ADELAIDE chased Hugh Greenwood's signature for eight years before landing their man, who quit his basketball career earlier this year to join the Crows.

Greenwood was a promising point guard who starred at college level in the US before training with the Utah Jazz. 

He signed with the Perth Wildcats to play in the current NBL season, but when he considered his hopes of representing the Boomers at next year's Olympic Games dashed he decided to "pull the trigger" on his code hop. 

The 23-year-old has put on 6kg since arriving at West Lakes but said he would slim down to help break his "basketball tag".

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"After the NBA didn't work out I came back to Australia really trying to put my foot in the door with the Olympic stuff … I didn't make the side initially so that was going to be really, really hard for me to make the Olympics the following year so I pulled the trigger with the footy," Greenwood said. 

"Persistence pays for old 'Haggis' (Crows recruiter Hamish Ogilvie) … eight years basically – he was my development coach, he found me in Tassie … every time the [basketball] season was finished I could expect some voice mails from Haggis, 'what are you doing in the off-season? Do you want to come and see Adelaide?' 

"I've got to break that basketball tag and become a footballer – that's my biggest thing at the moment – getting away from 'Hugh the basketballer' and becoming 'Hugh the footy player'." 

Shaking that reputation might prove trickier than he first thought; Greenwood said his teammates preferred to talk round ball than oval, whereas he preferred the opposite.

But he did believe a background in basketball had proven beneficial to his future in football. 

"When [Ricky Henderson] plays, the game's quite slow for him; 'Pendles' (Scott Pendlebury) is the same," he said. 

"It looks like he's in slow motion; in basketball there's so much going on and in such a confined space that you've got to be able to make decisions really quickly.

"That'll really help me, my decision-making is why I'm playing in the forward line at the moment.

"The agility side of basketball as well; stop start, short bursts of explosion and all that sort of stuff will certainly help me as well."

Greenwood trained solidly over the club's off-season, trying to improve his skill level as well as his conditioning, which he tipped would be his biggest hurdle. 

His immediate goal is to feature in the club's 2016 NAB Challenge but also said he aimed to try and push for senior selection next year.