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“You went to school to play basketball?” they asked, sizing up my 5’11” frame.
“No, no,” I explained. “I went to school to watch basketball.
They rolled their eyes.
“Back in the spring of 2009, there was this guy named DeJuan Blair. He has no ACLs now, but we don’t talk about that. So Blair is playing against this other guy named Hasheem Thabeet. What a bust. Anyways, the two of them are fighting over a rebound, and Blair flips Thabeet over his shoulder. The crowd went wild, and I applied to Blair’s college, the University of Pittsburgh, right then and there.”
They rolled their eyes yet again.
During my time at Pitt, I crossed paths with plenty of sports stars, from Aaron Donald to Ashton Gibbs—but few were as enigmatic as big Steven Adams, the young center from New Zealand. While Pitt hoops has gone through a bit of a rough patch since my tenure in the Oakland Zoo, Steven Adams has carried the torch throughout his 13-year career in the NBA.
Over that same time period, I graduated college, moved to New York City, moved home to Chicago, and rediscovered my love for collecting. Somewhere along the way, thanks to the r/basketballcards subreddit, I discovered what I can only presume is the biggest and best collection of Steven Adams cards on Earth. A collector who goes by the name of SouljaDad on reddit and upandadamsnz on Instagram is always happy to show off his PC, answer questions, and help a fellow hoop head. Long before this interview, the Kiwi and I connected on Instagram, sharing our love of Adams and talking about his best rookie cards. Now, it’s time for him to share his own story.
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How long have you been following Steven Adams?
I’m from New Zealand, so there was a bit of buzz in the media here when he was in his teens, as we don’t historically produce NBA-quality players (only two before Steve, shout out Sean Marks and Kirk Penney!).
Adams played a season here with the Saints (our local Wellington team), then went Stateside. It was big news here when he declared for the draft, particularly as he was projected to go 12th overall to a contending Thunder team, which turned out to be the case.
I’d always been an NBA fan, but never really had a team. Since then, I’ve been a Thunder fan.
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How many Steven Adams cards do you have?
Oh gosh. I had to look this up!
I try to be more of a quality collector than a quantity collector. My main goal was to chase his 2013 rookie cards. When I started, I picked up pretty much anything I didn’t already have, but over time I curated the collection down to the cards that truly interest me.
He has 331 pack-pullable rookie cards (to the best of my knowledge). Of the ones that interest me, I must have over 90%.
I also have a binder of some of his Prizm, Select & Chrome cards through the years, and a number of slabbed non-rookies where the card itself is particularly interesting to me.
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What’s your favorite Steven Adams card—either that you own or want to own one day?
This is really tough to answer.
Of those I own, if I had to choose, the 2013 Select Prizms Black One of One might be it.
It’s a beautiful card, and black is the perfect parallel for a New Zealand sportsman.
I’d still love to add a game-worn laundry tag.
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How did you first get into collecting?
Like most ’90s kids, I started with Pokémon cards, and I never got rid of my old binder.
When Pokémon cards started gaining popularity again, I pulled it back out and started filling in the gaps through eBay. That eventually sent me down the rabbit hole and led me into collecting basketball cards.
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What challenges do you face as a collector based in New Zealand?
New Zealand is actually a good place to be if you’re an Adams collector. Most of his biggest cards are already here, and plenty of Kiwis collect him.
Non-Adams cards are more challenging, but services like ShipMyCards make it much easier by letting you consolidate purchases. Shipping individual cards to New Zealand can be prohibitively expensive otherwise.
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What’s your favorite memory from Steven Adams’ basketball career (so far)?
“This is not Syria. It’s not that hard… We’re living at a bloody resort.”
Collecting a player who’s genuinely a good bastard certainly helps!
A particularly brutal screen on Patrick Beverley also comes to mind.
More broadly, it’s the Westbrook and Adams Thunder era.
It went through a few different iterations, but they were always fun to watch, even if they couldn’t quite get over the line in the playoffs.
I also like the connection with SGA. Adams’ final season with the Thunder was SGA’s first, so there’s a nice little through line between the two eras.
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Do you collect any other players or are you strictly a Big Steve guy?
I do.
My other PC is the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. I love on-card autos and game-worn relics, so I’m slowly working my way through that collection.
I also have smaller SGA and Westbrook collections, as they’re two of my favourite Thunder players.
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Have you ever been to the States to watch him play live?
Unfortunately not. That’s definitely on the list.
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Have you ever had a chance to meet him?
Nope!
He runs basketball camps for kids in New Zealand during the off-season, so I’d love to take my daughter to one, and have a yarn with the big fella.
What collection should we cover next? Let us know on Instagram and X.
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