Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo was at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday night after being nominated for “Best Single-Game Performance” for his 83-point game against the Washington Wizards last season.
Adebayo surpassed Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant’s 81-point performance for the second-highest scoring game in NBA history behind only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100. And in doing so, Adebayo couldn’t help but feel honored to be mentioned with Bryant.
“I feel like everybody is a fan of Kobe and to have my name cemented next to him, doing something that obviously not a lot of people can do, having an opportunity to be a part of that is truly special,” Adebayo said in an interview with ESPN. “And, I mean, it’s 83 points in an NBA game.”
The “Best Single-Game Performance” category was a special group this year as in addition to Adebayo, Baylor baseball star Tyce Armstrong was also nominated for hitting three grand slams in one game to tie a record, as was Norte Dame women’s basketball star Hannah Hidalgo for breaking an NCAA record with 16 steals in one game.
Ultimately, Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani took home the hardware for his performance against the Milwaukee Brewers in the playoffs when he pitched six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and hit three home runs at the plate. Doing that in the postseason is hard to compete with, even if Adebayo had the second-best scoring night in NBA history.
While some people questioned the legitimacy of Adebayo’s performance considering his team was fouling in the fourth quarter while up big just to give him more scoring opportunities, he will forever go down in the history books for scoring 83 points and no one can take that away from him.
Bam Adebayo on what Kobe Bryant would say to him
After dropping 83 points, it was hard for Adebayo not to think about Bryant, and he even revealed what he thinks the Lakers legend would have said to him if he were still around.
“To me it’s wondering what he’d say,” Adebayo said. “Seeing somebody…obviously you’ve seen 60, 70 but like to be 83 & you pass him, my mind is like, ‘What would he say to me?’ Cause I’ve always wanted to have a conversation with him. He’ll probably say, ‘Do it again.’ But just a surreal moment being in the company with somebody you idolized growing up.”
Bryant was always one to show love and celebrate the younger generation of players, and that likely would have been the case with Adebayo as well.
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