On Tuesday evening, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo etched his name into the history books with an 83-point outburst against the Washington Wizards. The epic display passed the late Kobe Bryant for the second-highest scoring game in NBA history, behind only Wilt Chamberlain, who had 100.
After the Phoenix Suns' win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday, Suns guard Collin Gillespie was asked about the historic night for Adebayo, and raised eyebrows with his answer.
“I don't really care,” said Gillespie, per SUNSWORLDWIDE on X, formerly Twitter.
On Wednesday, Gillespie posted a tweet with an apology, writing, “Meant no disrespect by it lol… just had nothing to do with our game or our team.. it's still a historic and great accomplishment for him.”
However, Gillespie has since deleted the post.
Heat fans have been quick to harass anyone who has attempted to provide context to Adebayo's historic night on Tuesday, which included over 40 free throw attempts, and the team kept the star in the game well into garbage time in order to hunt for the record.
The final minutes of the game included a bizarre scene in which the Wizards were intentionally putting Adebayo's teammates on the line in order to keep him from scoring, while the Heat players were then intentionally missing free throws so as to get Adebayo to draw a foul on the rebounding action.
Whether this qualifies as an “ethical” 83 points is certainly up for debate, but Adebayo is now in the record books for his historic performance, one that also gave the Heat their sixth straight win.
Miami now sits in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, and are essentially tied with the Toronto Raptors for the fifth spot, which is likely as high as they could realistically get before the season ends.
In any case, Adebayo's night will be remembered for quite some time.
