After posting the second-highest single-game scoring total in NBA history on Tuesday, Bam Adebayo felt like he received more criticism than praise about the circumstances surrounding his 83-point night. Following the Heat‘s victory over Milwaukee on Thursday, Adebayo fired back at his detractors, writes Fred Katz of The Athletic.
“First of all, y’all are blaming me. You should be blaming that head coach (Washington’s Brian Keefe). Get that first,” Adebayo said. “I was not the one that let me go one-on-one the whole game until I had 70 (points) and then started to send a double (team). At that point, I had 70 with, what, nine minutes left to go in the game? You think I’m not going for it?”
As Katz outlines, both teams altered their strategies during the closing minutes of Adebayo’s historic performance. Miami committed several intentional fouls to get the ball back and give him more scoring chances, while the Wizards surrounded Adebayo with their entire defense in an effort to stop him from surpassing Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game from 2006.
Adebayo set the tone for the night with 31 points in the first quarter, reached 43 by halftime, and was at 62 going into the fourth quarter. He set NBA records by making 36 free throws and attempting 43, with 16 of his foul shots coming in the closing 12 minutes.
“That’s the thing that’s crazy when they talk about the unethical part of basketball. I’m like, ‘I had 70 with nine minutes to go,’” Adebayo said. “Who would just be like, ‘You know, coach? Just take me out.’ Yeah, right. … A minute? All right. Nine? Yeah, I’m going for it. You can’t be mad at that. If you are mad, I don’t care. Because a lot of people, they’re upset because if they did play, they never had a chance to get that close to chasing greatness. And if you get that close to chasing greatness, that’s the point of chasing it, so you can surpass it. … If you’ve been in the backyard, and you and a couple of your homies are playing 21, and you got 19, you’re not gonna get an easy look off.”
Regarding the free throws, he added, “It’s not like I shoot 15 free throws a game. It’s not like I average 10 free throws a game. You can watch the film. I was legitimately getting fouled every time, so I went to the free-throw line.”
Coach Erik Spoelstra sent a similar message during Thursday’s pregame session with the media, saying, “I apologize to absolutely no one,” per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (subscription required). The Heat played Tuesday without Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Kel’el Ware and Andrew Wiggins, who were all sidelined by injuries, so Spoelstra wanted Adebayo to take control of the offense.
“I’ve seen people say, you’ve got to be a purist,” Spoelstra said. “I’m a Darwinist in this league. Really, you can do anything you want in this game. You can approach it however you want. If we get criticized for what we do, there was probably irony in these two organizations. There’s nothing wrong with what [the Wizards are] doing. If you can tank and get a great draft pick, I don’t care. Like, you can do anything you want in this league. You can approach it however you want.
“We don’t do that and we have a 14th pick do something that you’re trying to get out of the No. 1 pick. I’ve seen teams hack a Shaq. Debate it or not debate it, who cares? You can do whatever you want. You foul three-point shooters, not foul three-point shooters. You can take the last shot in the game that’s already over or don’t take it. Who gives a damn? Like, you’re allowed to do what? I don’t even believe in that.”
What’s not to like…fouling up 25 to give him more shots. Come on, that’s the heat culture they talk about so much in nba circles.
Yeah they should have just chilled out the rest of the game. Mercy rules should be in effect like in T-ball.
Forget records! Why even have them at all if nobody is going to try to break them!
Might as well stop calling them losses too.
50 wins 32 thanks for participating great job lil buddys
In 20 years nobody will care how he did it. Just that he did.
So if someone just cherry picks under the basket all game and gets 150 we should cheer? Sam thing to a lesser extent.
He’d be way more deserving of praise without over half of his points coming from free throws.
If the opponent cannot stop it why would you do anything else?
Wilt was said to be cherry picking in his 100 point gane btw the entire 2nd half
Played 48 mins as well
People stopped caring about Kobe farming a 60 point game this will go away too.
Does anyone know who holds the record of most points scored for the Globetrotters against the Washington Generals?
Answer; Bam Adebayo.
Any criticism should be leveled at the Wizards, not Bam.
dang bam put up 83?! pretty dope for him
LMAO
I hate Miami but who f’n cares. Bam 🔥 them up. Let him enjoy his moment in the record books. If you sit and pout that he should have sat down after he hit 70, then you should go coach peewee basketball games, where no scores are kept. Wait, scratch that, our country needs to raise real men who fight to 🏆 win. We got enough of the worthless cry me a river people screw them. Congrats Bam!
I’m not hating but I can’t celebrate being up 20 and intentionally fouling. That was trash. Pitiful. 43 free throws? I don’t care about that performance.
The NBA has become the antithesis of actual basketball. Like jaylen Brown was saying about foul baiting. At some point, as a fan, I want to watch good basketball and exceptional players do exceptional things to put the ball in the hoop.
The purest version of the game is still played on playgrounds imo. A foul only means you get the ball back and another chance to actually put the ball in the hoop. When Adam silver slips up and says “the NBA is a highlight league (aka no one watches full games),” he knows why. Games become slogs and all the excitement in the arena is gone with trip after trip to the free throw line. I love the NBA in general but imo it gets further and further from athletic competition
Crowd seemed to enjoy it
👍
I’ll let Bam know that you can’t celebrate his 83 point game. I’m sure he will be devastated.
The same way he cares about people on here giving him kudos. Make sure you relay those while you’re at it.
You came on an opinion board and found an opinion. Find something else to be fake mad at it
“Ironic endpoints”
They only did that b/c Washington fouled other people and then stalled time on offense to the end of shot clocks to lower the amount of possessions. They only intentionally fouled twice to get the ball back, and both times were after situations like that
Bam had 77 with 7 missed fts before it got to that level
The warriors were literally doing this to the knicks throught the 3rd and 4th quarters of the Wilt game…but ok
Also, to clarify, the Heat were up 13 with 9 minutes left, and Bam had 70 already. Heat lead the league by far in blowing 10+ point leads to lose games. They also didnt have any other bigs, but regardless, many times in that situation, Bam comes put, and they’re trailing by 6 by the time he comes back in. So mentioning the score of the game is ridiculous b/c it was a close game, in general, in the realities of how the season has gone
Blame Washington who could not guard Bam without fouling him to save their lives. Bam was blowing past Alex Sarr all night
Kobe’s performance was not good basketball. Bam’s 70 was. Bam at 70 was the 2nd highest points in a real game. Especially since the rest of the Heat are D-league right now.
I’m sure Wilt farmed too, and Wilt was just a full 20 years ahead of his time, so even he has an *. Freak athlete, only gets credit for matching that with drive.
Fouling to get more chances is lame and deserves criticism. So shut up Heat and realize 24/7 sports media wants clicks. Your game will always be better than Kobe.
So what’s the stink? Because Bam outdid the precious Kobe? Too bad. He earned it.
Tell em Spo; Tell em Bam
Clowns, all of them. Cry more
Kobe would think you are all softer than tissue paper
I will say this game reminded me of the things I love about sports, and made me even more frustrated about my burnout; Anything can happen any given game, including history being made; I couldn’t sell this ticket to save my life, my eye was hurting, I was tired, I was almost late for once, but I got to be part of history, again
Good on KD and Giannis for being the only 2 normal people (that I saw) congratulating Bam. Some coaches and players and sportscenter anchors are absolute clowns. These people ended sports for me; the thing I’ve cared most about most of my life, with this type of $#!+. This is the reason my burnout is what it is, and I can no longer engage with it, and am left with apathy, in general, most of the time, now. It is what it is. Always discredit the Heat at all costs
What is amazing is on my way to the arena, I literally said Bam could never score another point, and I wouldnt care b/c of everything else he does. Then, he proceeded to be incredible on both ends of the floor. Nothing was forced until the end when he started getting tired and knocked to the ground a lot more, and by then, he had 77 points, and had missed 7 free throws. I’ve only ever really seen 1 or 2 games like this, and the last one was over 20 years ago. There were maybe a couple of fouls I would argue werent shooting fouls, but they may have been in the bonus, but I cant say for sure, b/c I was more focused on the game. Washington tried relentlessly to stop him from getting there. They were denying him the ball on in bounds, fouling other people, trying to foul him the moment he touched the ball to keep him from shooting, literally stalling on offense and running out shot clocks to lower the amount of possessions, etc
Its wild how James Hardens career regular season stats matter so much, while nobody ever talks about how he got those, but this is some conspiracy
Then where are anybody else’s 83?
People acting like Washington must not have been trying is wild to me. Have you looked at their roster? Who plays defense in that rotation? Coulibaly, Champagnie, and Anthony Gill are the literal only people that played that can play any semblance of defense. The Heat also had a lot of disruptors on the floor, and got a lot of deflections and steals, which led to points
When this game started it was a strong matchup for the Heat, mostly b/c Washington has no guard defense, and then they traded for another of the same guards they already have that is making $50 million
More importantly, those talking about sanctity of the game or w/e clearly never listened to the radio broadcast of Wilt’s game, which you can find. The Warriors were fouling the knicks to get more possessions, etc, and it was mostly farcical from midway through the 3rd quarter, and especially the 4th quarter. Nobody says anything negative about how he got his number (they do pretend it wasnt real for some reason though). They do like to celebrate Devin Booker’s laughable 70 he got in a loss though, despite the ridiculous way that went, again, in a game his team lost. I remember watching Kobe’s 81, Toronto being a joke of a team at that time, and almost losing, but suddenly Washington’s record matters in this.
I hoped this would get clowns to shut up about Bam, finally, but I guess I was wrong. I dont care though; Bam is the carrier of the culture, his number will be in the rafters someday, and you will remember his [_@%!#& name
This was years of hard work culminating. I was thinking about that in the first quarter after his 3rd 3. This man wore Kobe’s almost every game of his career until he got his own shoe. Got to do it in front of his mom. He said he wished he knew what Kobe would have said, but I’ll take a quick bet on that and guess it would have been something like “would have had 90 if you didnt miss those free throws.” He also would likely think everyone crying about it is softer than tissue paper
If you are crying about a number that wasnt even the dudes best game, in a game his team almost lost, you have lost the plot. Man up. Maybe Phil shouldn’t have taken him out when he bad 62 against Dallas, if you care about this stuff so much, but this just shows everything I have said for years. Nobody cares about winning; you only care about counting stats, specifically points per game
People like Ime Udoka, Kelly Oubre, etc (guys that have never won literally anything, but clearly are still salty about getting beat by the Heat or passed on in the draft for Justise Winslow, who out of the league is still more of a winner than Oubre has ever been or ever will be), man up
Anyone criticising Bam is gotta be a numpty who knows nothing of hoops, as simple as!
Only thing to critique is… why on earth would Washington try to stop him passing Kobe?!?!?
Are they fan boys… are they paid by the Kobe family to do that? Really bizarre behavior if you ask me, right?
As a Knicks fan the only thing I hate about this is that I agree with Spoelstra and Adebayo. Everything they said here is spot on.
No dumber sports fans than the ones who turn gameplay decisions into morality.
Some of you are super dramatic LMAO. Morality? Sanctimonious much?
Duplicate accounts starting to give themselves away….