CLEVELAND, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Some call it hustle, some call it gritty, but 13 NBA players and coaches are calling it dirty, when it comes to Matthew Dellavedova.
The Cleveland Cavaliers guard was named the NBA's dirties player in a Los Angeles Times poll of coaches and players. A total of 24 people voted in the poll, 13 voted for Dellavedova. Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams finished second with seven votes, while Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut tallied five votes. Memphis Grizzlies forward Matt Barnes and Thunder forward Serge Ibaka also finished in the top five.
"He's as dirty as they come," a Western Conference coach told Broderick Turner, of the Los Angeles Times. "When you're hurting people, that is not OK."
Dellavedova, 25, made noise last season in the playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks. In one eastern conference playoff game, he rolled on top of Atlanta Hawks guard Kyle Korver's ankle. He also plunged into a tie-up with Al Horford in the same game. Dellavedova also was involved in a mixup with Chicago Bulls forward Taj Gibson, which resulted in an ejection for Gibson.
"He was kind of dirty in the playoffs, for sure," an East coach told Turner. "He broke Kyle Korver's leg. He held Taj Gibson with his legs and Al Horford's legs and got them kicked out the games because they retaliated against him."
The Australian-Born, St. Mary's College of California product is averaging 8.3 points, 4.9 assists, and 2.4 rebounds in 27.4 minutes per game this season. He is also averaging 2.4 personal fouls per game.
Last season, Dellavedova averaged four personal fouls per 36 minutes.
"Obviously I'm a little off about it because this is my guy," LeBron James said last May during the Eastern Conference Finals. "This is my teammate that goes out and works his tail off every single night. People are trying to give him a bad rap. He doesn't deserve it and I don't like it."
