Matthew Dellavedova is feeling the love after returning to Cleveland and Cavaliers forward Kevin Love believes Delly has already cemented his place in Cleveland history.
“He’s a folk hero,” Kevin Love told Chris Fedor of cleveland.com. “Bron will have a statue outside and Delly will have a little, smaller one.”
First off, LeBron James is definitely getting a statue in Cleveland. He put the Cavaliers on his back to bring the city its long-awaited championship in 2016. Dellavedova was a contributor on that 2016 team, but there’s no way he’s getting a statue in Cleveland.
Regardless, it just feels right to have Dellavedova back in Cleveland. Delly was the scrappy backup point guard that Cleveland turned to for a few minutes of defensive energy. Dellavedova was like a bulldog on the defensive end and he quickly became a fan favorite in Cleveland.
He played a huge role in the NBA Finals in 2015 when Kyrie Irving’s season ended prematurely with a fractured knee cap. Dellavedova couldn’t help the Cavs top the Warriors.
But the Australian point guard was on the team for their historic championship where they came back from down three games to one to topple the Warriors in 2016. Dellavedova didn’t play big minutes in that series as the Cavs relied heavily on Kyrie Irving. But Delly’s contributions will always be appreciated by the city of Cleveland.
Perhaps a statue — even a mini-statue — is a stretch, but I believe Love is just trying to convey the love Cleveland has for Delly.