NBA Star Shows Love to One Piece, Roronoa Zoro

One Piece is living large these days. Not long ago, the franchise celebrated the North American release of its latest movie, and the anime is going strong with the Wano Country arc. Creator Eiichiro Oda has kept the story in tip-top shape for its anniversary year, and fans have been quick to hype the series' successes. And over on social media, fans were reminded how universal One Piece has become.

After all, fans from all over gathered the other day to celebrate a certain swordsman. Roronoa Zoro celebrated his birthday yesterday to the fanfare of many, and fans honored him with tributes. Few caught more attention than the one done by NBA star Steven Adams though.

Taking to Twitter, the NBA star piqued interest when he shared an article about One Piece. The report was honoring Zoro's big birthday, and Adams responded by praising the swordsman with a very apt emoji.

🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 https://t.co/5grRXnoWaS

— Steven Adams (@RealStevenAdams) November 11, 2019

Of course, fans were quick to riff on Adams about his love of One Piece. It isn't everyday a NBA star shares their love for Zoro online. The athlete is currently working with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Born over in New Zealand, Adams played in his hometown before moving to the United States to play basketball. At 6'11", you can understand why the athlete picked up a basketball in the first place, and fans are loving Adams' online tribute to Zoro.

Of course, the athlete isn't the only sports star out there who loves anime. In fact, the medium has been praised again and again by NFL elites like Mike Daniels. Heroes like Son Goku inspired these aspiring athletes during their formational years, and it seems Adams feels the same about the Straw Hat's swordsman.

Are you loving this NBA shout out? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.