Steven Adams is quietly one of the funnier guys in the NBA.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at the New Zealand native who looks like a Dothraki extra from Game of Thrones, but he is. It showed on The Morning Shift Podcast, where Adams told the story of how, as a rookie, he got legendary trash talker Kevin Garnett to back off by saying he doesn’t speak English (one of the official national languages of New Zealand, along with Maori, and it’s Adams native tongue).
Steven Adams told Kevin Garnett “no English” in his first matchup with him as a rookie to avoid his shit talk
“He didn’t say anything after that thank goodness. He would’ve ruined me. I would’ve cried” pic.twitter.com/kl6zOKIZdB
— Steven Adams Stats (@funakistats) August 7, 2024
“My confidence wasn’t high, so I wasn’t trying to get torn down. Kendrick Perkins and K.G. played together, so they started mouthing off. Then I was coming in and [Garnett] was like, ‘Yo, look at this m***********’ and I was like, ‘No English, bro. Sorry. No English.’
“Then he just didn’t say anything. I was like, ‘Thank goodness.’ That would’ve ruined me, bro I would’ve cried.”
Garnett saw the story and is now going to hunt Adams down in an old-man game.
Adams missed all of last season due to knee surgery. Midway through the season, the Grizzlies traded Adams to the Rockets, who have him under contract for this season at $12.6 million. If healthy enough to play this season, Adams would back up Alperen Sengun at the five, splitting minutes with Jock Landale and Jabari Smith Jr.
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