Dean Vickerman: 'Win with class, lose with class'

• Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman said the Hawks 'won all the big moments'
• Vickerman had nothing but praise for Matthew Dellavedova in handing Will Hickey the MVP trophy
• Vickerman hopes to keep the United core together for NBL26

NBL championship coach Dean Vickerman talked about the pride and love he has for his Melbourne United players after they lost Game 5 of the NBL25 Finals Series to the Illawarra Hawks 114-104 at Illawarra on Sunday, March 23, 2025.

It's the second time in a row they have have lost Game 5.

REPORTER: Obviously a tough one to take. How did you see the game?

DEAN VICKERMAN: Yeah, there’s so many areas that we were better than Game 4. Having Shai [Ili] back in there really drove some pace, and we saw his ability to get to the foul line — 12 times — and as a team, we got there 45 times. Shot the three-ball pretty well. The deciding factor in the series was who won the boards. And they beat us by a significant margin tonight. So, congratulations to the Hawks. Congratulations to JT and his coaching staff. They did a hell of a job all year. And then to deal with injuries and the things they dealt with in the final series. Kell [Trey Kell] was obviously fantastic today, but what an amazing series from Davo Hickey — close to a triple-double today. Amazing. So happy for him.

REPORTER: Just on [Delly] — we saw him giving away the MVP. As a coach, when you see a moment like that, what's your reaction?

DEAN VICKERMAN: Yeah, I spoke to our group then and just said, you win with class and you lose with class. That was one of the classiest things I’ve ever seen in an awards ceremony. Delly had an amazing series himself, but for him to go and do that was exceptional.

REPORTER:
You mentioned the rebound count — was there a moment in this game where you felt like the Hawks got on top?

DEAN VICKERMAN: Yeah, I thought that in the second quarter we probably over-helped a couple times. I think they made four three-balls in that quarter — shots we could have impacted. You look at the game — every other quarter was a tie. It was just that one quarter where they got away. We made our runs — got back to four, got back to six — but they were just good enough to make plays during that period. Kell made a big pull-up. Davo Hickey hung in the air and dropped one off the backboard. So yeah, winning those big moments was them today.

REPORTER: The third quarter — Marcus went off for a little bit. Was it a shoulder or arm? And then Ariel as well, toward the end. How much of an impact do moments like that have when you’re fighting for points?

DEAN VICKERMAN: It’s not ideal. But they were both able to come back and recover from those. Marcus Lee shooting a left-hand free throw — and making it — after shooting the first one, which was kind of wild. Both those guys gave us everything today.

REPORTER: It’s the second year losing a five-game series in the fifth game. Shattering. Is there something to that — this last game, the ability of the boys to get it done?

DEAN VICKERMAN: I’m not sure. I’ll reflect on the series later on. Obviously, I’ll reflect on Game 4 and how I managed that one as a coach. Guys just looked a little fatigued — and how we managed that. But today, I thought we looked fresh. We were up for the fight. We were right in it. If we rebounded a little bit better, we were a great chance.

REPORTER: Is the goal to try and keep the core of that roster together for next year? Where are you at?

DEAN VICKERMAN: Yeah, it’s always the goal to keep great people — and we have them. We’ve got outstanding people in this club. So yeah, we’ll go through the process like we do every year, and do our best to try to keep a strong core together moving forward.

REPORTER: Yeah Dean, I won’t keep you too long — but just going back to what Delly did: it was an incredible gesture, handling that situation the way he did. I'm not sure anyone else could have handled it better. But at the same time, it’s a difficult position to be put in. Would you perhaps like to see the MVP voting system changed moving forward?

DEAN VICKERMAN: I’m not going to comment on that. I’m happy that Delly was acknowledged for his performance in this playoff series. But yeah — equally, probably giving it to someone from the winning team would have made a lot more sense to me in that scenario. But yeah, he handled that situation exceptionally.

REPORTER: What about the courage of Shai — to get up, play this game, and do what he always does? Throwing himself on every loose ball — he had such an impact. Can you talk about that?

DEAN VICKERMAN: Yeah — great job, firstly, by our medical staff. He would’ve liked to play every game, but I thought we made great decisions as a club for his health and how we managed that. We got him to a point where he was confident, and there was no anxiety about stepping on the floor today. As you saw, he just played relentless — absolute no quit. He was going to do everything he could to help us win this game today. I thought it was amazing.

REPORTER: Can you compare at all how it feels this year to last year? Is it a similar sort of pain? Does it hurt more because it's two years in a row?

DEAN VICKERMAN: No. Not at all. I’m really proud of our team. Really proud that we put ourselves in position, after last year, to do it again. Yes, we came up short. But I don’t have the same feeling as last year. We fought and battled as tough as we could. And in big moments, they won them today. Yes, I want to be better. Yes, I want to win a championship. Yes, I wanted CG to not have to stand up there and make that speech — I wanted him to make the speech that we won the championship. But I’m super proud of the group, all year, how they bounced back. And now the next goal is to bounce back again and put ourselves in that position.

REPORTER: Just the last one from me, and following up from that — what stands out about your group is you’ve got a team full of warriors. For you, right now, it must be hard to sit there with anything but pride.

DEAN VICKERMAN: Don’t have much more to add to that. Love the people in our team. They put everything on the floor this whole series — and the semi-final series.
To win two games on the road in a grand final series is unbelievable. To win three would have been absolutely incredible.

REPORTER: Thanks, Dean.

DEAN VICKERMAN: Thanks.