Kiwi basketball coaching great Jeff Green has spoken out on what he views as the real reason why Steven Adams is not playing for the Tall Blacks.
In an interview with Tony Veitch on Radio Sport, Green revealed a popular belief in basketball circles, stating that Adams is not playing for the Tall Blacks due to a rift between Basketball New Zealand and Adams' mentor, Kenny McFadden.
Contrary to popular belief, Adams' NBA side - the Oklahoma City Thunder - are willing to let Adams suit up for the Tall Blacks, with Green saying the Thunder are more than happy to have their stars represent their national teams.
"OKC are more than happy for Steven to take part in the New Zealand team and any activities. As long as it's not an in-season thing - and the international programme is outside the NBA season. So all the boxes are checked there."
However, he believes Basketball New Zealand's poor treatment of McFadden in the past has left a dent in the administration's working relationship with both Adams and McFadden, with Adams sticking up for his mentor despite a strong want to represent his country.
"There are lots of things that have happened over the years since Kenny was with the Junior Tall Blacks when the world champs were held on the North Shore in 2009. He was treated very very badly by the organisation back then... they have mistreated him since, particularly when Steve was making his way through the grades and shunned for the fact he didn't play age groups a lot because he was getting himself ready to have this big career in the NBA."
Green also places no blame on McFadden for the rift.
"I understand everything that has happened and I don't attribute any of the blame to Kenny at all. I've known Kenny since 1982 when he first came out to New Zealand. He's been nothing but a positive influence on everyone.
"Everyone knows this and if you talk to Steve he'll tell you he wants to play for the Tall Blacks. But he's not going to let an organisation do things to his friends. That's what it boils down to. He dearly wants to play for New Zealand; he'd play in a heartbeat. Insurances and all those things can be taken care of; he's got the blessing of his NBA franchise.
"He's sticking up for his mentor, the guy that actually got him there and pulled all the strings to help him get there and put a lot of time and effort. You can't blame Steven for that."
Adams was in the country as the Tall Blacks went down to Australia in a two-game FIBA Oceania Olympic qualifying series, but ruled out participating for the national team, saying in a statement that he would have been unable to join the squad until late in the tour, and did not believe it would be the right thing to join the team late in the process.
While noting that people have wanted to keep it under wraps because it has ramifications for everyone in the sport, Green believes there is a personality conflict between McFadden and the higher-ups at Basketball New Zealand.
"I think at the end of the day, people have just got get into a room, smack each other across the head and make some common sense decisions and move forward.
"If I was the head coach of the Tall Blacks, I would have said 'Hey Kenny do you want to be one of the assistant coaches?' There are enough assistant coaches on that Tall Blacks staff now, there is only official guy, that is Pero Cameron. If you look on the bench during the games there are four or five guys there so there is no reason why they could say 'Kenny you've done great service to basketball NZ, we know you have the game at heart and you got one of our kids to the pinnacle of the game, how about helping us with the national team?'"
The Tall Blacks are set to put their Rio Olympic hopes on the line in June/July 2016, where they will play in one of three six-team tournaments, with the winner of each tournament progressing to the Olympics.
