Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo scored 83 points against the Washington Wizards but not everyone was happy with it, mainly ESPN's Tim McMahon
Not everyone was happy with the stats Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo produced in Tuesday's victory against the Washington Wizards.
While Heat fans fawned over Adebayo's 83-point performance, ESPN's Tim McMahon thought otherwise. He felt the Heat made a mockery of the game by extending the game so Adebayo could put up the performance.
"This was a hilarious exhibition of hideous basketball against the Washington Generals," McMahon said on the Hoop Collective podcast. "Not the Generals, the Wizards, the blatantly taking, deserve to be humiliated Washington Wizards but goodness sake."
Adebayo surpassed Kobe Bryant to grab the second-highest scoring game in NBA history. Bryant had an 81-point effort against the Toronto Raptors. Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points is the most by an NBA player.
McMahon took exception because Adebayo remained in the game despite the Heat being ahead comfortably. He didn't like the fact the Heat were trying to get Adebayo higher in the record books.
"I get it, Bam's your guy," McMahon said. "He's got a chance to chase some history but you're up 20-something and you're intentionally fouling to extend the game with minutes left? He's jacking up threes while being triple teamed. It was just awful, hideous, disgusting basketball down the stretch."
McMahon called it one of the worst cases of stat-padding he has witnessed. He even went far as questioning the Heat's motto about having one of the league's best organizations because of their culture. He feels this act definitely stains the reputation that team president Pat Riley has built over the years in Miami.
"I'll admit I was cracking up laughing while watching but I never want to hear about Heat Culture and professional and all that crap again. That was the most blatant stat-chasing I've ever seen. It was the worst stat-chasing since Ricky Davis tried to get a rebound on the wrong basketball to get a triple-double. The difference is this was minutes and minutes to extend the game stat-chasing. I enjoyed the 39 by [Victor Wembanayama] than the egregious 83 but I'm old, I'm grumpy. I admit it."
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Shandel Richardson is the publisher of HeatRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com