NBA team Oklahoma City Thunder may now be without talisman Kevin Durant, but Kiwi center Steven Adams certainly isn't dwelling on the loss.
Adams, back on home soil for a series of basketball camps, insisted his approach to the game won't be changing to adapt to the All Star forward's loss.
"I'll be keeping to the same stuff," said Adams. "It's the coach's job to put us in the best position to succeed, not only individually but as a team. I'm just waiting on his word"
"Shoot some threes," the 23-year-old muttered jokingly.
You certainly couldn't fault his ambition to expand his game after a breakthrough season in 2015/16.
Adams played a starring role for the Thunder throughout the NBA playoffs as they marched through their Western Conference opponents, defying the odds in pushing the history-making Golden State Warriors to the brink of elimination before falling in the decisive Game 7 of their conference finals series.
Despite the heart-breaking loss, the Rotorua-born giant took plenty away from the experience, particularly about the relentless demands involved in making a deep playoff run.
"The playoffs are just a whole new level. You have to be 100 percent focused as a team the whole time, which is very hard to do.
"Why we lost, it literally came down to two possessions. Every single play matters."
Accompanied by Thunder teammates Nick Collison and Andre Roberson, Adams is in Auckland for the first of three training camps across the country as he seeks to give back to a sport which has given him so much and inspire future generations to follow his own lead.
"Just to make sure that we have a good foundation where, when my career ends, it keeps going.
"[Basketball] made me feel like I had a bit of purpose in my life, as cheesy as it sounds. I was in a bad spot."
Adams' combination of size, speed, skills, and athleticism will see him in high demand when he comes off contract at the end of the upcoming season , an annual salary of around the $USD 20 million (NZ$ 27.5 million) mark well within reason, which would comfortably make him New Zealand's highest paid sportsperson.
As for adversary Draymond Green, the Golden State Warriors protagonist who infamously connected not just once, but twice, with blows to Adams' groin in the space of only two games, the Kiwi isn't holding any grudges.
"He's alright mate. I don't wish anything bad on him, it's just part of the game.'
Newshub.
