Steven Adams Warns GTA 6 Will Tank League-Wide Play in November
At Rockets media day, Adams predicted performance will 'plummet' when GTA 6 drops Nov. 19 — and coaches and scouts won't be spared either.
Deep bench center off the radar in standard formats — monitor his role only.
- GTA 6 releases November 19, 2026
- Adams: 5.8 pts, 8.6 reb in 32 games (2025-26)
- 21.2 FPTS/G last season (2025-26)
- Our rank #193 overall, #37 at center
- GTA 5 launched 13 years ago in Sept. 2013
Rockets media day on Tuesday gave us the usual round of offseason optimism, but Steven Adams used his podium time to issue a very different kind of forecast. The veteran center predicted that on-court and on-field performance across every major league — the NBA and NFL included — will "plummet" in November when "GTA 6" finally hits shelves on November 19.
Adams wasn't joking, or at least not entirely. He said fans should brace for a league-wide dip for the whole month, warned that players won't be the only ones distracted, and added that coaching and scouting will be "horrendous" while everyone tries to finish the game. His optimistic caveat: things should bounce back by December once the boys wrap it up.
It's a genuinely funny bit, but there's a real thought behind it. Adams has been in the league long enough to watch gaming balloon into a locker-room fixture — annual "Call of Duty" releases already pull focus — and he expects the first new "Grand Theft Auto" in 13 years to operate on another planet entirely.
Can We Actually Measure This?
Not cleanly. "GTA 5" dropped in mid-September 2013, before the NBA season tipped, so there's no clean historical comp for launch-week productivity in-season. The honest answer is we won't know until late November, when we can eyeball whether performances across the sports landscape get noticeably sloppier. File it under fun-to-track, not bankable.
The Fantasy Angle
Adams himself is barely a fantasy factor in standard leagues. He sits at #193 overall in our rankings (#37 among centers) after posting 5.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists across 32 games last season (2025-26), good for 21.2 fantasy points per game (2025-26 actual). That's rebounds-and-nothing-else production — useful in deep formats chasing boards and defensive stats, invisible everywhere else.
For managers: this is a WATCH, not a move. Adams is a matchup-based streamer in the deepest leagues, and his real value hinges on whether Houston hands him consistent minutes at the five. As for the GTA prophecy — don't rebuild your November lineup around it. If your stars go quiet after the 19th, though, at least you'll know who to blame.
