Steven Adams doffs his Peaky Blinder cap as he wows fans in a suit.

Steven Adams in a suit? It's been a long time since that happened.

But here he is - and with a Peaky Blinders cap to add extra style.

Before his Oklahoma City Thunder side took on the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday NZT, Adams and team-mates showed their fashion smarts, with the Kiwi in a radical departure from his normal attire.

OKC THUNDER/TWITTER A rare sight: Kiwi basketball icon Steven Adams in a suit and Peaky Blinder cap.

Why did this happen? Star player Chris Paul brought in a tailor and paid for custom-made suits for the entire Thunder team.

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"Even Steven Adams, known for showing up in sweats, got into the act," AP reported.

Paul said Adams looked "fresh" and he might have had the best look of all his team-mates.

Adams corrected him and told him the proper word was "dapper".

SUE OGROCKI/AP Steven Adams grabs a rebound in front of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant in Oklahoma City.

But he also revealed it had been a difficult time getting the suit on, saying it "kind of screwed him up" ahead of the game with the Memphis Grizzlies in Oklahoma City.

"I didn't realise how much time it takes to put on all that s.... It's a lot longer that I'm used to ... a lot of buttons, a lot of weird little things," he told Royce Young, NBA writer for ESPN.com

But Adams took credit for choosing the Peaky Blinders cap, he wasn't too keen when asked when he would don the suit again.

"Probably my funeral, mate," he replied.

Adams told Young he picked out the hat. "So if there are any good articles about the hat, that was all me. Full credit to me," he said.

He said that after watching Peaky Blinders on Netflix he went to get his beard trimmed and they were selling the hats.

"So I bought one and I was just like, 'Oh, I'll wear this one day,' happened to get a suit and I was like 'hey, I get to use it'."

On the court, Adams played a solid role in helping Oklahoma City overcome a 24-point deficit and beat the Grizzlies 126-122 in Oklahoma.

He made a big impact early, getting seven points and four rebounds in the first seven minutes.

He had a crucial play in the dying seconds, too, when the Grizzlies were pressing to win the game. Adams snatched a rebound from a Grizzlies miss and quickly moved the ball to Dennis Schroder, who was fouled and made his free throws to secure the game.

Schroder led the scoring with 31 points, Adams finished with 13 points and seven rebounds.

It was the second successive game in which the Thunder had overcome a deficit of 24 points or more to win.