Kenny McFadden and Angelo Robinson had a strong friendship

Great mates Kenny McFadden, left, and Angelo Robinson.

They were great mates with the love of basketball being the backbone of a friendship spanning 38 years.

Kenny McFadden, the quiet one, Angelo Robinson, the outgoing one – it was a friendship that gelled and lasted.

It has been a sad time for many in the basketball community with the death of McFadden, 61, an American-Kiwi basketball legend, who had been battling polycystic kidney disease.

McFadden and Robinson were among a wave of American basketball players who came to New Zealand in the 1980s to ply their trade in the domestic basketball league.

In 1982 McFadden, from Lansing, Michigan, came over to play for the Exchequer Saints, initially only for the American off-season.

Robinson came over in 1985 to play for the CablePrice Centrals, an arch-rival team in Wellington.

"Centrals were like the Boston Celtics on the way out," Robinson recalled.

One day Robinson, intrigued about what was happening at the Saints, asked McFadden about the club.

A great friendship was borne as the pair trained extensively and hung out.

"Everything went from there.

"Each morning at 6.30am he was at the door and we would head out to train.

"He had a great work ethic that was second to none."

By 1988 Robinson was coaching at the Saints.

"That's when we won the championship, losing only three games."

McFadden, a four-time Saints championship winner in the 1980s, played a big part in the team's success.

Kenny McFadden, in 2017, when he was having dialysis treatment while waiting for a kidney transplant. Photo / Marty Melville

"He was a very private person but very driven and very professional.

"He was a leader and also worked harder than anyone else."

But there were other aspects about McFadden that made him respected.

"He always had the right solution to a problem you thought you couldn't solve."

And he was a visionary who made things happen such as Basketball Programme Inc, Hoop Club, and the New Zealand Basketball Academy.

"Not one thing he told me didn't come true."

Moreover, he loved seeing young players aspire to greater things in the game, or simply do their best in life.

Hundreds of young players have been on scholarships around the world because of McFadden's influence.

He was the one who saw the raw potential in a young Steven Adams who would go on to be a star in the NBA.

Kenny McFadden with a young Steven Adams, in 2016. Photo / John Borren

He took Adams under his wing and helped forge a way to the game's highest level.

"Kenny McFadden was not just a coach but a father figure for a lot of us who had the privilege of being coached by him," Adams posted on Twitter.

"First impressions of him were always positive because of his contagious smile and swag.

"I'm one of many who have benefited from him changing my life, whether it was academics or on the court.

"He was always armed with a story or legend to keep me on my path.

"He will live on through the memories and values he has given us.

"Thank you for believing in me."

Robinson said McFadden was someone who "never had his hand out, he always had his hand up, high-fiving others".

"He was a constant giver."