Bam Adebayo was criticized for quite a few things after his historic 83-point performance against the Washington Wizards earlier this week. For instance, some saw it as disrespectful that he broke Kobe Bryant’s 81-point record. The fact that he went to the free throw line 43 times did not help, as accusations of stat-padding also crept in. But Shaquille O’Neal, on behalf of all sane basketball lovers, does not see anything wrong with it.
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O’Neal, on ESPN, insisted that he didn’t care how many times the Miami Heat star went to shoot a free throw. He called out the Washington Wizards defense instead, something Jaylen Brown also said on a live stream.
NBA stars know that records are meant to be broken, and if there’s an opportunity to surpass someone like Bryant, one of the greatest ever, they should always go for it. That’s the message O’Neal had for children who watched this Adebayo encounter.
“I’m happy for Bam… Well, he shot 40 free throws, stop fouling…” O’Neal stated. “My favorite moment of the night, he’s playing well, his mom’s there having a good time.”
“A lot of people said, ‘He’s chasing the record’. Well, he should. To all the little kids out there if you got a chance to break records, break high school records, you got a chance to make history, you go for it.”
Shaq on Bam 83:
“I’m happy for Bam…. A lot of people say ‘he chased the record.’ HE SHOULD. To all the little kids out there if you got a chance to make history, you go for it” pic.twitter.com/Q1fFCwcrjF
— Heat Central (@HeatCulture13) March 15, 2026
O’Neal echoed the mentality of almost everyone who truly understands basketball. People who wanted Adebayo to stop before 83 ‘out of respect for Bryant’ really don’t realize that if the Lakers legend were alive, he’d be disgusted by it.
Those who actually knew the man have opined that he would only congratulate the 28-year-old, and be happy for him. Even Michael Jordan, Bryant’s mentor and arguably the NBA’s GOAT, called Adebayo to tell him what an incredible feat he had achieved.
