In the world today, it’s extremely difficult to enjoy something without having to hear negativity about it from somewhere. Nowhere is that more prevalent than in sports, where every achievement made by every player is torn down before he can even change into street clothes in the locker room.
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The NBA is ground zero for this kind of thing. LeBron James had a great game? Well, he’s no Michael Jordan. Anthony Edwards dominating in another Wolves win can’t just be appreciated; it has to be put in the larger context of whether he has what it takes to be the face of the league.
Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game is something that should be roundly celebrated, not only for the achievement itself, but for how unlikely it was to come from a player not known as an offensive juggernaut. Instead, the fun police have spent the past week sucking the joy out of one of the most randomly great things in recent sports history.
Critics have pointed to the 43 free throws Bam shot to question the legitimacy of his 83 points, but for anyone who watched the game, he really was fouled so many times. They’ve criticized Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra for leaving him in and risking injury in a game that was already well in hand. They’ve even bizarrely criticized Bam for not stopping at 81 to tie Kobe Bryant instead of surpassing him in the record books.
Bam Adebayo’s 83 Points Deserves Better Treatment Than It’s Getting
The criticism surrounding Bam’s 83 is lame as hell, if we’re being honest, and thankfully, Bam and Spoelstra haven’t shown an ounce of remorse over the way things went down. That hasn’t stopped the complaint box from becoming overstuffed, though.
On the most recent episode of Byron Scott’s Fast Break, Scott, Olden Polynice, and Jay Wagers gave Bam credit for scoring 62 through the first three quarters, but they trashed everything that happened after that. In a surprise to no one, given that it’s such a Lakers-centric podcast, they viewed everything Bam did through a Kobe Bryant-colored lens.
“He made his free throws,” Polynice said. ” Seriously, that’s the only thing that impressed me with that, he made his free throws, 36 out of 43, but at the end of the day, that was high school buffoonery.”
Though he only saw highlights and not the game itself, Scott gave Bam a bit more credit than that, saying, “At the end of the day, 83 points in an NBA game … that’s very impressive. So you gotta give him a lot of credit for putting up those type of numbers. I don’t care what the situation is, the man got 83 points, that’s big time.”
Polynice joked that the screen showed that the Heat were playing the Washington Generals, not the Washington Wizards, a reference to the Harlem Globetrotters’ longtime punching bag. Honestly, the Generals would probably handle this tanking Wizards team by double digits, but that’s neither here nor there.
The discussion got a bit silly when Kobe was brought up. Wagers pointed out that in Kobe’s 81-point game, the Lakers were down by 20. “They needed everything out of Kobe for him to put up those type of numbers. Did Miami need Bam to do that?”
He then went on to recount the time Kobe scored 62 through three quarters against the Mavs, then didn’t play in the fourth since the game was well in hand, and as Wagers said, Kobe wanted to let the young guys finish the game out. “Miami had a chance to do that with Bam, but it didn’t happen, so that’s actually chasing and going a little bit too far,” he said. “Or has the game changed today?”
This is such an insane take. Miami had the opportunity to let Bam sit in the fourth quarter? No! There was a chance at history in front of him, one that he almost surely will never have again. When opportunity knocks, you answer the door; you don’t turn the lights off in the house and pretend not to be home.
Kobe Bryant is an all-time great. We can all agree on that. But the Kobe hagiography just gets to be too much sometimes. Purposefully falling short of Kobe’s second-place spot on the all-time list would have driven Kobe into a rage. How can these people who spent so much time around him not realize that? Mamba Mentality means you give it your all at all times.
The fact that the game was essentially over made it easier for Bam to stay in and run up the score. The Heat didn’t have to worry about losing the game by not playing optimal basketball, making it the perfect time to go for it. Scott said, “Kobe was all about winning,” as if what Bam did goes against that.
That was the sixth win in a row for the Heat, and besides, the last couple of seasons of Kobe’s career (in which Scott was his coach), were about anything but winning, as Kobe was paid huge money basically as a career-long thank you while the Lakers lost more than they ever have. His farewell tour in his final season wasn’t about winning. And that’s OK! But let’s not pretend otherwise.
It would be nice if we could all just collectively enjoy a game that was equal parts impressive and absurd. We watch sports to be entertained, and if Bam’s 83 didn’t inspire joy, then maybe it’s time for a new hobby.
