On Thursday night against the Indiana Pacers, Grizzlies center Steven Adams will be playing for more than himself. Just a few hours after Wednesday’s joyous win over the Brooklyn Nets, the Memphis big man received tragic news. Kenny McFadden, his former coach and mentor — and perhaps the biggest influence in his basketball career — had died of polycystic kidney disease.
Tag: Kenny McFadden
Adams was 13 when he met McFadden. …
Adams was 13 when he met McFadden. Following his father’s death from stomach cancer, Adams’ brother, Warren, took Steven from Rotorua, New Zealand, to Wellington, where he met the basketball coach and shortly after began playing at his basketball academy. “He was his coach and his mentor,” said Jordan Mills, the CEO of the Wellington Saints, the NBL team where McFadden coached and Adams played in 2011. “They used to train at 6 or 7 a.m., and even before that Kenny would drive to go pick up Steven every day and look after him. He was more than just a coach for him. He was his father figure.”