Steven Adams NBA Player 2022

Steven Adams (born 20 July 1993) is a New Zealand professional basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing one season with his hometown team, the Wellington Saints, in 2011, Adams moved to the United States in 2012 to play college basketball for Pittsburgh.

Adams was selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 12th overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft. He was the Thunder’s primary starting center for six consecutive seasons. In November 2020, after seven years in Oklahoma City, Adams was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans. In August 2021, he was dealt to the Grizzlies.

Steven Adams NBA Player 2022

Steven Adams was born in Rotorua, New Zealand, to a Tongan mother and an English father. His father, Sid Adams, served in the Royal Navy and later settled in New Zealand where he fathered 18 children with five women.[1] Sid Adams stood 2.11 metres (6 ft 11 in) tall, and his children inherited his height: Steven Adams’ brothers average 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall, while his sisters average 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in). Two of his half-sisters are athletes: Dame Valerie Adams is a dual Olympic gold medallist and four-time world champion shot-putter and Lisa Adams is a para athlete who has won gold at the Paralympics in shot-put. His brothers, Warren and Sid Jr., had careers in the New Zealand National Basketball League.

Steven Adams was in his sixties when his youngest child Steven was born, and Sid died in 2006 of stomach cancer. Adams has identified his father’s death as one of the defining events of his life. In a 2012 interview, Adams recalled:

• When I lost my dad, that was a big hit for me. I didn’t have that parental guidance, and I kind of took advantage of it because I was a stupid idiot. I decided not to go to school a couple of times, go when I felt like it. I always lied to my brothers and sisters. They’d ask: ‘Are you going to school?’ I’d say ‘yeah’. They eventually found out.

After the death of his father, his brother Warren rescued him from the streets of Rotorua and took him to Wellington. Warren took responsibility for Adams and introduced him to Wellington basketball legend Kenny McFadden. McFadden accepted Adams into his basketball academy, and Warren enrolled him in Scots College. The only rule McFadden had for Adams was that he had to attend school every day if he wanted to play basketball. While there was pressure for Adams to turn professional straight out of high school because it was believed he would never be able to qualify for the NCAA, Adams did well at Scots College and passed through the NCAA Clearinghouse after graduating from Scots in December 2011.

Preparatory school and college

After graduating from Scots College in December 2011, Adams enrolled at Notre Dame Preparatory School, a well-known basketball prep school in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, for one semester. It was arranged only so he could acclimate himself to American basketball before enrolling at Pittsburgh in June 2012.

In his lone season at Pittsburgh, Adams was named the Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year and earned Big East All-Rookie Team honours. He started all 32 games during the 2012–13 season and averaged 7.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.

On 2 April 2013, Adams declared for the NBA draft, forgoing his final three years of college eligibility.