If you didn't know better, you'd think that Bam Adebayo disgraced the game of basketball by etching his name in history books with his 83-point performance for the Miami Heat on Tuesday. Some sort of backlash was inevitable, but it's reached heights that it never should've approached. There are actual real human beings who fault Bam for going for history, and he addressed that (subscription required).
"First of all, y'all are blaming me. You should be blaming that head coach. Get that first. I was not the one that let me go one-on-one the whole game until I had 70 and then started to send a double. At that point, I had 70 with, what, nine minutes left to go in the game? You think I'm not going for it?"
After the game, Brian Keefe, the Wizards' head coach, said that the fourth quarter turned into "not a real basketball game."
Miami was intentionally fouling to get the ball in Adebayo's hands to see how far he could go. His teammates were forcing him passes as Washington defenders swarmed him, not wanting to go down in history for the wrong reasons. Can you really blame the Heat, though? Can you blame Erik Spoelstra for keeping Bam in the game?
No. And no.
Bam Adebayo says Wizards coach is to blame, not him
Keefe hasn't been part of many "real" basketball games this season, as the Wizards have been in tank mode since Oct. 22. Their biggest win of the season (or what they hope will be) will come weeks after their actual season ends at the draft lottery.
Although Washington is in tank mode, that doesn't mean you want to see your team be on the receiving end of a historic moment. Keefe felt frustrated and embarrassed about that in his postgame presser, which makes sense, but then again, he's the one who didn't switch up the defensive scheme. He is, after all, the one who makes those decisions.
As Adebayo said, once he hit 70, he wasn't going to let up then. Keefe tried something to stop it by focusing the defense's full attention on Bam, but the Heat found ways around that.
There isn't an asterisk beside Bam's name in history. He isn't some bad guy for surpassing Kobe Bryant. His 43 free-throw attempts don't diminish what he did (he was legitimately getting fouled). It doesn't matter that it happened against the lowly Wizards — believe it or not, they do still qualify as an NBA team.
The naysayers can think what they want. They can say what they want. They can blame Bam for the rest of eternity if they want. But you know what? You can have your opinion and still be wrong.
Ha, but seriously, it's okay to appreciate Bam's moment for what it was, even if you're not a Heat fan, and especially if you're a Lakers fan. Shocker, I know.