As he stepped to the line, with fans roaring, sweat dripping, Bam Adebayo had one thing on his mind: Greatness. On Tuesday, March 10, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo scored 83 points, surpassing Kobe Bryant’s previous 81-point record for the second-highest scoring game of all time, and the highest scoring game in the “modern era”.
Adebayo has been a star for Miami, averaging 20 points per game and nine rebounds, and has played a pivotal role in both of Miami’s runs to the National Basketball Association (NBA) Championship. He is a three-time all-star, one-time all-defense first team, and four-time all-defense second team. He may not be a bona fide superstar, but if you watch the NBA, you more than likely know his name. If anything, the fact that Adebayo broke the record set by Kobe goes to show how talented the players in the NBA are, such as Adebayo, who is known for his defense, but any given night could absolutely erupt.
Other players have gotten close to breaking the point record before in the past, such as Joel Embiid, Luka Dončić, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, and Damian Lillard. But all of these guys are superstars, first option, score first players. Embiid scored 70 points in only 36 minutes, and only attempted 23 free throws. Damian Lillard scored 71 with fourteen free throws.
Adebayo is a defense-first center, and logically it makes sense why he had 43 free throws; that’s his offense game. But because of this, some NBA fans have added a caveat to Adebayo’s point record. Not to mention his team was ahead with a comfortable lead, and he stayed in the game, whereas other players, such as Embiid and Dončić, sat out the rest of their games when they scored their career highs, making the argument that they could have continued their dominance.
Kobe’s Legacy has slowly faded after his tragic passing in 2020. With the rise of analytics, ball movement, and three-point shooting, newer NBA discussions bring up the arguments that Bryant was inefficient and a bad teammate. The accusations against him also taint his legacy, and as new NBA fans grow up and see how the new, evolved version of the league, they will grow up thinking of Bryant differently than people who saw him live. But new records don’t change old greatness; people may argue it was selfish for Adebayo and the Heat to break such a record held by one of the greatest players to ever play. But Bryant was a five-time NBA champion, an 18-time all-star, and an extreme competitor; he would have loved Adebayo for being aggressive, as it is good for the sport.
My verdict is that, although controversial to some, Adebayo scoring 83 is good for basketball and the NBA. It shows how competitive the league is right now, and that any player could pop off and potentially break records. Plus, records are meant to be broken. If anything, it would be worse if Adebayo didn’t try to break it and instead subbed himself out after tying the record. I think it promotes a level of competitiveness that is not only good to watch, but good for the players. One of the most frustrating parts of watching the regular-season NBA is when teams blow out opponents, and their star players sit on the bench with ample time remaining. Adebayo, Spoelstra (Heat Head Coach), and the Heat have made the new blueprint. Load management and analytics don’t matter when allowed to change history, and on a Tuesday night in Miami, they did exactly that.
