Miami Heat president Pat Riley is the latest to come to Bam Adebayo’s defense amid criticism of the center’s 83-point performance.
The Heat were criticized in some circles for going out of the way to get Adebayo more possessions by intentionally fouling or missing a free throw late in Tuesday’s 150-129 win over the Wizards. Critics said the Heat’s tactics cheapened Adebayo’s accomplishment, but Riley was not having it.
“It’s bulls—. It’s all bulls—,” Riley told Anthony Chiang of 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 in a negative way, 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. But I don’t buy any of that. They took an iconic, absolute incredible performance, and they tried to dismiss it. And that’s not fair.”
Most would probably agree with Riley, even though the fourth quarter of the game was quite ugly. It resulted into Adebayo scoring 14 points from the free throw line, which cheapened the mark in the eyes of some. Others were even more upset because the tactics allowed Adebayo to surpass the legendary Kobe Bryant’s 81-point mark.
Adebayo has made it clear he will not be offering any apologies for how he got his points. The Heat organization is obviously behind him on that front.
