“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.”
Pat Riley to Bam: “I would have taken you at 70. Goddamn it! You did it!” pic.twitter.com/xHAJfg0gGk https://t.co/Uoh5H9yHkC
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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.”
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.”
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.”
The post The NBA Reacts to Bam Adebayo’s 83-Point Game appeared first on Ballislife.com.
