Young basketball players swamped the Saxton Stadium today for the Steven Adams Community Camps.
The Houston Rockets centre launched the free kids’ sessions in 2014 after his career took off in the United States.
A camp was previously held in Nelson in 2015.
There were 3,000 applications to attend the two, two-hour sessions, including from the North Island and bottom of the South Island.
500 were accepted, split across eight to 11-year-olds in the morning and 12 to 14 in the afternoon.
“It is the hardest part of the job having to turn kids away. We try to bring the basketball community together and ensure the kids have a good time,” says Spencer Webster, who chairs the Steven Adams Pathways Trust.
The young participants were given signed singlets, basketballs and food packs to take home.
After stretching in a quiet side room, Steven emerged to work the stadium floor, engaging with the kids while local teenage basketballers ran the drills.
“It is a full circle moment as a lot of the kids that come through the camps have gone on to become coaches,” declares Spencer.
“The kids go away pretty happy, especially with their Meadow Fresh bag of goodies. They will have burnt some calories, that is for sure,” concludes Mt Maunganui-based Spencer, who has been involved in the camps for 10 years.
The national tour started in Lower Hutt on Tuesday and, after Nelson, will move on to the Gold Coast and Gisborne.
Steven, always an entertaining interviewee, was unavailable for comment with the management team saying it was all about the kids for the day.
