Dreams of finally seeing Steven Adams suit up in the black singlet at the World Cup have been all but been dashed.
Adams was reportedly in line for his Tall Blacks debut, until the NBA centre suffered a knee injury for the Memphis Grizzlies.
There were hopes he would recover in time for the World Cup in August, but the Grizzlies have revealed he won't be back on the court until at least October.
Adams is not expected to have surgery on his PCL injury, and there is a plan in place to have him ready for the 2023/2024 NBA season.
"The target for Steven is to return at the beginning of next season," Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman said. "That's the hope for everyone going into this off-season with Steven."
Adams suffered the injury in January, and was only expected to miss a couple of months, but instead, turned out to be season-ending.
Without him, the Grizzlies bowed out of the first round of the NBA Western Conference playoffs, with Lebron James' Los Angeles Lakers winning the series 4-2.
Despite being the second seed, the Grizzlies struggled to overcome challenges both on and off the court.
Adams' void wasn't helped but the constant distractions away from basketball, with Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks routinely hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Before Adams' injury, he averaged 8.6 points and a career-high 11.5 rebounds over 42 games, while the Grizzlies were 28-14 with him in their line-up. Adams signed a two-year, US$25.2 million contract extension before this current season.
In August 2022, Basketball NZ chief executive Dillon Boucher told Newshub he was confident Adams would at some point play for the Tall Blacks.
"We are in good dialogue with him and his team, and we are confident, when the time is right, that he'll be able to put on the black singlet one day," said Boucher.
"Our understanding is one day he wants to put on the black singlet, we just don't know when that will be.
"That's just working with him and his management to make sure the stars align."
