At the Houston Rockets media day, ahead of the new season, Steven Adams took the microphone to announce a coming drop in play across several professional leagues, NBA and NFL included.
“I will say: you guys should anticipate November. The performance of the league, league wide, is gonna go down. GTA is dropping. So look at the NFL, look at all the leagues, and watch them plummet, mate,” said the Rockets’ centre.
He added that the dip would be short-lived: “Just for the month of November performance is gonna go down, it should come back up. Coaching as well.”
Martine got out her binder at the announcement and looked for the column. There isn’t one for “video game”, and there isn’t one for “coaching as well” either. Where she’s from, a drop in form in November gets sorted with a technical foul on the bench and a report to the provincial committee, not a console release. She closed the binder and went back to counting the time-outs still left at the table.
Steven Adams, 33, is playing his third season with the Rockets, having been traded there from the Memphis Grizzlies in 2024. Last season he averaged 5.9 points and 8.6 rebounds in 22.7 minutes across 31 games.
He has two guaranteed seasons left on his Houston contract: 13 million dollars this season, roughly 11.8 million in 2027-28. Martine has no column for dollars either, but she notes that two seasons is two seasons, and it counts like everything else, one line at a time.
She added, closing her binder for good: “A player announcing a drop in form before the season even starts, where I’m from, we call that a prediction. We note it down anyway. If it comes true, it’s on the sheet. If it doesn’t, it’s on the sheet too. The sheet doesn’t pick sides.”
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
