Dellavedova Round-Up: New T-shirts, Kobe love, Thompson hate, and more

The NBA Finals belong to Matthew Dellavedova.

Undrafted in 2013, the Australian has been the breakout star of the postseason, thrust into a much larger role over the past two games with the injury to Kyrie Irving. LeBron James' new sidekick with a penchant for leaving the arena in fashion – an uber in Game 1, an ambulance in Game 3 – has been capturing the hearts of fans in Kendrick Perkins-sized handfuls.

There's the merchandise flying off the shelves, a basketball stadium being named in his honor, the rebirth of stories from his recent past, like when he accompanied a cancer patient to prom, or how he went from goofball to key piece at St. Mary's, or how the Cavs landed him for a simple $100,000 guarantee.

And, as comes with the territory of new-found celebrity, there are the haters.

Among them is Mychal Thompson, a former NBA player himself and the father of Golden State Warriors wing Klay Thompson. Papa Thompson thinks claims that Dellavedova has shut down Steph Curry are a little far-fetched:

Dellavedova, he couldn't stop Steph if Steph was asleep ... Giving him credit for stopping Steph Curry, people who are doing that don't understand that Steph Curry is one of those kind of guys: Kevin Durant, Kobe when Kobe was in his prime, there's nothing you can do with guys like them.
...
Dellavedova's scrapping and he's hustling, I give him credit for that. And he's trying his little heart out. But no, come on, it's a joke to think he can stop Steph Curry.

The hate-hard approved message isn't completely off-point. Dellavedova has done an admirable job chasing Curry around an endless parade of screens, but the team's defensive concept deserves a great deal of credit, too. Game 4 could – and probably should – see the Warriors isolate Curry on Dellavedova more, something that goes against their overarching philosophy, but would separate the mismatch from the Cavs' effective scheme.

And this isn't to say Dellavedova isn't deserving of love. His performance has been a lot of fun, if sometimes reckless. If nothing else, he's earned a high-profile fan in Kobe Bryant. Bryant served as an analyst on Sina for Game 3 and had the following to say:

Dellavedova, listen he's coming in and playing extremely well. He's playing physical and he's playing hard. I mean, there's a ball there at the end that was rolling around and he dove on the ball. Which tells you how much he wants it. You want to see players playing with that sort of desperation, playing with that passion. Because then you see that this game means everything to them. If it means more to you then it does to the other guy then you have a better chance at winning.

It's yet to be seen if Bryant has put in a request for the latest piece of swag available at Quicken Loans Arena:

He should. Those shirts are awesome.

-with h/t to Eye on Basketball