Like teammates Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and Kevin Love, Matthew Dellavedova has been busy this summer playing with his national team. And yesterday, Dellavedova and his Australian teammates qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Playing in Oceania qualifying games, the Aussies took on New Zealand and won by a final score of 89-79. Dellavedova scored 14 points in the win and Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut scored 10 points and 11 rebounds in the win. San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills added nine and Chicago Bulls forward Cameron Bairstow had 10.
The Australians qualified for the Olympics by beating New Zealand in a two-game aggregate series. The Warriors won the first game 71-59 and won the series by a total of 22 points. In the first game, Dellavedova scored 15 points and was key in settling down a Australian side that was struggling find a rhythm in the first half of the first game. Dellavedova also remained insanely calm when the New Zealand went through their pre-game Haka routine.
l'impressionnant Haka des Tall Blacks face à l... by Sport-Buzz
The Boomers are the third team to qualify for the 2016 Olympics after the United States - who qualified last August after winning the 2014 FIBA World Cup - and Brazil, who automatically qualify as the host nation. Assuming Dellavedova is on the roster, the 2016 Olympics will be Dellavedova's second Olympic games, as he was on the 2012 team in London.
At the 2012 Olympics in London, the Australians finished seventh. Their best ever finish is fourth, which they have done twice - first at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and then at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Corrrection: A previous edition of this article indicated that Matthew Dellavedova did not play at the 2012 Olympics in London when he was in fact on the roster. The article has been update to fix that mistake and FtS regrets the error.