Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo has faced a whole lot of criticism for the way he broke the late-great Kobe Bryant’s record of the second-highest scoring game in NBA history. Adebayo scored 83 points against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday and said during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show that he thinks Bryant would have congratulated him.
“If the dead could talk,” Adebayo said, “I firmly believe he would be like, ‘Congratulations, young fella. You did something I thought nobody could even reach for the next 40, 50 years.'”
Well, we’ll never know for sure, but Bryant, who scored 81 points for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006, was quite gracious after walking away from the game. His final post on X before his tragic passing on Jan. 26, 2020, was about congratulating LeBron James for passing him on the all-time scoring list.
Host Dan Patrick thinks Bryant would not have wanted Adebayo to stop at 81. Patrick reckons the Lakers icon would have urged the big man to go for 90 if he could, and that does sound like something he would have said.
Had Bryant been around today, he perhaps could have stopped all the backlash that Adebayo is facing. His former Lakers teammate, Robert Horry, believes there needs to be an asterisk next to this 83-point game. Horry acknowledged it is impressive to get to 83, but he feels the game wasn’t respected. He is, of course, referring to what happened in the fourth quarter.
The Heat chose to keep Adebayo in the game despite leading by more than 20 points for much of the fourth. They also committed fouls to stop the clock, and forward Keshad Johnson even missed a free throw intentionally in the hopes of getting the ball back.
Adebayo was also living at the free throw line, going 14-16 from the charity stripe in the fourth. He’d end up breaking the record for free throw attempts and makes in a game by going 36-43.
Nick Young, another former teammate of Bryant’s, ripped Adebayo and the Wizards when reacting to this performance. Young wasn’t a fan of the three-time All-Star staying in the game and went off on the Wizards for being so bad that they allowed him to get to 83.
Young also added that he would have stopped at 81 and that Bryant was probably rolling over in his grave. Well again, we’ll never know for sure how he’d have felt.
Adebayo had torn into his critics for downplaying his achievement, and Patrick asked him why it feels like people want him to apologize for passing Bryant.
“Probably because I wasn’t part of the agenda,” Adebayo stated. “It shocked the world because it wasn’t somebody who they glorify as a scorer as somebody who can get that record. And I feel like that’s what shook the world, and also, they’re going to say that I shot x amount of free throws.”
Adebayo also pointed out that the Wizards had cut the Heat’s lead down to 13 at one point in the fourth, so he had to play. While that is true, that happened very early on in the period. The Heat were up 115-102 with 10:52 remaining in the game, but about a minute or so later, their lead had ballooned to over 20 points.
It was very much a case of Adebayo stat-padding, and there is nothing wrong with him doing that in that situation. If there is a chance for you to do something truly special, you go for it because you never know if you’ll ever be in that position again.
Adebayo would finish the night with 83 points (20-43 FG), nine rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks as the Heat won 150-129. They’ll face the Wizards two more times this season, and the 28-year-old joked they’ll be triple-teaming him the moment he touches the ball.
