Kiwi Steven Adams was asked again and gave the same answer when questioned when he will pull duty with the Kiwi national teal, the Tall Blacks.
He was in South Auckland on Thursday to promote his basketball camp in New Zealand, where he appeared at a presser.
It took the media only minutes to steer the press conference toward the question of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s star playing on the national side.
Adams must surely be tired of fielding that question. It would seem the media would also find other topics, but that was not the case.
All along, Adams said that he will play when the time is right.
On the surface, it would seem he would be anxious to represent Kiwi land for the Olympic Games, but he may be reluctant to scrimmage against many of the same players with whom he does battle during the arduous NBA season, especially when the financial stakes are so huge.
Many had hoped he would take part in recent games against Hong Kong and China, both of which games were in New Zealand. After all, if he were a rugby player, the press conference would have been held during a game, but Adams knows on which side of his bread the butter resides.
“I definitely considered it, I’m always in talks with Pauli (Henare, Tall Blacks coach) and stuff like that,” Adams said.”It’s just one of those things and I always say when the time is right, but I’m concentrating on just helping the kids.”
It would be hard to fault Adams if his aims were not entirely altruistic, but he is running the camps in Auckland, Palmerston North and Dunedin, not simply slapping his name on them.
He seems truly interested in smoothing the path for potential future NBA players from New Zealand and hopes to take it beyond the way he got there, which he described by saying, “My situation was weird, because it was pretty much down to luck.”
For future players, Adams said, “Our goal is to make sure that it isn’t down to luck.”