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Steven Adams has evolved into a stout student of the game over the last few years, and while the fate of this Oklahoma City Thunder defense rests on his broad shoulders more than ever, he hasn't always been so keen on the details.
The New Zealand native claims that growing up into the sport, he wasn't the smartest cookie in the classroom.
“I was as dumb as a pile of bricks, mate. Just stupid, mate,” joked Adams. “Once I got here [to the NBA] cause there is a difference, because it's high school and all and even in the professional league they are not as in-depth and detailed as they are in the NBA.”
“Once I came in I just really tried to learn a bunch of things, hang around the coaches a lot — not just around the big-name coaches, but all the coaches around and just see what they're looking at and how they think, because I always found it weird how we're always going to them to make a decision, and then we're like ‘Ohhh, sweet'. It's good if a player makes [the decision] and saves some timeouts. Not saying that I'm their guy — we're lucky we got Russ, he's the brains of the operation, mate.”
Steven Adams on the evolution of his basketball intellect: "I was dumb as a pile of bricks, mate." pic.twitter.com/M0nj0iHcD8
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) October 20, 2017
Adams might still not be the brains of the operation, but he is the braintrust for this team defensively — as he will be tasked with being a more engaged rim protector, which he showed in his last game, finishing with 12 points, five rebounds, five steals, and three blocks in the season-opener against the New York Knicks.
