Matthew Dellavedova, the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ gritty backup point guard, is leaving Nike and signing a three-year contract with Chinese shoe and apparel company PEAK, per NiceKicks Nick DePaula.
His signature model, the “Delly 1,” will launch on July 1 in Australia.
Dellavedova said that “PEAK Australia approached me nearly two years ago with the idea of introducing a basketball shoe into the Australian Market.” He elaborated, saying, “from there, talks became more ad more serious in the past year, and PEAK worked hard on developing a shoe that offers the type of reliability and performance that drives me every day.”
Greg Bickley, PEAK Australia’s managing director, couldn’t help but rave about Dellavedova. “Matthew offers the type of characteristics that we want people to associate with our brand,” he said. “He is already such a fantastic role model to the basketball community in Australia, and it’s our hope that through this global partnership with PEAK, Matthew will become a household name throughout the 70-plus countries that PEAK are located in.”
After going undrafted out of Saint Mary’s College in 2013, Delly made a name for himself during last year’s NBA Finals when he needed to step in for an injured Kyrie Irving. From there, he was dubbed the “Curry stopper,” had to be sent to the hospital to receive fluids after playing way too many minutes, and emerged as a very reliable backup to Irving this year.
Usually, superstars are the ones who are gifted the signature models: LeBron James, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, just to name a few. Dellavedova is a hard-nosed defender who does all the little things that help teams win games. And it’s great to see him be recognized for it.
