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NBA DRAFTJune 27, 2013Steven AdamsBROOKLYN, NEW YORK STEVEN ADAMS THE MODERATOR: Opening comments. Feelings about being drafted. STEVEN ADAMS: Feelings, just excited, one. Oh, man, it just feels like a dream, to be honest with you. I can't put it into words. It just feels weird. Excited to kind of start working, really. It's just the beginning. Yeah. I'm working towards the player I know I can become. You know what I mean? Q. Steven, first of all, congratulations on being drafted. Yesterday you spoke about comparing yourself to Serge Ibaka as a player you would like to be in the NBA. Now you're going to be playing with him. What do you hope to learn from guys like Ibaka and Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook with big playoff runs? STEVEN ADAMS: I'm going to go straight to Ibaka and try to study him first and see how he means around defensively and know‑‑ all I'm trying to work on right now is rebounding, blocking shots, defense and running the lanes. All the base sort of stuff. And then I'll start‑‑ from there I'll try to branch off or whatever. Whatever the coaches want. You know what I mean? Q. Steven, talk about coming from Pitt, that physical type of play that Jamie Dixon emphasizes and how it will fit with this Oklahoma City Thunder team especially with that frontcourt and being with Kendrick Perkins. Talk about how your game is going to fit in immediately, the style of play will fit in. STEVEN ADAMS: Like I said, I think they're looking forward to their transition game. I know I can run the floor, but then again it starts off with defense and all that. That's what their base‑‑ all the workouts we've done at OKC all of it was just defense, really. That's all they are focused on. That's all I'm focused on in getting better before we start doing any of the other stuff. Q. Steve, congratulations. Can you tell me how different is your life going to be to life in New Zealand? And what does this mean for basketball in New Zealand? STEVEN ADAMS: My life is going to be the same. All I'm focused on is basketball. Ain't going to change anything. I think I'm pretty cool who I am. But in terms of the basketball, I'm hoping that will skyrocket. Right now that was the main plan. Just instead of rugby, everybody's focused on rugby, they now have a different path to take and accomplish their goals, whether it be the NBA or whatever. That was just the main one. Q. How exciting is it to not only get drafted into the NBA, but now joining one of the better teams in the league in the Thunder? Is that even better, hey, I'm an NBA player, I'm a Thunder player? STEVEN ADAMS: Definitely means I'm going to be a Thunder player. I learned a lot about the history of what it means to put on the jersey. So that's just one thing. It's such a huge honor to be a Thunder player in itself. To be an NBA player, it feels pretty cool, but I don't consider myself an NBA player yet. It's just more I need to progress my game more and more and more, and then when somebody says hey, he's an NBA player now, then I'll start saying yes. I'm an NBA player. Q. Congratulations. You're going to a franchise that expects to compete for a championship next year. That's a lot of expectation. Are you ready for that? STEVEN ADAMS: Yeah. Yup. Yeah, I am. All it is is‑‑ all I'm going to do is just be super supportive and help out in any way I can and just‑‑ even if it's just being on the bench or whatever like that, staying positive with the boys, just training hard and competing with them. If that leads to a championship, I'll do it. I'll do anything to win a championship. That's the main goal for the whole organization. That's the ultimate goal, you know what I mean? We're all going to be on the same boat preparing for the same thing. Q. Congratulations for getting drafted. How important is it to you to be going to a playoff team versus playing on a team that's on tough times? STEVEN ADAMS: I find for me I just see OKC as ‑‑ I looked at their development program and they kind of explained it. That was one of the best that I had seen for all the workouts. They're really professional about all‑‑ that's why I'm kind of like oh, that's cool. That's really why I wanted to go there. But in terms of them being a playoff‑‑ it's just a bonus. That's like that's pretty cool, because we're all going for the same goal, as I said. To get there maybe potentially next year, that's definitely a big plus. Q. Steven, what did it feel like when you're at Oklahoma? What was the vibe you got from them? And was this your hunch? STEVEN ADAMS: Yeah. It was my hunch. I don't know, they seemed to just‑‑ it was kind of hard to‑‑ I'm pretty bad with reading people. They just seemed like cool people, like all the rest of the teams. All the rest of the teams kind of liked me, I would think, I would hope. Oklahoma kind of stood out. It was like real‑‑ I don't know, wanted me to get there. Q. What was the impression of the setup, the personalities, the facilities in Oklahoma you're going to be part of for next season? What was your impression of the setup that they have at Oklahoma and the personalities within the team? STEVEN ADAMS: Facility‑wise, that's amazing. It's Disneyland for basketball players, it's so cool. All the coaches in there were real good people and they knew a lot about basketball. All they cared about was just getting better, progressing and reaching towards the championship. I wouldn't be surprised if they do get a championship next year. Their program is really, really good. Q. We talked about New Zealand yesterday. You could be the first person from New Zealand to actually visit Oklahoma City. It's not actually one of the more sophisticated burbs. Do you wish it could have been a more diverse town, a bigger market than Oklahoma City? STEVEN ADAMS: More diverse? No. I love Oklahoma City. I learned about the history behind it and why they play and all the communities behind them. They went through a tough time and they keep coming back. Q. It's a tough‑‑ STEVEN ADAMS: I know what you mean. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Steven. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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