HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Over the course of his 11-year NBA career Steven Adams has always played in markets close to Houston, but it's not a city he had any familiarity with.
"Just played here," Adams said Tuesday. "You know the NBA, just hotel, stadium, that's it."
Adams joined the Rockets on Monday for the first time since he was traded from Memphis on February 1. In an effort to "get amongst the people", Adams took a field trip to the Galleria where the highly recognizable, long-haired, seven-footer was greeted with looks of confusion.
"I play for you guys now," Adams told the people who asked what he was doing there.
Adams won't play for the Rockets this season. The 30-year old is still rehabbing from November knee surgery which ended his 2023-24 season before it started. Rehab is going well, though he declined to out a timetable on when he'd be to get on the floor for basketball activities.
"My knee's still there, as you can see," he said. "All good. Can stand on it and stuff. We'll test it out a little bit."
To get back on the court Adams will have to be cleared by the surgeon who performed the operation on his posterior cruciate ligament as well as other doctors that he trusts, but he does not believe in setting a date for when he wants that to happen.
"It's not really good I think with these things looking at it in (chronological) order. It's more about like where you are today, and how you can progress. I feel like if you look at it chronologically there might be some things to slip through the cracks."
Adams had been doing his rehab in Washington D.C., he'll split his time between there and Houston for the remainder of the season. He says it's still too early to discuss how he'll fit in when healthy next season, but he likes the talent the Rockets have assembled.
"The talent is very high, so the ceiling is like, you can't tell where the ceiling is. It's just about the structure. That's what it's about, just the structure and the environment to allow them to go into a role, and especially whatever their skillset is, that they can flourish in that."
Adams has averaged 9.2 points and 8.2 rebounds in 706 games with Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and Memphis. He's is scheduled to make $12.6 million next season, the final year of a two-year, $25 million extension he signed before last season.
