Bill Macdonald is apparently feeling some type of way about Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game.
The longtime Los Angeles Lakers play-by-play announcer Macdonald was on the call for Spectrum SportsNet during Thursday’s game against the Chicago Bulls. With 1:44 left in the fourth quarter at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif., Lakers star Luka Doncic hit two free throws to give himself an impressive 51 points on the night.
Doncic could have stayed in the contest to gun for a 50-point triple-double as he also had 10 rebounds and nine assists at the time. But instead, he intentionally fouled the Bulls in the backcourt to sub himself out of the game as the Lakers were already leading 138-125 at that point.
That led to praise from Macdonald on the air for Doncic as well as a thinly-veiled swipe at Adebayo. “He’s not chasing numbers,” said Macdonald of Doncic. “He’s not chasing that.”
Luka Doncic subs himself out one assist shy of a 50-point triple-double, Lakers announcer: “He’s not chasing numbers.”pic.twitter.com/jJTufqTrCo
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) March 13, 2026
The Miami Heat star Adebayo had a historic game on Tuesday night against the Washington Wizards, scoring 83 points to top Kobe Bryant’s famous 81-point game in 2006 for the highest-scoring game of the modern NBA era. But with Adebayo clearly trying to chase points by the end of his outing, many have criticized Adebayo’s feat as seemingly “unethical” (with Adebayo himself having since responded to those criticisms).
Meanwhile, Macdonald, who has been the Lakers’ full-time play-by-play announcer since 2011, clearly is not a neutral party here either. Macdonald was actually on the television call for Bryant’s 81-point game vs. the Toronto Raptors in 2006. Having initially begun as a studio host and courtside reporter for the Lakers, Macdonald filled in on play-by-play for Bryant’s 81 with then-Lakers play-by-play man Joel Meyers working an NFC Championship Game that day instead.
