Why is the New Zealand NBAer Steven Adams not on Greece’s road to the World Cup?

THE Steven Adams is the most famous basketball player of all time in New Zealand. He has completed a decade of a very good career playing for the Thunder, Pelicans and now the Grizzlies (with a $25 million contract for the next two years, please) in the NBA, where he is considered one of the top defenders in the league. However, although a native New Zealander, in his 30s he has not once worn the jersey with the coat of arms. THE… Aquaman (as it’s called because of its resemblance to the DC hero), won’t be wearing it in either World Cup and of course in the match against Greece on Wednesday. And the reason is that he keeps… furious a behavior against him from the past!

As he explained in his autobiography entitled “My Life, My Fight”, he consciously distances himself from the Tall Blacks for when he was at a young age his poor family did not have the resources to send him to the echelons and the federation had not helped him at all! He himself, the son of a naval officer who had 18 children by five different women (!), could not find the money to try out for the small national teams even though he had shown his very big for New Zealand talent from a young age, while the federation refused to provide him with travel expenses.

“I couldn’t afford to go get tested. This costs a lot of money in New Zealand, thousands of dollars! I know players who went and eventually played, quite simply because their parents had the money to cover the trip. But there were also many players, most of them black and some of them the top talents in the country, who could not afford it. I shudder to think how many players could have had great careers, with the national team or abroad, if the FA had given them more help…”, he had mentioned in his autobiography Adams.

“Some people think that I am the face of basketball in my country, but I did not stand out from the small national teams. Unfortunately being in the Zealand nationals is a very expensive sport for most talented kids. They say it takes a village to raise a child right, but it seems New Zealand basketball takes a village to raise a talent“, he had added bitterly.

That’s why he himself, even though he is away from the New Zealand national team, is doing everything he can through various programs he has started in his home country, so that more basketball talents are not lost. “When I see kids struggling to get better, I do what I can to help. When they don’t have money to travel to basketball or buy shoes, I’m willing to help. In my country we have talent, there is no doubt about it. We just need the right system to keep them on track and not lose them because they are poor or live in the…wrong cities. If I have my way, New Zealand can be one of the biggest powers in world basketball by the time I die. This is the legacy I want to leave».

The truth is that in the current World Cup he had left an open window to compete. He had also spoken to Pero Cameron, who coached him in Wellington. The “window” was more open than ever for him to go to Manila, but in the end it didn’t happen. Not so much because of the “frenzy” in the federation, but because the injury he suffered in January to his right knee could not be overcome and deprived him of participation for the rest of the season and the playoffs.

“One day, however, I will play with the National team”, was his answer to the question of whether, after not seeing him this year with New Zealand either, we will never see him as a Tall Black.