Steven Adams has built a reputation in the NBA as one of basketball’s toughest players, but away from the court, the New Zealand big man has quietly spent over a decade giving back to thousands of children across his home country.
Speaking on the Between Two Beers podcast, Adams opened up about hosting 24 free basketball camps over 11 years, helping more than 10,000 children while personally funding over 11,500 singlets and 12,500 basketballs.
“I mean, the main thing is just promoting basketball in general, just having fun and all that. The motivation behind it started when I was with Kenny Mack, like Kenny McBneeth. He would go to Wellington, some of the really rough areas in Wellington, and throw little mini ball camps.”
“It was interesting to see because, as we grew up, we would always hear stories about Kenny. Even now, people come out and say, ‘Oh, Kenny used to come to my school and we used to do camps.'”
“He really wove himself into the fabric of that community. When he was with me in the States, we talked about this a lot, how to give back. I grew up through his system, so it’s part of the ecosystem where, okay, I made it here, now I want to give back. Even the players he dealt with in those rough areas are giving back too. It’s just different scales.”
“We’re all doing the same thing, and it all started from what Kenny Mack built. It was really cool from that standpoint. That’s all this is, just getting the right people around me. The Pathway Boys are an awesome group of lads helping me fulfill this.”
The inspiration behind the project came from someone who had a major influence on his life growing up, longtime mentor Kenny McFadden, often referred to by Adams as Kenny Mack. That mentality has become one of the defining parts of Adams’ legacy off the court.
While many NBA stars run camps during the offseason, Adams’ approach has always felt different because of how hands-on and community-focused it is. For many kids, especially in lower-income communities, those camps became their first real exposure to organized basketball. The story adds another layer to Adams’ image beyond basketball.
Fans already know him as the 6-foot-11, 265-pound center famous for brutal screens, toughness, and old-school physicality. They know the stories about him eating massive amounts of food, sleeping on a mattress on the floor despite earning over $180 million in NBA salary, and casually overpowering opponents with raw strength.
But this side of Adams shows something else entirely. For over a decade, while building a successful NBA career, he quietly kept returning home to invest time, money, and effort into helping thousands of kids simply enjoy basketball.
