Bam Adebayo put up an insane 83 points on the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night, the second-most points in a single game in NBA history. With his final two free throws, the Miami Heat center surpassed Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game from 2006, lagging behind only the legendary Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game from 1962.
While Adebayo is a minor NBA star, he is certainly no Bryant or Chamberlain, and the way the Heat and head coach Erik Spoelstra went about ensuring Adebayo overtook Bryant in the 150-129 win has come under fire. Spoelstra kept Adebayo in during trash time — a blowout win that was already out of reach for the Wizards after the third quarter. Then, in the final two minutes of regulation, Heat players began intentionally fouling and missing free throws to gain extra possessions for Adebayo.
Adebayo only shot 46.5 percent from the floor, taking 43 total shots. He also took an NBA-record 43 free throws and made 36 of them, another record. The previous record for free throw makes in a game was 28, set by Chamberlain during his 100-point effort.
Spoelstra and his players have been criticized for the uenthetical way Adebayo got to 83, and 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies had Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery chime in on the discourse on Wednesday morning.
“One of the guys here on the show has got a controversial opinion,” the Junkies said. “He said the head coach should have taken him out to protect Kobe Bryant’s record. What do you do as a coach when your guy’s about to set some ridiculous record, but the game’s not necessarily competitive?”
Carbery, who regularly studies how coaches in other sports operate, said he had no problem with Spoelstra keeping Adebayo in the game.
“You can’t pull him out,” Carbery said. “Because his teammates and him – he’s having a night. It’s not your decision on who you think is [worthy], you know, because that’s subjective. Kobe, Wilt, and I just think if you’re going to take that away from someone, even if he is of less of stature and not [that type of] player, I think that’s tough. I would keep him in. That would be my opinion.”
Carbery has already seen his fair share of history in just three seasons as an NHL head coach, commanding the Capitals’ bench when Alex Ovechkin, more akin to Bryant or Chamberlain, passed Wayne Gretzky for the all-time goal-scoring lead last year.
Carbery even had his own choice to make regarding benching Ovechkin, as the Great Eight tied Gretzky’s record with two goals against the Chicago Blackhawks and could have gone for the record-breaking tally when the Blackhawks pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leader in empty-net goals, closed out games regularly that season.
However, Carbery was given an immediate out from Ovechkin that Adebayo didn’t deliver to Spoelstra. The Capitals captain preemptively let Carbery know that he wanted to score career goal number 895 on an actual goaltender, and the bench boss agreed not to send him over the boards.
Ovechkin would go on to score the record-breaking goal in his next game, against a goalie, Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders.
