On Friday, the Oklahoma City Thunder welcomed a familiar face back home.
Former franchise center Steven Adams made his return to Bricktown to face the Thunder. Although he is donning a different uniform as a current member of the Houston Rockets, there’s still no love lost from the franchise and its fanbase for the veteran center.
Welcome home
In the place where it all started for him as a lanky 20-year-old kid from New Zealand, it was again a special night of reconnection for Adams.
Ahead of the game, Steven made it sure to engage with most of the Thunder staffer that he deeply knew and formed an unbreakable bond with throughout his seven-year stay within the franchise. And as his name was finally called upon entering the game at 4:27 mark of the first quarter, the ex-Thunder center received overwhelming cheers from the Paycom Center crowd.
“The people here are very resilient, very loyal, hard-working people,” Adams said , who dropped 5 points and 2 boards in 16 minutes on the Rockets’ 126-107 loss against the Thunder . “There’s a lot of history here in Oklahoma. What the Thunder has done to really capture the essence of the city, that’s why they get such a good response, such good loyalty from the fans. Because they know as much as the Thunder knows who they represent, the city is very proud that they’ve come to represent them.”