Basketball On The Internet.

WHAT a bunch of pathetic wimps - players and apologist TV callers alike - not to mention a lily-livered media too frightened to tell the straightforward truth for fear of missing out on "the story".

That is the upshot for me today of Cleveland beating Atlanta 114-111 in overtime to take a 3-0 lead in their NBA Eastern Conference Final.

Where we should be talking about LeBron James' exhausting super-human 37-point, 18-rebound, 13-assist performance, injured, battered, "done", and playing every position from point guard to centre, instead it's become "Defend Delly Day".

Apparently, an unathletic white kid from country Victoria who just goes out every night and plays balls out, hustles the tail off everyone and is an inspiration for anyone who values the rewards for pure hard work, is now some alleged "thug" who injures opposition players.

Say what?

Commentator Reggie Miller - I loved him as a player but today he was so far wrong there was no saving him from his own misrepresentation of what he had just seen - put the conjecture out there that Delly is a dirty player.

Matthew Dellavedova.

This is Matthew Dellavedova we're talking about.

Atlanta's Al Horford falls over, grabs him along the way, then throws a Triple-H WWE-style elbow at him on the way down, only to get ejected.

And this is Delly's fault?

Delly even gets a tech foul for ... what, exactly? He appeared to step back from Horford after it happened to be saying something along the lines of: "What the hell are you doing man?"

But in "The World According to the USA", this is all Dellavedova's fault and he is actually some kind of Aussie rugby playing foreigner out to hurt their pristine superstars.

The reams of drivel already being written, posted, debated is beyond even the Americans' usual penchant for over-reaction and drama.

"Hey, let's nuke those effing Aussies man. They can't dive for loose balls in our country!"

Because, yes, that's what he is doing.

Is it reckless? It can be, usually for him. But he is an Aussie and if that ball is loose, he's going to come up with it or give it everything trying.

So now this translates to him being a villain?

Yes, they hate him in Chicago because his "incident" with Taj Gibson got the Bulls forward tossed out.

Well let's think back. Gibson nails him with a head-high pick at the elbow/side of the key, a shot goes up, Delly boxes him out, Gibson stumbles, shoves Delly to the court and Delly, prostrate on the floor - where you can't really protect yourself much face down - instinctively wraps his legs around Gibson's.

Ah yes. You recall this? The infamous "Leg-lock-gate".

Gibson reacts by trying to free his legs and kicking out, which looks like a kick AT Delly (I never thought it was) and the refs eject him.

Delly is the villain of the piece!

So now in the Atlanta series, he dives for a loose ball and if Hawks forward Kyle Korver does the same, no injury occurs. But Korver is too good to dive on a loose ball - that's for little guys on small salaries who want to bust their ass on every play - and is injured as a result.

Which brings us to the post-match press conference and a dimwit Hawk called Kent Bazemore saying: "From my point of view, Dellavedova was down at Al's knee and that was a retaliation I think."

Well you think wrong, but wrong-thinking can be an American way of life, which is why Latrell Sprewell gets away with trying to choke his coach, back in the day.

"You look at his track record and his history, there's a lot of things that could be said but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, we lost Al and we still had a game to play," Bazemore continued.

Yeah? So what is this alleged "track record" of which you speak Kent?

Was it in his junior days Down Under? Was it in his international play for Australia? Was it his stellar four years at St Mary's College where he was a 2012–13 Academic All-America selection, a 2012–13 Senior CLASS Award finalist and where he is the school's all-time leader in scoring, assists, games played, free throw percentage and three-point shots?

St Mary's retired his jersey last year. You don't usually do that for people with a "track record".

So his "history" then is the Gibson incident - which was about self-preservation - or Korver NOT being prepared to dive on a ball, and Horford suffering a rare brain fade and being a knucklehead?

Nice.

"Guys look out for each other here and I don't think it was malicious but he's got to learn," Horford said of Delly.

Learn what?

That diving on a loose ball is a mystery to a league so stacked with precious princess millionaires they fear for their safety against such a hoon?

Come off it.

The REAL story today was LeBron - "He just wouldn't let us lose," said Cavs coach David Blatt - and Cleveland going 3-0 up without Kyrie Irving once again.

"We're not trying to get people hurt," James said of the Dellavedova hoo-hah. 

"But you play to win the game and you play aggressively. This guy, he works his tail off every single day. He beats the odds and he comes to play as hard as he can every single night.

"If they're focusing on Delly, they're focusing on the wrong thing."

The King has spoken and for once we all should agree: All hail the King.

That's not to say this will go away.

It won't.

It will be hashed and rehashed, the other "incidents" shown again and again until something new catches the short-attention-span media - serious and social - and Delly can return to focusing on playing, not defending his actions.

Golden State, with Andrew Bogut, is up tomorrow against Houston, the Warriors needing one more win to advance to the Final.

So do the Cavaliers.

We now are just two wins away from a guaranteed NBA champion from Australia.

Again.

And Bogey can tell the Cleveland media that Delly is a great guy, and an inspiration.

Not that they want to hear that.

TOMORROW: Tracy York new coach of WNBL's Adelaide Lightning