Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo became the first player in franchise history to win two gold medals last summer, winning gold with Team USA during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who was an assistant on the staff, was also the franchise’s first head coach to receive said honor, while Serbian wing Nikola Jovic was also commemorated because of his contributions to Team Serbia, who won Silver.
Miami’s captain was also a part of Team USA during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (played in 2021 due to COVID-19). His versatility, selflessness, competitive spirit as well as his overall talent on both ends of the floor were some of the biggest reasons why he was a pivotal piece on both teams.
During Netflix’s new documentary, “Court of Gold,” Team USA executive director and Hall of Famer Grant Hill had very high praise for Miami’s 6-foot-9 big man:
โHeโs a superstar,โ Hill said. โHeโs an All-Star in this NBA. He won a gold medal in โ21. But heโs kind of a blue-collar, lunch-pail guy in terms of his mentality.
“He can guard anyone on earth. Literally, he can guard anybody. And, oh, by the way, he goes out, and he gets you 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds a game. Maybe one of the most underrated players in the game of basketball.โ
In six games during the 2024 Olympics, Adebayo averaged 6.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists on 53.3 percent shooting, including 3-of-9 from 3-point range. In 12 career Olympic games, the dynamic big man has averaged 6.2 points and 4.7 rebounds in 17.4 minutes.
While Adebayo slumped at the beginning of his season regarding his shooting touch, it’s improved lately. Over his last eight games, he’s averaged 23.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists on 54.5/39.3/76.9 shooting splits.
His effective field goal percentage over that span is 58.7 while his true-shooting percentage is 62.0 percent, two marks that are at least two percentage points that were better than his career average entering this season.
He will likely be one of the Heat’s top-2 options over the final 29 games of the season. There are very few players who are tasked to do as much as Adebayo on a possession-by-possession, quarter-by-quarter, game-by-game basis. It’s why he’s so valuable to this roster, even though his shooting was down for the majority of the season.
As the Heat transition into this new build, one could argue that Adebayo’s not only the most important player currently on the roster, but also in the organization. He turns 28-years-old in July and is in the thick of his prime, so it will only be more important for the Heat to build around Bam Adebayo now and for the foreseeable future.
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if bams a ss what are jokic joel greek much much better players than bam not even close.bam is a good player but please grant not a ss.if bam would have held his own vs jokic i would have met rc 30 big on bisc blvd in july unfort sun in cali so hed have his own parade
Bam isn’t a superstar, yet. Maybe, as Ware develops into a solid two-way center, Bam’s full potential as a power forward/small ball center can be fully unleashed. Most teams in the league would jump at the opportunity to have Bam’s defense and versatility in their starting line-ups.