It has been a rollercoaster ride so far for Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo and head coach Erik Spoelstra, after reaching the championship stage and not even making the postseason.
When Adebayo was drafted 14th overall by the Heat in 2017, he was expected to dominate down the paint, as the team had been lacking big man presence at that time.
In speaking of The Young Man and the Three podcast, the 28-year-old center reflected that he did not like how Spoelstra coached during his first training camp.
“Oh, I hated Spo when I first got here…we’re in training camp, and I’m on the red team…we’re losing and I’m pissed…he (Spo) was like ‘you think you’re above being with the red team?’…so that’s kind of like our first impression,” Adebayo said.
Meanwhile, former Heat veteran Udonis Haslem guided the former rookie regarding the relationship between the team since Adebayo was looked at as the future of the franchise years later.
“Thank God for UD, we need more vets in this league like him because he changed my whole mindset when it came to Spo — like I said I hated this man, when I used to go to practice I just get irradiated by looking at him…”
After three years in his debut season, Adebayo and Spoelstra had their first finals appearance, but fell short against the Lakers.
It was followed by another appearance in 2023 when they faced the Denver Nuggets, where it became a matchup of big men against Nikola Jokic.
Spoelstra had developed Adebayo in many ways, and currently averaging 19.5 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, while shooting 47% from the field.
“I’ve been with Spo for 9 years at this point. The fact he’s never won COY, a lot of it’s political, and they want to push certain people… A lot of teams I’ve been on, we don’t have the MEGASTAR, so we were number 1 in the East one time, and nobody even thought about us,” Adebayo added.
