Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo is officially an Olympic champion
By Jack Simone
It’s official – Bam Adebayo is an Olympic champion. The Miami Heat center just won a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Team USA beat France 87-82 in the final game to clinch their fourth-straight gold medal. Australia ended up beating Slovenia in the bronze medal game.
Adebayo played a large role for Team USA at the Olympics, as he was by far the best center on the roster. He ended up as a regular member of Gregg Popovich’s starting lineup in Tokyo.
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He was the defensive anchor for Team USA, who faced a lot of criticism throughout their run. Adebayo was able to hold down the paint on the defensive end.
Team USA dropped their first exhibition game to Nigeria, as well as their second exhibition game vs Australia. They faced heavy backlash, as some went as far as saying that they wouldn’t even medal.
That obviously did not happen, and Team USA took home the gold once again. Adebayo played a huge role in their success.
The center averaged 7.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game. His defensive presence can be clearly seen through the statistics.
He played 20.4 minutes per game, which ranked fifth on the team. It was clear how important Adebayo was to the team throughout their run.
With the medal, Adebayo became only the fifth Miami Heat player ever to win a gold medal at the Olympics. He joins LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Alonzo Mourning, and Tim Hardaway in that club.
It has also been announced that the Miami Heat will hang a banner in FTX Arena to celebrate Adebayo’s accomplishment. It will hang next to the ones representing each of the other aforementioned gold medalists.
Adebayo is now back in the United States, and more specifically, he is in Las Vegas. He was spotted at Miami’s Summer League game last night.
He was, of course, sporting his newly acquired gold medal. The camera panned over to him as he was showing it off to coach Caron Butler and Heat teammate Gabe Vincent.
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Though the narrative has now switched back to “Team USA should have won the gold, anyways,” this is still a massive accomplishment for them and Bam Adebayo. Hopefully, he can bring some of that success to the Miami Heat this season.