A wise man once said that comparison is the thief of joy.
So is appreciating greatness in today’s social media-driven era, apparently.
The latter isn’t a new phenomenon, though it was reassured as a result of Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game against the Washington Wizards earlier this week.
While many of his peers have shed light on Adebayo’s historic feat, he was also the brunt of criticism — not only because of how he accomplished it (tell the Wizards to stop fouling!!), but who he passed.
When speaking with reporters after the Heat’s 112-105 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, Adebayo had a few comments for the naysayers.
“You’re blaming me? You should be blaming [Wizards head coach Brian Keefe],” he said. “I was not the one who let me go one-on-one the whole game until I had 70 (points), then you send the double. At that point, I had 70 with 9 minutes to go. You think I’m not going for it?
“That’s the thing that’s crazy when they talk about unethical part of the basketball. If I have 70 with 9 mins to go. Who would be like, ‘Coach, just take me out?’ Yeah, right! … If you are mad, I don’t care. A lot of people, they’re upset because if they did play, they never got the chance to get that close to chasing greatness. If you get that close, that’s the point of chasing it — so you can surpass it.”
Even Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra snapped back at critics pre-game, using an old Conor McGregor line of apologizing “to absolutely no one.”
Adebayo’s correct. If many were in the position he was in, they would go for it by whatever means necessary. He kept attacking and Washington couldn’t find an answer — outside of triple-teaming him at halfcourt. Ultimately, even that wasn’t enough. Adebayo was in a zone that few could ever dream of, even though he shot just 20-of-43 from the floor and 7-of-22 from 3-point range, largely attributed to tired legs.
Miami’s win Thursday extends their win streak to a season-long seven games, moving within 2.5 games of the Cleveland Cavaliers for a top-4 seed in the East. Believe it or not, they are closer to Cleveland than they are to Charlotte, who’s been setting the world on fire the last several weeks. The Heat host the Orlando Magic — who they’re tied with in the East — in their biggest game to date Saturday.
What do you think of Adebayo’s comments? Let us know in the comments!
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On March 14, 2025, the Miami Heat was in 9th place, with a record of 29–37, 8 games under .500. The team had just lost six games in a row and was eight games below .500
On March 14, 2026, the Miami Heat is tied for 5th place, with a record of 38-29, 9 games over .500. The team has won seven games in a row and is nine games above .500
If you look at it this way, this team improved dramatically. True, the last winning run helped a lot.
Therefore, I believe, Heat are more of a slightly better then dramatically better then last season.
I think last year’s team was lost and confused after the quitter was traded. They lost their identity as a team. It wasn’t until this season that the pieces started to fit together and the players were able to settle in and understand their roles.
I think this team, with the implementation of a new offense, the addition of Powell and Fontecchio, the continued development of Jaquez, Larsson and Ware, Bam’s evolution as a team leader and all around player, the maturity in Herro:s game, the improved comfort levels of Mitchell and Wiggins as well as the addition and fast tracked development of Jakucionis, this team is much better and has a higher ceiling than last year’s team.
Miami is one of the deepest teams in the league. Once everyone is healthy, the Heat will difficult to beat in a 7 game series. If the team ends up in the #5 spot, I can see a pathway for them to get to the Eastern Finals going through Cleveland and Detroit.
Cleveland flopped mightily last year. Mitchell never passed second round in his career, despite having a good team around him in Utah and in Cleveland. He tends to disappear in PO.
Ditto for Harden, which is known to be a shell of himself in PO.
So yes, I believe, Cleveland is vulnerable.
Detroit is a little ahead of the schedule, so it could be vulnerable too.
Anyway, this is a better path then NY and Boston. NY can be a little bit better, but Boston is a tough matchup for Heat. Their game effectively eliminate Ware playing a lot because of his limited mobility. That makes Jovic the only other option at frontcourt. But thats not really an option because of his miserable shape.
So I prefer Cle and Det path, and hopefully then NY and not Boston.. And not OKC after that. 🙂
Powell and Herro may both be back for the Orlando game.
Who starts is going to be very revealing. If they both start (Mitchell, Herro, Powell, Bam and Ware) they better score a ton because their defense is shaky.
The amount of people making ridiculous argument against Bam’s performance is crazy.
Also the similarities in his and Kobe’s performance are what everyone’s using to hate on Bam.
Lakers were up 18, when Kobe made his last two free throws to put them up 20. There were 48 seconds left.
Kobe shot all but two shots the Lakers took in the Fourth, and one of those two were in the final 48 seconds when he was subbed out.
He scored 13 points at the free throw line in the fourth quarter
His last 7 points were free throws.
People can hate all they want, but they are being hypocrites with their bs arguments.
Bam isn’t likely to ever be looked at the way Kobe is. He’s unlikely to be a 4 time champion. He’s probably going to struggle to get to the hall. But no one can take his 83 point game away.
That’s exactly right. Some of the people knocking Bam may not have even been born, or were 5 or 10 years old when Kobe scored 81. And many others who are older probably didn’t watch that entire game or don’t remember details if they did. All they know is that one of the greatest players in history had a historic game. And they resent that a much lesser player came along to surpass him. If it was Steph or Lillard or Durant or even Wemby who did exactly what Bam did, there would be significantly less blowback.
We Heat fans don’t care bout the criticisms. Mr 83 is from culture. Love Spo’s response…apologize to no one.
Only 92 games in NBA history has someone scored 60
Only 16 games has someone scored 70
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NBA_single-game_scoring_leaders
And the Heat needed (most of) those points to win the game! An historic accomplishment and the critics don’t know how good Bam is/also believe in recency bias that someone will score 100 tomorrow. Luka had a great game last night and had 51.
I agree, including that for some odd reason, there has been bias against the Heat since the big 3 era. If LeBron or Luka or someone else had done exactly the same thing, there would be far fewer complaints.
A lot of this is connected to egos… its a turtle which outrun a bunch of rabbits, including the legendary the fastest rabbit ever lived. I you bet on rabbits, you wont like watching turtles running faster.