The Quotable Steven Adams – 2020-21 Edition
What an odd season that was. Steven Adams was traded to New Orleans amidst a global pandemic and even if everything that followed eventually progressed as planned, it was all a little off. Like somebody broke into your house and didn’t take anything but moved all the furniture six inches to the left. It’s fair to say that Adams did not quite have the desired effect as a Pelican but it’s also fair to say that it wasn’t all his fault. This was a team in transition and a few of these quotes will explore that from Kiwi Steve’s perspective. The important thing is that they figured out how to get the best out of Zion Williamson... now they’ve just gotta sort everything else out around him.
One of the many oddities of that Pelicans season was seeing Steven Adams go from a beloved OKC Thunder fan favourite to somebody who copped a lot of criticism from NOP fans for his supposed poor fit. But as always it was a season of grittiness and team-first stoicism, of rebounding and debating with refs, of humour and humility. And also worm farms, cow brains, Forest Whitaker, crawfish, and bad breath. Here’s the story of Steven Adams’ first season as a Pelican as told in his own words.
“It’s all a part of the business, you know what I mean, getting traded and all that. That isn’t really the difficult part. The difficult part is the relationships that you build within it and then you have to move on. But, mate, it’s not like I died or anything. I’m gonna see them again. It ain’t that sad. It was a good time in OKC but in terms of just coming here, man, it’s just like an exciting team. Stan’s an old school dude and I like that, man. I feel like I can learn a lot from him. Hence the extensionis. Sounds like a Harry Potter spell, mate.”
22 November 2020, that’s when the news first broke that Steven Adams had been traded to the New Orleans Pelicans. A couple days later all the details were confirmed. An exciting change for him but first of all the end of an era as he left the only NBA team he’d ever played for. Sam Presti, OKC GM, referred to the day he made the trade as “not my best day at work”. But old mate himself always keeps it real.
“The main thing for me, it’s always been my approach: get with the coach, understand what we need done as a team and then what I can contribute, and then I just focus in on those things. Obviously I’m gonna share whatever experience or knowledge that I have but it won’t be just me. There’s many other players. This is a team. I don’t have the answers, I would never claim I have all the answers or anything. It’s one of those things where it’s a cooperative. We’re in a competitive environment but as a team we need to be very cooperative and teach each stuff and what not. Everyone has a voice in the team. That’s always been my approach, mate. Just go in there and do what I can. I know that sounds vague and it’s cliched, like, yeah I’m gonna play hard and all that good stuff.”
Team sport zen wisdom from Steven Adams. Teaching and learning. Talking and listening. Everybody pulling in the same direction.
“Yeah I mean his potential is definitely up there. He’s an amazing athlete, amazing player. Yeah and he’s built. Built like a brick... you know the rest. It’s gonna be good, man. But not to take anything away from him, it’s more about fitting into the team and how you work together with all of them. It isn’t just Zion, if that makes sense. It isn’t just two players, there’s the guards and the wings, how they play defence, how they move, what do they look for. There’s all those that come into it. It’s more how am I gonna, the best I can, get that team chemistry going and try and help them in whatever way I can. For all players.”
First impressions of Zion Williamson, impending NBA superstar.
“Yeah 100%. It’s a good point mate. As a player you obviously just play basketball but then again you also gotta think bigger than that, larger, because you’re representing a city. Also the city’s history that’s like the main thing. So you have to really look at that and understand how you need to hold yourself. That’s why fans really want to get to know you to make sure you’re a good dude: you’re representing them. It’s not like a playground sort of thing, it means a lot to people so it shouldn't be taken too lightly. I do the best that I can to try and represent them. And its not just that, I know that I’m representing New Zealand as well, my own country. A lot of international people think like this also, I’m not some anomo-anoma- ... I always struggle with that word, mate.”
Anomalies aside, gotta rate a man who has that kinda perspective. Playing for the city, playing for your country. Representing the people who look up to you and all that. Right on. Doing us proud, lad.
“Umm... it’s just Stan Van Gundy himself. My brother’s a huge fan of his, my brother’s like an absolute basketball nutcase, my brother Moses, he just loves it so much. He called me last night like: oh bro, Stan Van Gundy’s amazing. Just hyped. I could say that had something to do with it, subliminal messaging I guess. But in terms of professional stuff mate he’s just a smart savvy dude and the coaching staff here... I was with Bob for one year. Old Bob Beyer. All that helped out in terms of comfort.”
“Yeah for the first time. Which is good. It’s a new relationship, there’s no real history there, you don’t have to tread anywhere. He can just kinda swear at me whenever he wants which is great. It’s how I like to be coached. Straight there.”
A new team also means a new coach and in this case the chance for Steven Adams to work with the iconic Stan Van Gundy, a man who has made a habit of working with some of the great big men of recent times.
“Nice meeting you all. Fare thee well. Stay safe.”
All about them polite first impressions.
“The chemistry part of the whole joint is how you operate on the floor, it ain’t so much off the court if that makes sense. Because you could be really cool and friendly with someone but you just don’t click together on the court. And vice versa: don’t like a dude off the court but you click on the court. It goes both ways. In general, with the whole winning culture, it’s better if you push the chemistry on the court. And then obviously if the boys wanna go out to dinner together then thumbs up mate, it’s all good stuff. It’s great. All that allows is more time for you to talk about what’s on the court and what do you see, and get some people’s ideas on different things, basically you’re trying to break the ice as quick as possible so you don’t have an awkward moment on the court where you don’t feel you can talk to your teammate.”
Lessons on team chemistry from the main man. Get it cooking on the court and the off-court stuff flows on nicely, not everybody has to be best friends but they do have to be on the same page. Seems to be the gist.
“It’s still too early now. I mean, there’s still a lot of basketball to be played and it’s just nine games. Outside of we’ve got some losses that we should have won and all that sort of stuff but there’s been a lot of positive things as well. There’s a lot of positive that we’ve been doing and it’s just about expanding those moments in a game. A bit more stamina, a bit more focus. Increase the bandwidth. I would say it’s still too early for the grass to grow but to be honest I might tell you forty games in that it’s still too early just to avoid the answer.”
Yeah so... the new season got going but it didn’t go so well to begin with. Having a couple new starters on a team that already had a new coach, with two young stars leading the way, amidst a pandemic which meant almost nothing in the way of a preseason turned out not to be the best way to hit the ground running. The Pelicans were 4-5 at this point. A work in progress.
“Looking at all the fans that showed up to... nah jokes. It was good. It kinda messed me up a little when I tipped the ball coz I’m so used to seeing the OKC colours, and just the natural, I dunno, just something in my brain switched and I was like oh shit that’s right I’m playing for New Orleans.”
Ah but in the middle of all that there was a lovely opportunity for Adams to roll up on his old stomping ground of Oklahoma City where he was given the tribute video treatment and everything... or not quite everything because, like, there were no fans in the stands yet. Sorta spoilt the moment but okay.
“Probably Selena Gomez because we look alike. Nah, that’s offensive to her. I’m just joking. I think it would be funny though, to see if she has that kind of range as an actor. If she can pull that off, wow”
Asked to pick someone to play him in a biopic for a team profile piece... didn’t exactly get a serious answer. Also served up shout outs for the film Nacho Libre and the show Rick & Morty in there too.
“I look like Forest Whitaker”
Plenty worse people you could look like. Say, maybe Forest will do the biopic instead?
“I didn’t catch the first part bro, my hair was dripping. What does it feel like? Umm, it would feel better if we bloody won. So, yeah.”
Quite incredibly, Steven Adams got a triple double in a game against his old mates from the Thunder (whoever’s left of them) in game eight of the season. The Pelicans lost... but at least Steve had a solid day. 10 points, 10 assists, 11 rebounds. Who saw that coming?
“Yeah the hindsight joint is always like this thing right... especially if you lose you always find things but you can probably say yes it has been a trend. But some of them are not as obvious as say tonight. And even if they don’t even score off it it still holds the same value, that you’re trending in the wrong direction. Just because it says like 22 fast break points or whatever, say if they got 8 but they got so many shot attempts because we weren’t actually getting back. That’s the one you’ve gotta grab, right? It’s all the same stuff. There’s signs there but you’ve just gotta pick up on it and it’s no-one’s fault, everyone’s gotta be together on it. It’s a lack of discipline from the boys. Even myself there’s times when I shouldn’t go for an offensive rebound... but again, this discipline thing comes into play. But we’ll get it right mate.”
More from that same post-game chat... chatting transition defence this time. It was a focus that SVG set from the very beginning and it was something they never really found a consistent solution to. Which is a worry given that it’s mostly an effort play that we’re talking about. “It’s a simple bloody thing,” as Steve-o later added.
“You can always criticise it as much as you want but I feel like we’re in a relatively safe space if we’re responsible. In theory it should work, I think. But yeah there’s always gonna be hiccups too, they don’t actually know themselves. Everybody’s trying to figure it out bro. All in all, mate, I don’t have no problem with it myself. I’ll probably have a problem with it if I get covid though [laughs].”
Never been a season quite like this one. All sorts of new challenges that were impossible to prepare for, when the NBA came back from the initial pandemic break it was in a bubble situation. But for this season the bubbles were small and varied and spread out all over the place. Heaps of precautions to follow. It wasn’t easy but it was what had to be done.
“I paused my favourite anime to be here. You’re welcome.”
T-shirt humour, the NBA player’s favourite method of not-so-subtle communication
“I’ve got a worm farm now. Oosh. At my house. Bought some worms the other day, some compost worms, and also have a microscope so I can check out all the little bugs in the soil and what not. Just real nerdy stuff bro. I’m going a bit mad. Help me. Nah jokes.”
That one was from a Kiwis Abroad segment on Sky TV NZ. With covid regulations in the NBA limiting how much players can interact with plebian society... well, that’s when the worms offer their companionship.
“In a nutshell: no. You go from facility, back home, and that's it. You are allowed to go in certain areas that they've, you know, 'secured'. Like some restaurants and whatnot. But the risk for reward just doesn't really make sense. Or not for me at this time.”
More from that Kiwis Abroad segment on community mingling during a covid-infected NBA season.
“No not at all. I think I’ve made a pretty good name for myself just by playing hard, you know what I mean. Just trying to win games to be honest mate. Whatever I can do for the team. Yeah, just that sort of mindset. If they ask me to change anything, say if they want me to shoot threes - Stan let me shoot threes, nah jokes - then I'll just go and do it. No change of mindset from my end."
And a little more on the ol’ Do Your Job mentality that the big fella offers. Keeping it consistent.
“We’ve still got a long way to go. I know we won which was great but it felt like more of a trading baskets sort of thing which is not sustainable, you know what I mean? ... Yeah it’s cool to get a win but we’re not really satisfied. That whole cliched thing. Still got a lot of work to do mate, but we’ll take it.”
Dropped the Kings in a high-scoring game to break a five-game losing streak. Of course they then went and lost the next three in a row to drop to 5-10.
“I’m not sure if I could even do it any justice. I would say that he is one of the dudes where like the presence, from what I remember, the presence and I guess the command it’s very much real and it’s very different than any other player that I’ve come across. Other than that, you know, I just don’t wanna tarnish anything by saying like: oh he was great. We all know he was super great. That’s probably the most memorable for me. The aura. With everything, even when he was on the bench you know he’s there.”
Memories of playing up against Kobe Bryant.
“Where was I? I was at the stadium, the old Smoothie King Arena. Just pulled up mate and they gave me the news and so yeah. It is what it is mate, this is a new reality for the NBA. It’s fine. A lot of people working very hard to keep us safe.”
“Nah it’s not that difficult, it’s just if you’re gonna play or not. Plenty of other jobs where it’s a lot more stressful than if you’re gonna play or not. I wouldn’t put too much effort behind that.”
Supposed to be playing the San Antonio Spurs in late-January but a cheeky covid scare for both teams, players having to isolate after a possible exposure, meant that game got postponed at late notice. Nothing to panic about. Keep it even.
“It’s always good to see the bloody ball go through the hoop, mate. I don’t think anyone on the team would disagree with me either.”
After watching the lads put on a rare shooting clinic in a 131-126 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
“Oh I still think he's stronger. He is definitely more impressive than me, yeah.”
An ESPN feature on the un-punkable duo of Zion Williamson and Steven Adams featured plenty of quotes from rival NBA fellas about how strong they pair are. Steven did his best to set the record straight at the very end.
“There was a basketball player in New Zealand, his name’s Mika Vukona. I thought he was amazing. He just played with his heart, bro. All out hustle. I really, really enjoyed watching him, I’d say he was the biggest inspiration I guess.”
“It’s [Steve-o’s farm back in Aotearoa] an amazing piece of land. If you see it, it should be like an art piece. Where it’s located, it’s got some nice hills there. Right on the beach so you can overlook the sea. Nice volcano out there in the distance. Got a forest out the back. Got some deer and stuff frolicking around there. And it’s just a dairy farm, nice and green, great stuff. And it’s in the place where there’s the most sun, the Bay of Plenty they call it. It’s an amazing place mate.”
“The pain... so I got kicked in the nuts in that [2016 Western Conference Finals] and this is what I’m famous for, I guess. That was the one where I was like [*mumbles various curse words*]. The pain on that one mate. The worst. The absolute worst. Unbelievable. I hate that more than the whole KD thing, I ain’t even mad at the KD thing I was just mad at the nut kick [from Draymond Green].”
“[Russell Westbrook] just reminded me of one of my older brothers, you know what I mean? They’re intense and stuff, and they say a lot of things and what not, but you kinda got to sift through all that and see what they actually say. It doesn’t really matter how intense they say it, as long as the message is getting across. It’s not for everyone either, not everyone can respond to that sort of intensity. But this is just on the court, off the court, bro, solid dude. Awesome. Really, really cool. And then on the court obviously, he’s bloody passionate. Whatever you want to call it, whatever you want to name it: intense, passionate, angry, freakin’ psycho, whatever you’ve got.”
“I will say, I won the Memphis Grizzlies series [round one, Adams’ rookie year]. In Game 6, Zach Randolph punched me in the face, and he could not play Game 7. So I claim that victory solely because of my contribution. Everyone was hitting me that year. Because I was playing really hard, coz that’s what they told me to do. I was more like the hired gun. They were like: hey, you just go and play hard and be physical. I was just hitting everyone and then everyone was just getting ejected from the game or elbowing me in the face on purpose.”
The Old Man & the Three plus Steven Adams. Podcast yarns with then-teammate JJ Redick (who’d rag on the Pels in his podcast after being traded six weeks later). Soooo many more great quotes than those ones but we don’t have all day here, not gonna transcribe the whole damn thing, you’ll just have to listen for yourself. Even if you’ve already heard it it’s worth another go.
“I’d like to say that I’m a happy person just because I don’t take stuff seriously. Happiness is one thing, bro. That’s based on so much shit. It’s the purpose that you feel afterwards. Or during it. Once you start scrolling, bro, it just sucks the purpose out of you and any sort of hype or energy is kind of just gone. If I wanted to do something, to build a bird house or something, I just wouldn’t end up doing it, bro. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just because I’m weak-minded. But I got off it and I feel more purposeful and energetic. That’s why I got the worm farm, bro. That’s my scrolling.”
Some people have dogs. Some people have cows. Some people have worms. Some people have all three. Steven Adams is, by that measure, ‘some people’. The proud owner of “a 5-gallon bag of Red Wigglers from the Laughing Buddha Nursery in Metairie” who feed on the leftover scraps of Stevie’s meals, living in four stacked plastic trays to keep him from endlessly scrolling through news feeds on his phone.
“I have an idea of it. The main attractions. Mardi Gras. The crawfish. The bayou. That’s all the touristy stuff. The best thing I’ve found out, for me personally, was that there is a chess master whose name was Morphy. Paul Morphy. He’s been dead quite a while, mate. But he was born here.”
Also from the above interview, yet another reminder of what a strange season this really was. Adams was several months into his tenure in New Orleans by now yet he’d hardly had a chance to see the city at all because of covid restrictions. But he had, however, dug into a little chess history.
“In terms of offensively growing: yes, but it’s hard to say because it’s also a part of how we use him in the system. Because legit we could just throw him the ball every single play and: go ahead mate. And we wouldn’t really argue because he’s so talented, he’s so good, right? But it comes into the part of the overall strategy of the game itself. He could easily get fifty. But that’s where I think, rada rada rada... he’s playing good mate. If anyone else disagrees, get out of here mate. That’s just stupid.”
Zion Williamson made the All Star game. Zion Williamson started being used as a ball-handler more often. Zion Williamson is a very good basketball player and the world was fast learning that fact.
“I’d say it’s definitely gotten harder. It’s also just changed the mentality of players and it’s a noticeable shift too, I noticed it I think a couple years ago. So, back before the whole analytic joint when everyone was like: yo, we’ve gotta shoot threes... right before then you would see some sort of hesitation from perimeter players, the ones who don’t normally shoot. Guys like Kyrie and Klay Thompson, you know that mentality-wise they’re going to pop it so that’s really tough to guard against. Before the whole analytic thingy there were dudes who would hesitate a bit so you could kind of engage them in between but now afterwards when they’re basically told: shoot it if you’re open, we need to up the possessions or whatever... it’s completely different now.”
He keeps going with that answer too, a fascinating insight into defending on the perimeter in an age of the NBA when three-pointers have never been more common and as a big man who finds himself in the switch cycle fairly often that’s a task and a half to compete with.
“Have I seen it before? Yeah I see it all the bloody time mate. Happens all over the league. Shit, sometimes if just doesn’t bloody go your way. It’s like, the intention is there but the executions just needs to be more optimal. So that’s where you can kinda pick at it afterwards and all that sorta jazz. This is what the league is. Even tonight, we got a win and it’s like: cool, next one. We still have a lot more games to play. There’s bigger fish to fry? Is that a term? You guys use that here in America? I’m trying to learn the lingo, trying to assimilate to you guys here.”
The Pelicans continued their up and down season. Win a couple, lose a couple more. Consistently inconsistent but the starting centre reckoned it’s nothing you don’t see all over the NBA every season. And he’s not wrong, to be fair.
“Umm I mean everything was on target, he just needs to have bad breath. Oooh! Nah jokes. Tell him, tell him I said that. Too far, aye? I guess Jaxson’s starting now.”
Zion Williamson did a Stan Van Gundy impression in the locker room but Steve reckoned he was missing one vital aspect.
“That’s exactly why.”
This one coming via Terrence Ross on his own show, claiming that Steven Adams told him he wears a cup during games now and that Draymond Green is the reason for that particular safety procedure.
“It depends. There’s a lot of perimeter bigs now. The only difference is that the bigs have gotta be away from the paint. As small as it sounds. But when you’re drilling a lot of these defensive schemes, typically the low man is at the bottom so that rotation and how quick that happens, it comes quite naturally for bigs. But now it’s a bit difference because if the big’s up then the guards need to get that rotation.”
The unique challenges of playing against future MVP Nikola Jokic and playmaking perimeter bigs in general (one of whom would be teammate Zion Williamson, who fits into that category too).
“Yeah the first foul was just stupid, I shouldn’t even of put myself in that position. And after those I just kinda like let [Embiid] catch it and play him straight up. That was the plan. He settled for a lot of jump shots. I mean, I didn’t do much apart from just staying in his shot pocket. Now, whether that does anything or not, I don’t know, but he was settling a lot. Also I think what helped was the other players stunting and playing cat and mouse as to whether they’re coming on a double team or not. That helped a lot.”
By the time we’d hit April, the Pels still hadn’t found that run of wins that’d get them back into the playoff hunt... although a brilliant win over the 76ers, in which Steven Adams shut down Joel Embiid as well as anyone did all season (despite getting into early foul trouble) showed how good they could be when things clicked. But with 20 games remaining time was fast running out...
“I know we talk about strength a lot but that is like the least interesting thing in his game, about him being this strong dude. Bro his touch is so good, footwork is fricken insane. Yeah bro. Good dude. He hit a baseline jump shot today, that’s gotta be scary mate. I was like: shit. He’s gonna be awesome.”
Just some more chat about Zion Williamson. As the Pels stuttered along, the emergence of Zion as a legendary paint scorer already in only his second season was the one thing to really hang a hat on.
“Yeah it’s been good. My first time really with another team but it’s been nice the organisation really welcomed me and the players were awesome. Are awesome. Shouldn’t say past tense. Yeah it’s just been overall a good experience.”
“Technology allows for as much face time, I mean obviously it's not the same but all that stuff's all good now. But it's just like any other year. All international players are away from their family for the whole season typically. There wasn't anything too much different than that to be honest.”
“I've smashed a couple umm, like a bag of crawfish. Apparently that's the vibe down there. It's pretty awesome. They love their spice down there, holy shit, down in Louisiana. They love their spice.”
“Cow brain? Who was this teammate? No, I'm not a psychopath. I just eat a lot of food and I look a bit rough but I don't eat bloody cow brain.”
“It has been fun without too many fans in the stadium, you do hear a lot of heckling going on from the benches. You can hear it very clearly. You know, some people get some good licks in here and there. But nothing on the lines of [Kendrick Perkins & Kevin Garnett], their one’s were like legit psychological warfare. Some of the boys here are just trying to troll you. They just do it for the memes.”
ESPN did this Marvel sponsor-integration feature for one game, with Adams among those scooped up for cheeky interview obligations. He chatted about playing in New Orleans, about being an international player during covid, about the local cuisine, about trash talking, about all sorts. Some silly marvel comparisons too. (Of course it was Enes Kanter who spread the cow brain rumour).
And that, folks, was sorta just that. Injuries set in for Steven Adams down the stretch and he only played one full game of the last 14. Given that he wasn’t playing, he also didn’t do any real media stuff over that time either. Not that there was anything new to say, the work in progress team was still exactly that as the Pels lost 12 of their last 18 matches and missed the playoffs by a comfortable margin. The next time we heard from Adams was his exit interview...
“Maybe comfort level for rotation. We’ll have to see bro because a lot of those numbers are within like 0.6 like, it’s one of those weird ones. I could harp on about it like: yeah we came together... but mate if it’s 0.2 that makes us jump from 29 to 23 then it’s maybe just luck of the draw. That’s how the game goes, right? I will say, take the analytical cap off, I feel like we did start seeing a lot more consistency with rotations. And thus just comes down to players prioritising different threats. Not being bamboozled by smokescreen plays. Yeah dude, XYZ.”
On the defensive improvements over the season.
“Oh it was amazing bro. Turns out I was just dead weight, you know what I mean? These dudes are amazing.”
On his fellow centres Jaxson Hayes & Willi Hernangomez.
“I’ve always talked quite a lot, maybe not my rookie season or second year, but I haven’t done so much big speech, like: everyone calm down and listen to what I say. Nothing like that. It’s more like one on one kinda stuff. That’s all I was doing all year with Willy and Jax. We play similar positions. Try and help them best I can. Just words, mate. Make it up. Claim it if they do anything good. Deny it if they do anything bad.”
On becoming a vocal teammate.
“Yeah dude, it was just like any other coach. Getting used to different coaching. Just a normal coach change I think. Different system. It’s a weird year with everything, there were a lot of adjustments that had to be had outside of even that stuff. That’s always gonna be the x-factor for this year.”
On working with Stan Van Gundy. Of course SVG would be sacked about a month later with rumours about his lack of connection with the young core in New Orleans and his defensive-minded systems not being picked up on.
“People like that aye?”
“What’s his name, mate? I might call my lawyer. Nah jokes.”
“I dunno mate, do the old googleage.”
“Fuck me. Look at that. What is that? Type of shit you’d see on the caves mate, from what’d they’d bloody drawn back in BC. What the hell? Nah nah nah he’s fine. I can see where he was going. He got the hair, the main parts. Not trying to diss him bro. Cheers for the drawing mate... is he twelve? Nah I’m just kidding, that was the last one.”
That’s after seeing a fan’s attempt to recreate the iconic orange Steven Adams slides that he wears so often. Gotta admire the lengths some folks go to with their fandom, seriously.
That’s a particularly worthy place to finish here after a season in which Steven Adams was often scapegoated for the Pelicans’ struggles, his supposed poor fit on the roster used as a major criticism (along with Eric Bledsoe who arrive in NO at the same time). In Oklahoma City he was beloved, in New Orleans he was derided. You’d have to think that lack of connection with his new team’s fans must have had a lot to do with playing in empty stadiums, only being able to do limited distanced media opps, not being able to mingle in the community. All things that kept him from expressing his personality.
Going 31-41 and finishing eleventh in the West wouldn’t have helped either. But, you know, it is what it is. Maybe next season will be different... whichever team he finds himself on.
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