Matthew Dellavedova was sitting in the Cleveland Cavaliers' locker room with a smile on his face.
It seemed a little odd because there didn't appear to be much for the man known as Delly, his coach David Blatt, LeBron James and the rest of the Cavaliers to be happy about.
The date was January 15 and the Cavaliers were in Los Angeles to play the Lakers.
The Cavaliers were a train wreck, losing nine of their previous 10 games, and Blatt was expected to be fired at any moment.
James had just taken an eight-game break from the team to get his knees and mind in order, troubled guard Dion Waiters was traded and the team was attempting to integrate new recruits, New York Knicks shooting guards JR Smith and Iman Shumpert and the Denver Nuggets' Russian centre Timofey Mozgov.
The Cavaliers were also openly looking for a back-up point guard to replace Dellavedova.
To the outsider, it looked bad, but to Delly he was OK.
"I'm pretty sure nobody in the locker room listens too much to what's going on outside," the 24-year-old, 193cm tall point guard from the small Victorian goldfields city of Maryborough, told AAP at the time.
He spoke about how the team was looking forward to getting into a rhythm and winning games in the second half of the NBA season.
Delly was right.
The naysayers were wrong.
The Cavaliers defeated the Lakers later that night, went on a 12-game winning streak and for the remainder of the regular season won 34 while losing just nine.
Next Thursday in Oakland, California, they will play game one of the best-of-seven game NBA Finals against the the league's best team, the Golden State Warriors, who feature another Australian, 213cm centre Andrew Bogut.
The Cavaliers, dinged up after playoff series victories against the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks, had a light workout on Friday.
The Cavaliers' other Australian-born guard, Kyrie Irving, said he is in good shape after sitting out some of the Hawks' series with knee tendonitis and other injuries.
That'll mean less playing time for Dellavedova, but that won't disappoint the Cavs' ultimate team player.
The Warriors have their own injury concerns with guard Klay Thompson diagnosed with concussion after being kneed in the head in Wednesday's night's Western Conference Finals' win against the Houston Rockets.
He won't practice until symptom-free.
The Warriors are the favourites, but the Cavaliers like their chances.
Back on that dark day on January 15 in the Lakers' stadium Blatt, asked about the sacking rumours and media attention focused on the team, responded with a question for the reporters.
"What do you prefer?" Blatt asked.
"The spotlight being on you and expectations be great or nobody give a good doggone about you because you're not worth anything?"
The Cavaliers are about to step into basketball's brightest spotlight.
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