Matthew Dellavedova

Matthew Dellavedova joined the AIS in 2007 where he spent three years, making his Boomers debut along the way. Afterwards he moved to St Mary’s College in the USA, the same college Patty Mills had been to.

With Delly playing for Australia at the Oceania Championships in 2011, he helped the team reclaim the title and was selected to play for Australia in Olympic test events.

Delly made his Olympic debut at the London 2012 Games. The Boomers' two opening preliminary matches saw Australia lose to Brazil and Spain, but they went on to defeat China, hosts Great Britain and Russia to set up a quarter-final match against the USA. The Aussies went down 119-86 to the eventual gold medallists to finish seventh.

After not being selected in the 2013 NBA draft he soon signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he would play three seasons. With LeBron James as his teammate, Delly became an integral player for the Cavs off the bench in their deep playoff runs.

In the 2015 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, Delly had the tough assignment of guarding Steph Curry for long stretches. Pundits lauded Delly's defensive energy and impact. In Cleveland's 96-91 game three win over the Warriors Delly scored 20 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists to go with his tough defence. After the game he was admitted to hospital on an IV drip from experiencing severe cramping. Fortunately it wouldn't force Delly to miss games in the best-of-seven series and the Warriors won the title in six games.

He had another opportunity at holding the NBA Championship in 2016 with the Cavaliers, in a rematch of the 2015 Finals. Widely regarded as a historically elite finals series, Delly became the sixth Australian to win an NBA Championship with the Cavs winning the series 4-3.

The Victorian returned to Olympic competition at the Rio 2016 Games where Australia would go on to just miss out on a historic first Olympic men’s basketball medal. In the bronze medal match, Australia missed a medal by the barest of margins as the Spain scored two free throws with just over 5 seconds remaining to take the final position on the Rio podium. Delly’s 56 assists at the tournament was the most by any player, while he also averaged 8.9 points in just over 22 minutes per game.

Following the Rio Games Delly returned to the USA and signed with the Milwaukee Bucks. In the 2016-17 NBA season he started 54 games while averaging 7.6 points and 4.7 assists per game.

In 2018 he was traded back to Cleveland Cavaliers and was met with a standing ovation at his first game back in front of the Cleveland crowd in a Cavs uniform.

Delly stayed with the Cavaliers until the end of the 2020-21 season and then represented Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

In Japan the Boomers won the bronze medal, defeating Slovenia in the bronze medal match 107-93, making it our nation's first men's basketball Olympic medal since Australia made its men's basketball Olympic debut in 1956.

Delly played in all six games off the bench for the Boomers and averaged 14.2 minutes per game.

In 2021, Delly signed a three-year deal with Melbourne United in the NBL, but returned for one final stint in the NBA with the Sacramento Kings in the 2022-23 season. However, he saw minimal playing time after shattering his right index finger in a match against the Portland Trail Blazers. Delly played a total of 443 games in the NBA, averaging 5.1 points, 3.5 assists and 1.7 rebounds.

In the 2023-24 NBL season, he was back with Melbourne, averaging 11.8 points, 6.0 assists and 3.3 rebounds as United made it to the grand final series, going down to the Tasmania JackJumpers 3-2.

Delly was cut from the Boomers squad ahead of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, where they secured a berth at the Paris Olympics, as coach Brian Goorjian elected to bring along the next generation.

But Delly did enough in the NBL and as part of the Boomers’ extended Paris Olympics squad to get a boarding pass to France. Goorjian saw the veteran as someone who can add grit to his team.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics the Boomers started on a strong note, defeating Spain 92-80 in what was regarded as the toughest group in the tournament.

Losses followed against Canada (93-83) and Greece (77-71) to close the group stage, setting up a quarter-finals clash against Serbia.

The Boomers pushed the Serbians into overtime on a Patty Mills made fadeaway jump shot over the outstretched hand of Nikola Jokic, that came with two seconds left in regulation time. Serbia took control of overtime (95-90), knocking Australia out of the tournament. Delly played in three games, averaging 9.1 minutes off the bench.