Oklahoma City center Steven Adams has apologized after referring to Golden State's guards as "quick little monkeys" in an interview with ESPN's Chris Broussard following the Thunder's 108-102 Game 1 win over the Warriors on Monday.
Adams said it was "just a poor choice of words."
"I wasn't thinking straight," he told USA Today Sports. "I didn't know it was going to upset anyone, but I'm truly sorry. It was just a poor choice of words. I was just trying to express how difficult it was chasing those guys around."
Adams is from New Zealand. He moved to the United States to play basketball and spent one season at Pittsburgh before he was drafted by the Thunder in the first round in 2013. He cited a difference in dialect as part of his racially insensitive word choice Monday.
"It's just different, mate," he told USA Today Sports. "Different words, different expressions and stuff like that. But they obviously can be taken differently, depending on which country you're in. I'm assimilating, mate, still trying to figure out the boundaries, but I definitely overstepped them tonight."
