Basketball's New Wave: The Young Superstars Taking Over the Game
the coach at the University of Pittsburgh had played professionally and later coached in New Zealand He persuaded Adams to come play for him After one season in college Adams was taken by the Thunder with the No 12 pick in the 2013 draft That made him the first player from New Zealand to be a first-round pick in the NBA Draft Unlike most players drafted that high Adams wasn’t going to a struggling or rebuilding team The Thunder already one of the best teams in the league had traded for the pick Oklahoma City needed Adams to be productive right away In Adams’s first season the Thunder went all the way to the Western Conference Finals They got back there again in his third season falling just one win short of making the NBA Finals Adams would continue to increase his scoring average as the years went on but he rarely made it a priority unless the Thunder needed it He just wants to win and that’s all that matters to him Westbrook said That didn’t always make Adams popular with his opponents The Los Angeles Times polled players in 2016 and they voted Adams the second-dirtiest player BASKETBALL’S NEW WAVE
in the league But Adams is also the kind of player just about anybody would want on his own team Every team has players who can score Not all of them have someone who can also make a difference without scoring Team executives voted Adams the NBA’s toughest player in the 2018 2019 NBA com GM Survey after he tied for the most votes the year before The toughness he had to develop as a child would serve him well years later He’s proof that you don’t have to talk the game Just be tough Clippers coach Doc Rivers said I like him as a player I like what he stands for Steven Adams At-a-Glance Birthplace Rotorua New Zealand Birth Date July 20 1993 Position Center Size 7'0 265 pounds Team Oklahoma City Thunder College Pittsburgh Drafted First round No 12 overall in 2013 THE YOUNG SUPERSTARS TAKING OVER THE GAME
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CHAPTER 2 Giannis Antetokounmpo Giannis Antetokounmpo is from Greece home of the Olympics and he looks as if he could have been an Olympian in any number of sports When he dribbles from one end of the court to the other in just a few strides and leaps from around the foul line which is 15 feet from the basket he appears a natural for the long jump And when he soars high above every other player and eventually the rim 10 feet off the floor for a slam dunk he looks like he could have competed in the high jump Luckily for the Milwaukee Bucks Antetokounmpo chose basketball as his sport though not at first He didn’t particularly care for basketball as a boy He wanted to be like his father and be a soccer player He might’ve become a good one but as a forward on Giannis Antetokounmpo rises up for a basket during a 2019 game against the Washington Wizards
