PORTLAND, OR – APRIL 16: Steven Adams #12 of the Oklahoma City Thunder talks with Damian Lillard #0 of the Portland Trail Blazers during Game Two of Round One of the 2019 NBA Playoffs on April 16, 2019 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
A reporter asked Oklahoma City Thunder’s center Steven Adams whether or not he would spend time with Enes Kanter.
Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams has never been the shy one about expressing what he thinks.
So, when a reporter asked him a random, off-beat question on Tuesday as to whether or not he and former Thunder center and current Portland Trail Blazer Enes Kanter have or would hang out, he let them know his exact feelings about his former teammate.
“Yeah, there’s time, but I don’t want to.”
Now, one can take away from that as if Adams has some type of hidden, searing beef with his former teammate, but in reality, it’s the spirit of playoff basketball. Adams and Kanter were good friends when they were teammates, but now that the NBA Playoffs have begun, their relationship has taken on an “I don’t know you” type of turn.
That’s the way it should be.
Playoff basketball is the time when players are supposed to put aside their friendships with their opponent and go and battle it out for the crown. This isn’t the time for hanging out at the club together. It’s a war of attrition, and Adams knows all too well that it isn’t in the best interest of OKC to show fondness for his former teammate.
That doesn’t mean that the two aren’t friends; they probably still are. However, their clubs are in the middle of a First Round battle, and no respect shall be given to the other. Right now, Adams has reason to brush off Kanter, as his team is heading back home in a 2-0 hole.
For Adams and his team, this is the time to buckle down and figure out what exactly went wrong in the first two games in Portland, not to dwell on a friendship with his temporary enemy.