Basketball: Kiwi NBA star Steven Adams compares quarantines between New Zealand and America

Steve Adams before an NBA game with the New Orleans Pelicans. Photo / Getty

Steven Adams has detailed the massive differences between New Zealand's border controls and the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Kiwi-born NBA centre has jumped between both countries within the last 12 months, having returned to New Zealand when the NBA was suspended for four months.

Adams spent two weeks quarantining upon his arrival home, and speaking on The Old Man and the Three podcast with JJ Redick – one of Adams' teammates on the New Orleans Pelicans – and Tommy Alter, he said it was a huge contrast to what he experienced going back into the US.

"[I] didn't have any trouble [getting into New Zealand]… once I came in I had to isolate for two weeks, it was pretty intense," he says.

"It isn't like you just show up and they say 'Cool, get out of here'. You have to write down your number, your Skype address, where you're staying and then they check up on you, and they'll send local police to go and have a look if you're actually isolating… so it wasn't just some piss around sort of thing.

"There was more going on there than when I had to come back to America.

"When I had to come back they were just like 'Oh yeah… just go… get out of here."

Adams says unlike other countries, there was a seamless transition into lockdowns from the New Zealand population, which he puts down to the people.

"There's no mistrust in the Government, or the authorities. Everyone kind of just followed the rules. There was a few mishaps every now and then, but for the most part there's not like some sort of weird social infection that's growing and everyone's just like slowly not going to trust like anything. Everyone's pretty level-headed.

"The biggest advantage [was] how quickly the Government reacted to the situation, so the starting point was probably the most crucial."

Adams stayed at his farm located in the Bay of Plenty for a good chunk of his return trip. He says it became more or less a happy place for him during the pandemic.

"The farm was more of a saviour - because the routine doesn't change.

"As a farmer - the cows don't care, they just need to get looked after. Everything was just normal."

"Especially at that time… so much uncertainty with the future. No one knew what was going on, they were like 'We're going to bring it back up, NBA's going to start and then next day it was like 'Nah no it's not'.

He describes the farm as an "amazing place".

"If you see it [the farm], it should be like an art piece," he adds.

"Got some nice hills there, right on the beach… volcano out there in the distance, got a forest out the back, got some deer frolicking around there. It's just a dairy farm, it's nice and green."

The league halted on March 11 and returned on July 30 in 2020, making for four months without any basketball when typically the tail-end of the regular season, playoffs and finals occur.

Since returning to the US Adams has donned the strip of two teams. Playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder to round out the Covid-impacted season, he was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans prior to the 2020-21 campaign.