Jason Burgos
Miami Heat President Pat Riley is very annoyed with the NBA fans and analysts who have tried to dismiss Bam Adebayo’s historic 83-point game.
Earlier this week, Adebayo had not only the greatest single-game performance in Heat history but one of the best showcases of scoring in NBA history. On March 10, the Miami big man hit seven three-pointers and an absurd 36 free throws en route to scoring 83 points in a win over the Washington Wizards.
While Adebayo’s performance did not earn the record for the most points in a single NBA game — that is still held by Wilt Chamberlain and his 100-point game in 1962 — he did surpass Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant for the No. 2 spot on the all-time list. And that bothered many fans and pundits of the game.
In the hours after his performance of a lifetime, Adebayo was showered with a lot of love from around the world. However, there was also a sizable segment of NBA fans and experts who were not fans of his record-breaking night. The biggest points of contention were the number of free throws he shot — Bryant had 20 free throw attempts in his 81-point game — and how the Heat helped him get to 83 by fouling late in the game to get Adebayo more scoring opportunities.
Pat Riley fires back at Bam Adebayo haters
Well, one person who thinks the hate Adebayo is receiving is a bunch of nonsense is Heat President Pat Riley. And the legendary coach and executive unloaded on the haters on Saturday.
“It’s all bulls***,” Riley told the Miami Herald. “It really is. Anybody who is negative on it, anybody who was cynical about it, anybody who talked about it the way they talked about it negatively, they’re trying to either get views, hits, or they’re podcasters, and that’s their job.
“There are critics today that are just so unjustified in what was going on with the tactics, and we were fouled, and they were fouled. The same thing happened with Wilt Chamberlain when he got 100 back in the day,” he added. “But I don’t buy any of that. They took an iconic, absolutely incredible performance, and they tried to dismiss it. And that’s not fair.”
