A puff piece from New Zealand on Steven Adams and the long-range plans to go to the NBA.

After an outstanding junior career and one season in the New Zealand’s domestic competition, Adams will leave on the start of that journey next month. McFadden, who has helped guide his progress so far, is determined he won’t go off the tracks like so many before him.

“If you’re 18 with a million dollars in your pocket, that could be disastrous,” warns United States-born McFadden. “He needs good advice and people he can trust around him.”

The support group that has coalesced around Adams in New Zealand seems to have done an outstanding job. The natural cynicism  (at least from me) would be to cast a jaundiced eye towards it all as merely a bunch of people trying to get in on and protect the potential money train. But the long-term structuring with Adams. From getting his education. To deciding on having him go to college in the US rather than going early pro in New Zealand or Europe suggests otherwise.

“The main reason he’s going there is because he’s done so well with his academics over the last year and got into a really good routine of study, tutors and training at the same time,” explains McFadden.

“There’s a real danger for a lot of players who leave school at the end of November and don’t start college until the following August. That’s a long break and we didn’t want to have any gaps.”

Only a few years ago, Adams was an over-sized kid bound for trouble in the mean streets of Rotorua. But half-brother and former Tall Black Warren Adams grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him off to Wellington, where he enlisted the help of two people who had helped shape his own life at the same age – McFadden and caregiver Blossom Cameron.

Again, cynically, if this was about getting the most money and future NBA cash for Adams and the people around him, Adams would have switched commitments to somewhere higher profile. Kentucky, UNC, Duke, et. Where the hype and exposure would have set the endorsement deals rolling sooner. But…”

Jamie Dixon and the Big East is something you can’t pass up,” says McFadden. “He’s a top-quality coach who loves coaching big men in a power conference. And Jamie knows the New Zealand culture well. If Steve does what we know he can do, he’s an automatic No 1 draft pick.”

When the details come out on the new NBA deal, we will have a better understanding of how it impacts a foreign player who comes to play college ball in the US. Could very well have Adams for two years rather than one.