Bam Adebayo isn’t letting anyone dim the light of his historic 83-point scoring performance against the Washington Wizards.
Adebayo’s incredible feat has been met with criticism by some NBA fans and insiders as people have questioned the integrity of a player going for an individual achievement of that magnitude while being up 20 points in a game. Basketball fans have also taken issue with Adebayo’s passing of the late legend Kobe Bryant’s longstanding 81-point record. However, Bam doesn’t feel bad about any of it.
“First of all, y’all are blaming me,” Adebayo said. “You should be blaming their head coach. Get that first. I was not the one letting me go one-on-one the whole game until I had 70 and then you started to send a double.”
He continued,
“At that point, I got 70 with, like, what, nine minutes left to go in the game? You think I’m not going for it? And that’s the thing that’s crazy when they talk about the ‘unethical’ part of the basketball. I’m like, if I have 70 with nine minutes to go, who would just be like, ‘You know, Coach, just take me out.’ Yeah, right. Anybody in my shoes with nine minutes left? OK, a minute, alright. Nine? Yeah, I’m going for it. You can’t be mad at that. If you are mad, I don’t care.”
Oop! He also had words for those who may feel that his performance has an asterisk due to both the opponent the Miami Heat played that night—the Wizards have only netted 16 wins in 61 games—and the amount of free throws he took in the game.
“A lot of people, they’re upset because, if they did play, they never had a chance to get that close to chasing greatness,” Adebayo said. “And then if you get that close to chasing greatness, that’s the point of chasing it. So you can surpass it. And some of the people have never played basketball. So, like, if you’ve been in the backyard and you and a couple of your homies have been playing 21 and you got 19, you’re not going to get an easy look off.”
He continued,
“They’re going to talk about the free throws. 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 has received love from players—of past and present—who agree that his feat, despite any criticisms, is still pretty impressive. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo pushed aside any notion that Adebayo’s performance wasn’t legendary when asked about it saying,
“Doesn’t matter how you get there. 30 years from now, no one’s going to remember how many free throws he shot…all you remember is [Kobe] 81, Wilt 100.”
Even players who faced off against Kobe during his prime had praise for Bam’s passing of the legend’s record with hoopers like Kevin Durant, Quentin Richardson and Jalen Rose chiming in.
And whether anyone likes it or not, Bam’s 83-point performance will remain in the history books until someone else has a night as efficient, prolific and dominant.