Fair Go, Sport by Peter FitzSimons

Author:Peter FitzSimons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2018-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

The ‘egoless’ Australians

The following is brought to you straight from The Wall Street Journal, as the opening paragraphs of a feature piece in June 2015.

‘The safest way to win an NBA championship is to land one of the league’s few unstoppable players. This is the superstar theory of basketball, and the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers are proof that it’s as powerful as ever. They’re in the NBA Finals this week because they happen to be the teams with Stephen Curry and LeBron James.

‘But even superstars require the right surrounding parts, and both the Warriors and Cavaliers have one player who isn’t an obvious reason for their run to the Finals—except to the few people who know why they are important.

‘They are the Australians. And every team in the NBA could use one.

‘It seems like a strange coincidence that Golden State center Andrew Bogut and Cleveland guard Matthew Dellavedova are Australians playing the same supporting roles in this year’s Finals that San Antonio Spurs forward Patty Mills mastered last season and Luc Longley pioneered on the championship Chicago Bulls teams of the 1990s.

‘But what if it isn’t?

‘The few Americans who actually know Australian basketball say they’re not at all surprised that Dellavedova and Bogut have emerged as indispensable pieces in the play-offs. Australian players, they say, tend to be the opposites of most American players. They don’t seek superstardom. They actively avoid attention. They excel in the egoless roles that most players reject.’

And there you go. If you were wondering why Greg Norman never took up basketball, I think you have your answer.

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