The Cavs unlikely hero, Matthew Dellavedova
Imagine if we could turn back the clock a month and pose this question: On May 14th the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to eliminate Chicago in game 6 on the road…who will be the Cavs leading scorer?
I’m certain the top 3 guesses would be LeBron, Kyrie or Kevin Love. Digging deeper, you might have gone with JR Smith, Iman Shumpert or Timofey Mozgov. Who among us, given all those choices, would have guessed Matthew Dellavedova?
It’s not that he can’t play. Dellavedova has been a solid contributor for much of the year. He’s got good size for a point guard, at 6’4″, and was a really good player in college. He certainly belongs on an NBA court. It’s just that we wouldn’t have imagined him being the top scorer in the final game of a Conference Semifinal series. He was quite an unlikely hero.
Our world is full of unlikely heroes, or at least unlikely potential heroes. We never know when someone who’s in the background will get a chance to shine in the spotlight. As Coaches, we tell our players, especially the backups and role players, that they must be ready to go. They are one play away from having to be “the guy” or “the girl” who finds the game in their hands.
The Bible is full of unlikely heroes as well. Gideon, Samuel, Esther, Ruth, David, Peter, and Paul are among those who were used by God to change the world. Each of these people, for a variety of reasons, would have found themselves nowhere near the top of the list of those most likely to be a hero of the faith.
There’s a story in John chapter 4 about another unlikely hero. Basically it goes like this: Jesus and the 12 disciples were traveling back to his homeland of Galilee, and stopped for a rest in the Samaritan town of Sychar. At a well, Jesus encounters a woman who, culturally speaking, there’s no way he is supposed to talk with. She’s a Samaritan. She’s a woman. She’s out by herself in the middle of the day, which indicates she is some sort of social outcast. Of course, Jesus does engage her in conversation, and we learn that it’s worse that we thought for this woman. She’s had 5 husbands, and is currently with some guy who she’s not married to. That’s pretty extreme by just about any standard.
But Jesus, although he doesn’t sugarcoat his take on her story, isn’t hung up on all her baggage. He treats her like she has value, and by the end of the story, the entire town of Sychar has been transformed. In verses 39 and 41 we read that many came to faith, and later many more came around when they got to spend a couple days with Jesus. God used this “worthless” woman to change the history of that city.
I’ll let you decide what your takeaway is here, but maybe thinking about this idea of unlikely heroes and the value of all will cause you to think differently about those kids on the end of your bench. Maybe you’ll be a little more patient with that skinny freshman who you just know will never be a contributor in your program. Whatever it is for you, remember that sometimes heroes emerge from the most unlikely places.