Bam Adebayo is done playing nice with the people still whining about his 83-point night. And his response was exactly the right amount of petty.
Five months after his 83-point explosion against the Wizards on March 10, Adebayo took to social media this week with a one-liner aimed straight at everyone who said he should have stopped at 80 out of respect for Kobe Bryant’s 81. His tweet: “Out of respect I should’ve been 83.” That is the entire post. That is the whole clapback. And that is basically all he needed to say.
Refresher on the number, because it still does not feel real. Adebayo dropped 83 points in a 150-129 Heat win over Washington, which slotted him at second on the all-time single-game scoring list behind only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100. He passed Kobe. He passed David Thompson. He passed everyone who has ever played the position not named Wilt.
The criticism afterward was loud and, frankly, silly. Some people said Erik Spoelstra should have pulled him earlier once the game was out of reach. Others called the performance unethical because the Wizards let him operate one-on-one until he had 70. A few argued he owed Kobe fans some sort of ceremonial early hook at 80. All of it aged worse by the week.
Adebayo has already addressed the criticism head-on. He pointed out, correctly, that if you have a problem with how long he was on the floor, that is a coaching decision, not a Bam decision. He said he was not the one letting himself go one-on-one for three and a half quarters. He also made the point that stars in that situation, Kobe absolutely included, are not checking themselves out of the game.
That is the part critics have never had a good answer for. If Kobe had been sitting at 78 with real minutes left in a blowout, nobody thinks he taps himself out. Kobe would have gone for 90. The idea that any all-time great is supposed to hold back to preserve another all-time great’s number is not how any of these guys have ever operated, and pretending it is now feels revisionist at best.
What makes Adebayo’s tweet work is the tone. He did not write a manifesto. He did not tag anyone. He just posted a joke that translated to: I could have gone bigger, and next time maybe I will. That is the appropriate way to handle six months of noise from people who wanted him to apologize for playing basketball too well.
The bigger takeaway from all of this is what it says about where Adebayo is as a player. Two years ago he was a defensive All-Star who ran offense through the elbow. Now he is a guy who dropped the second-most points in a game in league history and is comfortable enough in his own skin to troll critics about it in August. That is a legitimate leap.
Heat fans should be thrilled. Everyone else should probably just admit the performance was incredible and move on. Adebayo already has.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
