Bam Adebayo embarked on his first Olympic Journey with Team USA in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were pushed back to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The squad was led by Kevin Durant, one of the greatest players in Team USA History, and Damian Lillard, among others. Adebayo started in all six games, averaging 6.3 points, a team-most 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks on 57.1 percent shooting and 58.6 percent true shooting. He helped lead Team USA to their fourth straight Olympic Gold over Rudy Gobert, Nando de Colo and a well-respected French squad, 87-82.
Now, Team USA will have LeBron James back at the helm for the first time since 2012. They will also have Durant, Joel Embiid, Stephen Curry–partaking in his first career Olympics–Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards and Kawhi Leonard, among others. Adebayo spoke about that difference on Tuesday.
“It’s a little different,” Adebayo told reporters Tuesday. “It’s one of those things where you have so much talent, man. You gotta somehow figure out how to be a chameleon and kinda kinda mix in and, and find your niche.”
It’s unclear whether or not Adebayo will get the starting nod, though he will still be one of the most important big men alongside Embiid and Davis.
“This isn’t about who can go get 30 (points),” he said. “We’re all the No. 1, No. 2 options on our team.
“So just being able to really go out here and just make the main thing, the main thing–which is winning. You figure out little things you can do that contribute to that. … It’s on us to, you know, play the right way, do the little things and uh compete at the highest level.”
We will get a better feel for what his role might be in the coming weeks. Team USA will have five exhibitions, beginning on Wednesday against Team Canada at 10:30 p.m. EST in Las Vegas, Nev. The four ensuing exhibitions will be against Australia, Serbia, South Sudan and Germany before Group play begins on July 28 against Serbia.
Team USA has not won five straight Olympic gold medals since it won six straight from 1948-1968. Adebayo will certainly have a “niche” instead of being a top option, but if everyone else can excel in their roles, there’s no reason why they can’t secure their 17th-ever Olympic gold.
*********
Purchase NBA League Pass now to stream every Summer League game. Sign up now to get 50% off the League Pass Premium Seasonal Package. Use Promo Code “SUMMERLEAGUE50″ to support HHH!
To check out our other content, click here.
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter/X here!
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram here!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
Boston
NYK
Philadelphia
Orlando
Indiana
Cleveland
Milwaukee
these are probably going to be the top 7 teams, in no particular order.
we’ll probably be battling Atlanta for the 8th and 9th seed
Ye of little faith! With any luck at all, Miami should be able to avoid the play-in round entirely.
It will be fun to watch to Heat beat all of those teams.
Nope we’re gonna be a higher seeded team then that. The key to a higher seed is the health of the team. Can’t have 32 starting lineup changes, and our main players can’t be missing over 80 games combined. Just can’t wait for the heat and spo to prove us wrong again.
I think they could be anywhere from 4 to 7, with the goal to avoid the play-in at all costs. Finishing 6 or better allows them to rest, practice, and strategize for the next opponent.
I feel the same way, we can do it, and we’re gonna see if Jimmy really cares about ending his career with us or not.
If he has to play another year with ty n dunc hes out a here
Blame Riley for over paying on potential.
Rileys mess for sure.Not ty or duncs fault they cant guard.God gave them no d genes.
If I had a nickle for every time someone told me the Sixers were better than the Heat because of their offseason moves, then I could afford 1 ticket to the Conference Finals, which means I would have been there more times than the Sixers
Lol! Good one.
These are the type of comments I live for.
Sir, if you did not get your $15 mil, with work like that, for sure once this current contract is up
Hmm what happened when Mia played them in the playin? Couldn’t pay me to fix my mouth to talk shit about a team that beat Mia when they needed too, same goes for Indy and as it currently stands both teams are better rn than Mia which is the 6th if we’re being optimistic best team in the east, more likely are the 7th 8th best team if we’re being honest with ourselves which some here don’t wanna do. Mia has been a playin team 2 seasons in a row while doing absolute squat in the offseason to improve the team now are running it back while making no major improvements to the team. We can hope pray and sing to the basketball gods all we want too until this team gets real talent on this team their fate is a playin team with hopes and prayers that doesn’t translate to winning in the nba talent does
History will be kind to your statement and mine. I prefer not to talk down anyone but I owe it to this site to give my honest assessment and it mirrors yours. So I just take the slings and arrows and roll with it. We all need each other, those who pump us up and those who pump the brakes when it’s appropriate.
jim bam terry vs joel max pg
That Is reality. We have a lot of wishing and hoping going on here as opposed to having enough high quality players.
The Herald came out with a story yesterday, belittling Pat the unassailable Godfather, saying he could learn a thing or two from Bill Zito, the Panthers GM. I said the same thing here two days ago.
If this was baseball, since 2021, Pat would be batting below the Mendoza line, as he has made some huge mistakes. The Pat we have now is highly over-rated. It’s just reality, just like the fact that we went from being one of the top four teams to being, as it stands now, about 14th or worse in the power rankings. Yes, Jimmy carried us to amazing heights, and it served to cover up the abysmal job Pat was doing. If he could have gotten us one more player during the three years of Jimmy’s prime, not a great one but just a very good one, we would have won it all.
To list some of Pat’s failures, there is 1)whale watching every year but never landing one, while the other good players went off the board, 2)listening to a player and giving a huge contract to a selfish mercenary who is out of the league now,3) giving out absurd contracts to players so unreasonable that those players are untradeable now, and 4) drafting a certain type of player that has not delivered more often than he has (maybe that changed this year).
These comments that say to trust in the Godfather are almost laughable now.
It’s not just me saying it, it’s in the Herald and other sports commentary.
Again just telling it like it is.We all want the heat to succeed.But just look at what ny bost phil dallas ind gms have done the last 2 years 30.Mickey pat spo are like family now.Spo could go 0 82 pat wouldnt fire him.Pat could give ty dunc etc outrageous contracts mickey would never fire him.The heat are def in trouble when jimmy leaves next year.unless a dwade type player is arriving.If bam is our best player God help us,
What you have said is all true too. Bam is an almost excellent player, a high A in my opinion, but not quite an A+ in overall effectiveness. He can be stopped when we have to depend only on him. If we have another lethal option, Bam is hard to stop. A+ players, which there are few, are almost unstoppable when they need to score, and only need the slightest of diversion from other scoring options. Jimmy used to be one. He carried us, particularly in the Bucks series you often cite, his zenith. But, how many close games did he win for us by scoring in crunch time or more often getting to the line. Sadly, he can’t do that anymore. His game puts a pounding on his body.
lOn alley oops hard to stop 30.Otherwise very avg offensively.Great defensive player.Only guy i think better ad and maybe draymond.Bam is not a go to guy.When does he ever want the ball in last 2 minutes.Answer never.Hes just not a natural scorer.Hes rough around the edges.Overall a top 20 player.Ithink jim can be a top 10-15 player if hes dedicated .After these two rozier might be a top 40-50 player.
To respond to your 4 points (or the Herald’s).
1) i agree. This has been going on since at least LeBron leaving after the 2014 season. On the other hand, some here would chastise Riley if there was a chance to get a Lillard or Mitchell and he didn’t pursue it. And some of those are the same people complaining that Riley didn’t get Butler what he needed.
2) Lowry wasn’t a terrible idea. Lowry at $87 million was as egregious as it gets. And then there was Napier.
3) Virtually every player making about the same money as Duncan is arguably better than him. For Herro, some in his range are better, some are worse. It was a fair market value contract at the time.
4) Jarrett Culver, Cam Reddish, Romeo Langford, Sekou Doumbouya. Johnny Davis, Dyson Daniels, Ousmane Dieng, Ochai Agbaji. Kobe Bufkin, Jarace Walker, Jett Howard, Anthony Black.
The first group are players picked before or immediately after Herro. The second are players picked at least 10 picks higher than Jovic. The third are players picked before Jaquez. I don’t buy into the Heat not doing well in recent drafts. And that was even leaving out Bam. As noted, if someone doesn’t mention BEFORE the season who would have been a better pick than Ware, it don’t mean jack! People like to point out Maxey, but that’s pretty easy to do after the fact. Someone after this draft mentioned Knecht. I don’t think so, but we’ll see.