Bam Adebayo addressed the criticism surrounding his 83-point performance earlier this week, saying much of the backlash has been misplaced.
After Miami’s win over Milwaukee on Thursday, the Heat star pushed back against those questioning how his historic night unfolded, Fred Katz of The Athletic reports.
“First of all, y’all are blaming me. You should be blaming that head coach (Washington’s Brian Keefe). Get that first,” Adebayo said. “I was not the one that let me go one-on-one the whole game until I had 70 (points) and then started to send a double (team). At that point, I had 70 with, what, nine minutes left to go in the game? You think I’m not going for it?”
As Katz notes, both teams changed their tactics late in the contest.
Miami intentionally fouled several times to regain possession and give Adebayo more scoring opportunities, while Washington eventually began sending extra defenders to stop him from passing Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game from 2006.
Adebayo got off to a dominant start, scoring 31 points in the first quarter and reaching 43 by halftime before entering the fourth quarter with 62.
He also set NBA records by making 36 free throws on 43 attempts, including 16 in the final 12 minutes.
“That’s the thing that’s crazy when they talk about the unethical part of basketball. I’m like, ‘I had 70 with nine minutes to go,’” Adebayo said. “Who would just be like, ‘You know, coach? Just take me out.’ Yeah, right. … A minute? All right. Nine? Yeah, I’m going for it. You can’t be mad at that. If you are mad, I don’t care. Because a lot of people, they’re upset because if they did play, they never had a chance to get that close to chasing greatness. And if you get that close to chasing greatness, that’s the point of chasing it, so you can surpass it. … If you’ve been in the backyard, and you and a couple of your homies are playing 21, and you got 19, you’re not gonna get an easy look off.”
He also defended the number of free throws he took during the game.
“It’s not like I shoot 15 free throws a game. It’s not like I average 10 free throws a game. You can watch the film. I was legitimately getting fouled every time, so I went to the free-throw line.”
Bam Adebayo: "I Don't Care" About Critics Of 83-Point Game https://t.co/lZ2ifMxqyj pic.twitter.com/uknxN9FRTY
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