Dellavedova, the team’s captain and all-time scoring leader, was a key part of that recruitment drive.
Elijah Brown would wind up choosing Butler over Saint Mary’s, but the time spent weighing up his options would prove pivotal for Dellavedova’s career. Because it was then that Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett asked Coach Brown, then with the Los Angeles Lakers, for a small favour heading into Dellavedova’s senior season.
“Coach Bennett talked to Coach Brown and reached out to Steve Nash, who was my favourite player,” Dellavedova explains. “In my senior year the Lakers were playing a pre-season game in Fresno and I drove down there and Nash met with me after their shootaround.
“I spoke with him for 20 to 30 minutes and was just peppering questions at him. He was awesome. I was recording, taking notes. That was a really cool experience that Coach Brown helped organise.”
With a relationship established, Brown and Dellavedova remained in touch. Nine months after the Nash meeting, in July 2013, Brown contacted Dellavedova at crucial junctures in both men’s careers.
Brown only lasted five regular season games at the Lakers before he was fired, but soon found himself back at his old stomping ground, Cleveland, as a replacement for Byron Scott and tasked with rebuilding the franchise in the post-LeBron James era. This coincided with Dellavedova finishing his senior year with the Gaels, missing out in the NBA draft and on the lookout for a professional team.
Brown offered the Australian guard a roster spot on the Cavs’ Summer League team. Dellavedova exceeded expectations, showcasing his ability to play team basketball and developing chemistry with the Cavs star sophomore guard Dion Waiters. The Vegas trip resulted in a non-guaranteed roster spot and training camp invite.
Again, Dellavedova impressed.
Brown offered him the 15th and final roster spot for the 2013/14 season.
“He’s obviously been huge for my career,” Dellavedova says. “He’s a really detailed teacher of the game, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and I think having him my rookie season with how detailed it was in shootarounds, practices, watching game tape really set me up and gave me a great base of knowledge to build off on the defensive side of the ball.
“Defending in the NBA is different than in college and internationally with the offensive three seconds rule. I felt like I had a really good understanding of that because of him and how much time and effort he puts into teaching that.”
Brown’s time in Cleveland was short. He was relieved of his duties at the end of the 2013/14 season to make way for European supercoach David Blatt. But while their careers took them in different directions, Dellavedova and Brown remained in contact.
Eight years later, their paths would converge again.
“He‘s always kind of looked out for me and we’ve kept in touch over the years. So when he got the [Sacramento] job and got me out to Vegas and we talked more about what it could potentially look like here,” Dellavedova said. “I definitely wanted to come in and give it another shot and bet on myself again to make the team.
“I really enjoyed playing with the boys in Vegas, I played pretty well and my body was feeling really good coming off that Boomers series against China and Japan. So, I did that and talks went on from there.”
Few Australian NBA careers have been as celebrated as Dellavedova’s.
The undrafted kid from Maryborough who fought his way into the NBA through Summer League. The tenacious guard who went toe-to-toe with Steph Curry in two straight NBA Finals Series. The selfless team man who played himself into a hospital bed due to severe cramping after leading the Cavs’ to a Game 3 victory in 2015 and helped them to their first ever NBA Championship in 2016.
The final season of Dellavedova’s second stint in Cleveland saw him suit up for just 13 games. He contended with a myriad of injury issues including a neck ailment and whiplash from an incident in the pre-season that also left him with lingering concussion symptoms and an emergency appendectomy. So when Dellavedova signed with Melbourne United after winning bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, most believed the curtain had been drawn on his nine-year NBA career.
The average length of an NBA career is four and a half seasons and, once you’re on the outside looking in, it’s almost impossible to return given the intense competition for roster spots and the influx of new talent every year.
Dellavedova, though, had other ideas.
“It’s stressful but I feel like my whole career I’ve always bet on myself,” he says. “It’s luckily worked out most of the time … and my game and body has been feeling the best it has in a really long time.
“I had a great situation in Melbourne, I loved my season there with Dean [Vickerman] and the boys and it’s just a great environment to play in and obviously close to my sisters and parents. So, giving up that situation was really hard for an unknown. You’ve got to make it happen if you’re going to do it.”
Dellavedova’s three-year Melbourne United deal included clauses allowing for flexibility so that the 32-year-old could pursue NBA deals during free agency.
Melbourne United in its own regard has become a legitimate NBA factory. In the last two seasons alone, the club has seen three local players in Jock Landale, Jack White and Dellavedova sign NBA contracts after standout seasons.
“It’s just a great culture and fun to be a part of,” he says. “That’s why it was really tough to go from this, knowing I’ve left an awesome situation that was one of my most fun years playing basketball with people I’ve played with in the Boomers for a long time in [Chris] Goulding, [David] Barlow and [Brad] Newley then getting to know everyone else. And obviously battling Shea Ili every day at practice made me a lot better as well because he’s one of the best defenders I’ve gone up against.”
Dellavedova continues: “After those few days in Vegas I took some time to weigh it up and make a decision. I’ve always got to give it a go and if I came up short, I’d [know I] gave it my all.
“I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing I’ve passed up a potential opportunity to get back over here and play with and against some of the best players in the world. So I was in here late July for two months before training camp, working out with the coaches and getting to know some of the younger boys.”
Arriving in Sacramento early and training with teammates and coaching staff gave him an edge in his battle for the Kings’ final roster spot with fellow veteran guards Quinn Cook and Kent Bazemore.
“I knew the system and knew that by the time training camp came around I was ready to go,” Dellavedova says. “I had a really good training camp, playing really well and leading the third unit to some wins.”
At 32, and with more years behind him in the NBA than ahead of him, Dellavedova knows his role is different to previous jobs he has held. Minutes have been hard to come by. Indeed, he had only seen 34 seconds of court time through the first five games.
Ahead of him on the point guard depth chart are two of the most exciting young guards in the NBA. De’Aaron Fox is a 24-year-old, sixth-year guard from Kentucky who is hoping to lead the Kings to their first playoff trip since 2006. And there’s also rookie Davion Mitchell.
“If Davion ain’t going hard, he will get embarrassed by Delly,” Brown recently told The Sacramento Bee. “If Fox isn’t going hard, he will get embarrassed by Delly. To have a guy like that raises the level of intensity.”
Dellavedova is acutely aware of the team-first role Brown has tasked him with.
“My job is to help Fox and Mitchell any way I can both on and off the floor,” Dellavedova explains. “Just help them to continue to grow and develop their games and their leadership skills because obviously they’re both incredible players already.
“I am basically here to do whatever it takes to help us get back in the playoffs. There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs across the season so just having a steady and consistent voice. And then being ready when my name and number is called because it’s a long season and at some point everyone’s going to get their chance to play.
The Kings have started the season slowly at 1-4; their first victory coming on Saturday in a 119-113 win at home against the Miami Heat. That win was built on the Kings’ defence, an aspect of the game that Dellavedova believes is the key to returning to the playoffs.
“We have to defend consistently, I know that side of the ball is what Coach Brown focuses on,” Dellavedova says. “We’ve got a lot of versatile defenders who can guard multiple positions. But as soon as we get stops, we’re rebounding, really pushing the ball and sharing it.”
“That’s something we did really well in the pre-season and I think when everyone’s feeling good and the ball’s moving, it helps offensively because everyone’s getting their looks and defensively you know where the help’s coming from because everyone’s getting back in transition.”
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