After scoring a team-high 19 points in the Cleveland Cavaliers' series-clinching Game 6 win over the Chicago Bulls last Thursday, Matthew Dellavedova seemed a long way from the guy who went undrafted out of St. Mary's in 2013. He seemed like a guy that could hang around the NBA for a while.
At the start of last season, though, Dellavedova was doing whatever he could simply to get noticed and crack a roster. That often meant getting under the skin of now-teammate and fellow point guard Kyrie Irving.
The two have grown close, but there was little love between them during the Cavs' 2013 training camp, when they were matched up against each other every day.
"Yeah, they used to fuck each other up," Cavs power forward Tristan Thompson told ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "They used to go after it every day. There would be times when they’d be ready to fight each other."
Irving, for his part, has similar memories of his run-ins with Dellavedova that summer:
I played him in the summer time and he was going into summer league, I was going into my third year and I was like, 'Who the hell is this kid?' I was like, I've never heard of him. I had heard of him, because of St. Mary’s, but I had never played against him. So, I’m coming in and he just basically, every fast break, he was just fouling the shit out of me. I was like, 'OK, well, maybe I’ll see him in training camp.' So, we went through training camp, every single day we went against each other and damn near almost fought every single day.
With the testiness that defined their early days together now turned to a healthy mutual respect, both credit each other for their respective NBA growth.
"It was never (personal)," Dellavedova said. "We were both just playing hard and wanting to win in practice. It’s been great for my development, having to try to guard Kyrie every day in practice.”
Said Irving: "It was just the pride that he had and the pride that I had. You know, I love a guy when he challenges me and I’m not going to back down and he’s not going to back down from me - which I didn’t expect. So, that’s what really drew us a lot closer. ...
"It’s just, he’s going to go out and play hard, it doesn’t matter who he is playing against. He’s going to go out and give 110 percent and that’s what you want.
"I wouldn’t want a different teammate."
