The postseason performance of Steven Adams has opened the eyes of casual league followers. Most considered him nothing more than a viable starter throughout the regular season, and even more never saw the potential for stardom the third-year center has made good on over the past few weeks.
Adams’ play has been surprising to say the least. What makes it shocking, though? Not his subtle regular season impact or the previously assumed trajectory of his career, but how the Oklahoma City Thunder big man began his basketball journey in the first place.
This video, released when Adams was a 17-year-old 7-footer living in his native New Zealand, tells the incredible story of his rise from an undernourished, illiterate kid to becoming a prospect his coach called the “best player of his age group in the world.”
Despite being just two years removed from no schooling whatsoever, an adolescent Adams insists that college-entrance exams are “quite fun.” His eyes grow big when he hears his coach’s lavish praise for what he insists is the first time, and he calls his trainer and legal guardian a “fairy godmother.”
Sounds about right for one of the quirkiest personalities the league has to offer, doesn’t it?
