Dante Exum comes of age in NBA to boost Boomers ahead of Paris Olympics | Jack Snape

It’s taken him a decade, but Dante Exum has finally made it in the NBA, and it comes at the perfect time for Australia’s Boomers.

The impressive perimeter defense helped with this. This includes the smooth playmaking as an anchor for the bench of the fast-rising Dallas Mavericks. Hitting 50% from the three-point line certainly doesn’t hurt.

But the moment that cemented the 28-year-old’s status among the best basketball players in the world was Sunday’s game against the Houston Rockets.

Exum had the game in hand with just two seconds left. The Mavs trailed by three against their rivals from Texas. With the clock running, the backup guard wearing the number zero was found on a pass from Dallas’ best player, Luka Dončić, under pressure from the swarming Rockets defenders.

From the right side of the court, just outside the three-point line, the Australian looked up and quickly let go. The clock faded to one and then to zero. The buzzer sounded and the net rippled. Exum had arrived – via Melbourne, Utah, Cleveland, Spain and Serbia.

After the 147-136 overtime win, Kyrie Irving gathered the players and owner Mark Cuban in the center of the court to celebrate the victory, but especially their long-suffering Australian whose luck seems to have finally turned.

Honking and hollering, and slapping Exum on the back, the players and the entire Mavs organization showed their confidence in the soft-spoken Australian. Coach Jason Kidd said confidence was the key to the win. Irving said Exum had his confidence: “The fundamentals that Dante exuded when he had to make the shot – balance, shot-ready – were ready for the moment.”

Exum was sent to the podium by the Mavs PR representative for the post-game press conference, usually reserved for the best story of the night. He said the support from Irving and Dončić is “great.”

“I just miss one shot and they come to you like, ‘shoot the next one, shoot the next one,’” he said. “In those big moments when you know you have to knock it down, it just reminds you of the times they had your back.”

Exum has had to earn the trust of his Mavericks teammates as an unproven outsider in the hyper-competitive world of the NBA. But for the national team, he has long been a valued contributor.

Debuting at age 18, he has proven to be a complementary piece during the Boomers’ rose gold era. He played 20 minutes as Australia defeated Dončić’s Slovenia in the bronze play-offs in Tokyo, averaging nine points over the tournament. His minutes and production were similar at the 2023 World Cup, where he was stuck in the rotation behind Patty Mills and Josh Giddey.

Mills has struggled in court this NBA season, and Giddey has had his ups and downs. Exum’s career-best form, especially his shooting and defending, means he will play a crucial role in another medal contender in Paris in the coming months. But it’s been a slow grind.

Exum, the son of NBL star Cecil Exum, was one of the most intriguing prospects in the 2014 draft. Back then, he was a lanky, athletic, if unproven playmaker with the size to defend most wings. He was touted as the best international player in the draft and was taken fifth by the Utah Jazz.

The 18-year-old was one of the youngest players selected and slowly found his way into the league in his first season, when he played all 82 games. But he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing for the Boomers in the offseason, sending his career into a lurch that would test his resolve. A separated shoulder just before his fourth NBA season wiped out any momentum he had with the Jazz, and his seemingly eternal place on the injury report prompted one Reddit user to ask: “Is Dante Exum the most injured player in the history of the NBA?”

“I think everyone, once you come in, has high expectations,” Exum told CBS Sports last month. “I played 82 (games) in my first season, and then didn’t play a single game in the second season. So it’s definitely difficult to roll back expectations.”

Exum bounced around Cleveland and was waived by Houston days before the start of the 2021 season, with some suggesting a return to the NBL – where he is co-owner of South East Melbourne Phoenix – would be best for him.

He finally put together a flawless run without major injuries during stints in Spain and Serbia, signing for a cash-strapped Mavs team last year that was desperate for depth behind salary-cap tight ends Dončić and Irving. His contract, worth less than $10 million over two years, is the cheapest among regular performers for the Mavs.

Still, Exum has now become an essential player as the franchise climbs toward a likely showdown with the LA Clippers in the first round of the playoffs later this month. In December, filling in for Irving, Exum averaged 15 points and more than four assists in 31 minutes per game, often being asked to defend with the ball, then create and score on the other end.

A good shooter averages 40% on three-pointers in the NBA. That makes Exum’s 50% percentage this season – from more than 100 shots – extraordinary. No one else is so accurate and with so much volume. In close matches he is even better: he scores eight out of twelve attempts. It shows what role he could play for the Boomers at the Paris Games, which start in July.

While some may view his career as an accident, Exum recently said he is grateful for the experience he has gained along the way. And it will probably prepare him better for Paris. Even after creating an almighty roar at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Sunday, he told American reporters he had played louder.

“No messing with the Dallas fans or anything, it was great out there,” he said. “But in Europe it’s just a different animal.”