“You guys should anticipate November. The performance of the league, league-wide — GTA is dropping. So look at the NFL, look at all the leagues, and watch them plummet, mate.”
That’s Steven Adams at the Houston Rockets’ media day on 22 September 2026, delivering a sporting forecast that nobody asked for and everyone immediately shared. The New Zealand centre has a gift for the unhinged-but-reasonable take, and his Grand Theft Auto 6 prediction is possibly his finest work.
The Full Forecast, Explained
Adams wasn’t simply predicting that a few players might stay up too late on launch night. He called it league-wide. He specified November. And critically, he didn’t stop at players — he extended his prediction to coaching and scouting.
“Just for the month of November, performance is gonna go down,” he continued. “It should come back up, though. Most of the boys will get it done. Hopefully they finish the game. Coaching as well, by the way. The coaching and scouts are going to be horrendous, just for November, but it should bounce back in December, hopefully.”
The timeline is plausible. Grand Theft Auto 6 releases on 19 November 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S — roughly one month into the NBA regular season, and deep into the NFL season. If Adams is correct, November statistics across both leagues may need a footnote reading: Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto VI.
What makes the prediction genuinely funny rather than just silly is the specificity. Adams doesn’t just say players will be tired. He says scouts will be bad. He says coaches will suffer. He is imagining a scenario where the entire professional sports ecosystem — every person who works late studying game film, every analyst building the matchup report — is secretly three hours into Los Santos when they should be doing something else.
The Rest of the League Has Already Confirmed His Theory
Adams framed his prediction as a joke, but professional athletes keep providing the supporting evidence. New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye said he might wait for a bye week before starting the game — which is either impressive self-discipline or an acknowledgement that he, too, plans to lose several days to it once the timing is right. Cooper Flagg and LeBron James have both publicly hyped the release in the run-up to launch.
The bit works because the behaviour it describes is entirely recognisable. Major game launches genuinely do disrupt sleep schedules and morning routines. The question of whether they affect professional sport is usually left to anecdote. Adams has now provided the framework. If the shooting percentages dip around 20 November, we’ll know.
It’s also worth noting the reported length of GTA 6. According to Rockstar’s Rob Nelson, finishing the story will take around 80 hours. That’s not a one-night issue. That’s potentially three or four weeks of someone’s spare time, which means Adams’ “should bounce back in December” call might even be optimistic.
The GTA 6 release: Pre-orders went global on 25 June 2026. Pre-load begins 12 November. The game launches 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S — accompanied by a 34-track album, with six singles already available.
November 19 and the Aftermath
Rockstar’s release arrives with unusual fanfare even by GTA standards. A 34-track album accompanies the launch, with six singles already streaming. The cultural footprint of Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to be enormous — pre-order demand has been heavy since June, and the preload window opens 12 November, a week before release.
Adams’ optimism about the recovery is the reassuring coda. December, he reckons, should be fine. Most of the boys will have finished the game by then. Whether they’ll want to touch basketball after eighty hours of open-world chaos is a separate question — but Adams, at least, sounds confident.
