A bit of time has passed since Bam Adebayo’s historic 83-point performance, which still has people in disbelief. There has been plenty said the matter, with many criticizing how Adebayo reached the point total. Nevertheless, Adebayo hasn’t entirely been without support. His former Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade put into perspective how wild the performance truly was.
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Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game seemed relatively safe as the placeholder for the second-most points in a single game in NBA history and Adebayo was one of the last players that people would’ve guessed to push past it. After all, before that offensive explosion, he wasn’t even averaging 20 points per game.
Unfortunately, the Heat star’s performance has been downplayed due to the number of free throws he attempted, as well as Miami manipulating the game by intentionally fouling to get more offensive possessions.
That said, at the end of the day, 83 points is 83 points. Dwyane Wade doesn’t believe people truly understand how insane Adebayo’s performance was, so he put it in perspective during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“I tried to do that on a video game the other day. Fell short. I had 79. I can’t do it in a video game,” Wade said.
It takes a ridiculous amount of concentration to score that many points in a game. Wade is one of the greatest players in NBA history, and he never reached anywhere close to 83 points in a single game. His highest single-game scoring total is 55 points, which came against the New York Knicks in 2009.
Now, Adebayo may have scored more points than Wade in a single game, but he is still behind the three-time NBA champion in points with the Heat. Wade is currently the franchise leader in points with 21,556 points, distantly followed by Adebayo at 10,153.
The three-time All-Star is still a ways away from catching Wade. However, the Heat legend highlighted what he needed to do to surpass him.
“He has to be in a Heat uniform, probably for another six to eight years. We’ll see,” Wade said.
Adebayo certainly has the potential, but he would also need to be more aggressive. The most points he has averaged in a season was 20.4 points during 2022-23.
Wade, on the other hand, averaged as much as 30.2 points per game in a season, while being a perennial 25-point-per-game scorer. There is certainly another level Adebayo can reach but it’s going to take more than one 83-point game.
