Basketball: Kiwi basketball star Steven Adams fires up in nasty sideline spat with fan

Kiwi NBA star Steven Adams didn't take one fans' sideline comments well on Saturday night (NZT).

The Oklahoma City Thunder centre got involved in a verbal argument with an outspoken fan seven minutes into the third quarter of the Nuggets' 109-98 win.

After Adams fouled, Nikola Jokic was getting ready to take a free-throw before a fan started taunting the Kiwi basketball star.

The fan, dressed in a Jamal Murray jersey, yelled at Adams to "shut up" and "stop moaning about the call".

Adams quickly responded by calling the mouthy fan "a little b****" and inviting him to meet outside to settle things.

"Calm down," the fan responded.

"Meet me out there," Adams continued. "You know where I am, mother f*****."

The spat went on until the referee intervened and appeared to put the fan in his place while the commentators joked about showing him a red card.

Although briefly being fired up, the incident didn't seem to affect Adams' performance, with the OKC big man finishing the game with 26 points and 14 rebounds including 11 offensive boards.