Many College Members were enthralled when basketball star, Steven Adams, visited the College on 21 August 2018 for a question and answer session with students.
Thanks to the efforts and contacts of the College's Building Maintenance Supervisor, Antony (Alf) Arlidge, St Margaret's was the venue for an exciting two-hour visit by Steven Adams and former All Black Ma'a Nonu.
Steven is a seriously big man, with his 2.13 m height making my 1.83 m feeling awfully small in comparison. And you should see the size of his shoes. I thought my size 11 was fairly large but I reckon he must be size 20.
But of course it's not just Steven's height and foot size that are so impressive. This man has basketball skills that the vast majority of us can only dream of, being selected to play for the USA's Oklahoma Thunder team at the young age of 20. And naturally he earns serious money too. He is the brother of Valerie Adams, New Zealand's dual Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion shot-putter.
It was wonderful having Ma'a Nonu as part of the Q&A session too. Ma'a is a professional rugby player and currently plays for Toulon in France. He was a key member of the winning All Black teams in the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups,
Steven and Ma'a entertained around 200 St Margaret's Members and Māori and Pasifika students from the wider University community in a jam-packed Norris Dining Hall at the College. I think it would be fair to say that the students were awestruck by having these two sports stars in their midst for a couple of hours!
For a wonderful set of professional photos taken at the event by John Cresswell, click here.
(Story by the Master, Dr Charles Tustin)
