The NBA Reacts to Bam Adebayo's 83-Point Game

David 2,464 March 11, 2026 No Comments

"Wilt. Me. Kobe."

That's what a proud Bam Adebayo posted on his IG along with photos from his 83-point performance. The best of those photos was one showing him, tears in his eyes, hugging his mother, who was wearing a Captain Mama Bam jersey. If you know the story of how she raised Bam, as a single mother, in a single-wide trailer in North Carolina, and how he keeps a photo of his mom and trailer in his Heat locker, you can’t be anything but happy for them. And the thought that he can now place a photo of himself holding a sign that says he has the second-most points in an NBA game next to that trailer photo makes me happy.

But, because we live in the world we live in and social media is what it is, you can easily find thousands of not-so-happy to downright pissed off people at Bam’s performance.

Here are some positive and not-so-positive reactions.  But first, an amusing video of Pat Riley walking up to an emotional Bam and jokingly telling him, "I would have taken you at 70."

(UPDATE) BAM AND COACH SPO'S RESPONSE TO PEOPLE CRITICIZING HIS  PERFORMANCE AND CALLING IT "UNETHICAL":

"For the couch coaches, if you're in my shoes and you have, first of all, y'all are blaming me. You should be blaming the 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. 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 points with 9 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? Okay. 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 are upset because if they did play, they never had a chance to get that close to chasing greatness. 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. And four, 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."

ERIK SPOELSTRA'S RESPONSE:

"I apologize to absolutely no one, period. It's a Tuesday night game against a team that isn't playing for anything; the organization is trying to lose. We have already lost a game, and I spoke to our team captain and said I wanted him to be locked in and ready. And he sure was...We were 76 points deep before the back and forth. Damn right we’re going to go for it!”

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Giannis: "Incredible. It doesn't matter how you get there. All that matters is that you got it. In 10 to 30 years from now, nobody's going to remember how many free throws he shot. I don't think I remember how many shots Kobe had or how many free throws he made or threes. All you remember is 81. Wilt, 100. At the end of the day, he got 83 points."

Kevin Durant: "I couldn’t believe it when I was hearing it in real time. Congratulations to Bam I know how much work he puts in. I looked at his stats, it’s pretty crazy: 40 shots, 40 FTs, 20 3s. That takes a lot of stamina and energy. To pass Kobe as the 2nd biggest scorer in the history of the game. Congrats to him, huge accomplishment. Something we’ll talk about forever.”

Tyrese Haliburton: "Wilt Chamberlain 100. I ain't know if I believed it but after what I watched yesterday, Wilt had 100."

Dwight Howard: "83? You was out there like Wilt! Yall do know it’s hard to make that many free throws right? Congrats Twin!"

Udoka: "First thing you think is how? Not because of him, but because of the way he plays. I saw he only made 6 (7) 3s but 40 free throws or something like that, tells the story right there. And the Washington Wizards."

Wemby: Yeah, I saw. I think we're in a league where there is plenty of inspiration to look up to, but yeah, I saw."

Dwyane Wade:  “Let’s take away the last five minutes, Bam played an incredible basketball game. The first three quarters was the best individual performance we’ve seen this year in the NBA. Then the last 5 minutes, it becomes a spectacle. It didn’t end how we wanted it to but that’s not a Bam problem. Bam did what Bam was supposed to do. I’m on this floor trying to get the W and go for the record books! The man had 83, However he got It. YOU CANT GET 83 AT LIFETIME FITNESS RIGHT NOW! What’s amazing to me, the endurance to be able to have the energy to even attempt 43 shots and 43 free throws. Go do that right now with nobody guarding you and watch how tired you will be!”

JJ Reddick: “It’s incredible what he was able to do. I said to my staff ‘the Heat are rolling.’ They said, ‘are you kidding right now? Bam has 77’ I was like, 'huh?!' I watched the last 3 minutes and it was a different type of basketball.”

Kelly Oubre: "Shout out to Bam, he implemented himself into NBA history. I'm kind of salty that he bested Kobe. It's one of my favorite players. I'm going to just say this, Joel did efficiently and did it 3 quarters."

Dame: "A’ja been working with him because he ain't ever scored like this in his life... I taught that boy Bam everything he know."

A'ja Wilson: "God is really just really special for him and God doesn't play about Bam."

Brian Windhorst: “Bam has gold medals. He's been in a couple of finals. He’ll always have this. This will always be remembered. In 7 to 15 years, people are not going to remember they fouled at the end of the game. Sour pusses like you (Tim MacMahon) will remember. How many Kobe fans out there in that arena are pissed off? How many of them would remember how many FTs Kobe shot when he scored 81? That whole 4th quarter was FTs!”

Tim MacMahon: “You are up 20 and intentionally fouling to extend the game. He’s jacking up 3s while being triple-teamed. It was honestly just awful, hideous, disgusting basketball down the stretch that I admit I was cracking up watching. I never, ever want to hear about Heat culture & professionalism, and all that crap again, because that was the most blatant stat-chasing I’ve ever seen!

Mike Greenberg: “For all the people on Twitter saying they made the end of that game a farce, you never saw the end of the game in 1962 because it wasn't on TV. A relative thing happened that same night, the Knicks were intentionally fouling Chamberlain's teammates so he wouldn’t try to go for 100 points. He got there anyway. History doesn’t write down how you got there, history writes down the number. History will record forever that last night Bam Adebayo scored more points than any player in any game ever except for Wilt Chamberlain”

Robert Horry: "83 is impressive but it gets to the point when you have to respect the game. There were moments in this game it wasn’t respected. I'm putting an asterisk by this one. I'm not taking anything away from Bam."

De'Aaron Fox: "Yo wtf!?"

Collin Gillespie: “Couple of people text me about it but yeah, I don’t really care.”

Cam’ron: “That s**t was trash. The Wizards are tanking. The man shot 43 free throws. You should have 83. This is not a real stat. This ain’t Michael Jordan’s 66. Even Kobe's 81, I give all the credit but he shot all the shots."

Greg Anthony: "Why all the hate, Wilt’s 100 point game was a blowout, Kobe’s 81 point game a blowout. Same for Bam…we can pick it apart forever but I’d prefer we give the man his  appreciate what he accomplished and get back to regularly scheduled programming."
(note: Kobe's 81 was not a blowout)

Jeff Teague: "N***a scored 83 in a game, a pick up game, a mens game is damn near impossible. For you to get 83 in a NBA game against number 1 and number 2 picks is crazy.”

Nick Young:   “You see how he was going for it at 74? That was nasty! If I had 81, I would’ve stopped!”

Chandler Parsons: "I had no problem with it. I respect Spoelstra for leaving him in there to do it. This is history. This might be the most points ever because there is zero footage of Wilt ever scoring 100”

Lou Williams: “I got no complaints. No criticisms. We can make a case about the FTs but they were legitimate fouls. They couldn’t stop them. I didn’t see no flopping. A lot of them could’ve been And 1s if you ask my opinion.”

Jason Williams: “I woke up and saw Bam Adebayo had 83 points. I don’t know if I shot 43 fouls shots in one season. Go Heat b***h yeah”

Charlie Villanueva:   “There’s a difference, Yes 83 is 83 that’s hard to do. Regardless what level you’re playing. Now, here is the difference. When we played Kobe, Toronto played the Lakers it was a close game the whole way, they needed Kobe 81 points. In Bam’s case they was up by 30,25 they were fouling so he could get there to beat the record. It’s not the same. To me that 83 is asterisk bro.”

Gilbert Arenas:  “Why is there a rule if you’re losing, you can do what the f**k you want, and the team that’s winning we should babysit your sorry a**es.”

Mad Dog (First Take):   “What Spoelstra did with the shenanigans was a complete disgrace. When you shoot 43 times and less than 50%, when you shoot 43 FTs and you go 7/22 from 3 against a horrendous team, and you’re in the game in the last 3 minutes with Spo fouling the Wizards, so you can score 83, that’s not the way It should be. He won’t admit it but I bet you Pat Riley feels the same way.”

Stephen A. Smith (First Take):  “Bam is a pretty damn good player. Let’s not blame him… I’m not blaming him for it. I’m blaming the game, the Miami Heat, the Wizards, I’m not blaming him. Bam Adebayo can ball! He’s not a scrub! It wasn’t equal to Kobe performance, to Wilt Chamberlain performance, none of that. That is absolutely true but this a day he deserves to be celebrated!”

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