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Heat’s Adebayo a captivated spectator to Lillard saga, ‘I feel like it’s just a waiting game’

ira winderman, south florida sun-sentinel
·4 min read
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MIAMI — The theme for Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo at his fifth-annual Bam Youth Basketball Clinic on Saturday was of reunions — one achieved and one potentially looming.

Of one, Adebayo spoke with particularly zeal, reunited with former teammate Josh Richardson, who at last month’s start of NBA free agency returned to the Heat.

Of the other, as he tried to explain to his inquisitive campers, he said he is like everyone else outside of the Heat inner circle, uncertain where things are headed in the wake of Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard angling for a trade to the Heat.

“I mean,” a relaxed, smiling Adebayo said, “I can’t answer them right now, because I don’t know what’s about to happen. But the biggest thing is it’s a business. Everybody wants it to make sense.

“We know everybody on their side wants it to make sense. Obviously, the other sides want it to make sense, too. So I feel like it’s just a waiting game until they meet an agreement or it does happen.”

What makes the situation unique is that Lillard said on a June podcast that the Heat are particularly intriguing as a landing spot because of his admiration for Adebayo, a teammate on USA Basketball’s gold-medal team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

“Bam Adebayo is my dawg,” Lillard said. “Bam is my dawg for real.”

That hit home with Adebayo.

“It just speaks the volume of who I am as a person, for you to be able to say without basketball I can really hang out with him,” Adebayo said Saturday. “So it speaks to your volume of your character and the skill work I have on the court, the things I do to get the job done on the court and the mentality I have.”

And, yes, Adebayo said, there is a genuine chemistry there, even if just as friends at the moment, based on what was built with Team USA.

“I think it was just demeanor, how he walks, how he talks, how he presents himself,” Adebayo said amid the pounding of basketballs in the background at his clinic. “We have a lot of those similar characteristics. Dame isn’t the loudest person; I’m not the loudest person. We’re two down-to-earth people that gelled well.”

With Lillard, it would be all new.

With Richardson, what was old is new again, with Richardson a Heat teammate for Adebayo’s first two seasons, starting in 2017-18.

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“They brought back one of my brothers,” Adebayo said. “I’ve been losing a lot lately, for special reasons that brotherhood can’t come between. But it feels good to see where we were in our friendship when he left and then get to this point where we can rekindle and start fresh again.”

Richardson was sent to the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2019 deal that delivered Jimmy Butler to the Heat.

“We’re two different people than we were when I first walked into the league and then when he got traded,” Adebayo said. “So it’s good to have a brother back. We know what he brings to the team. We know what we need from him. And I feel like J-Rich is one of the most disciplined people when it comes to basketball, life and all other aspects.”

The flip side is that while Richardson was added in free agency, fellow Heat 2023 NBA Finals starters Max Strus and Gabe Vincent were lost in the process.

“Man, I mean obviously for me it’s bittersweet,” Adebayo said. “But at the end of the day … no matter where the money is, go take care of your family. That’s the biggest thing.”

Presented by the BBB (Bam, Books and Brotherhood) Foundation and OnDecker, Adebayo’s one-day basketball clinic for those from third to 12th grade took place at Slam Charter School.

Included in Adebayo’ event were time with Shahbaz Elite trainers, lectures, and basketball skill stations.

In addition, the BBB Foundation gifted 100 scholarship spots to students from Overtown Optimist group, Tees Miami and the Boys and Girls Club.

Adebayo’s foundation mission is listed as “to change lives for single mothers while changing the future chances, choices and challenges for children.”

“At the end of the day, it’s about the kids,” Adebayo said. “The best thing you can do is teach them as much knowledge as possible while they’re younger and that’s what the camp is about. It’s about teaching them the knowledge of the game, knowledge of life.”

Adebayo last weekend participated in the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program in South Africa.

That event featured 80 of the top high-school-age prospects from across Africa at the American International School of Johannesburg.

Other NBA players working that event alongside Adebayo were Darius Garland, Jonathan Kuminga and Jalen Sugg, along with current or former NBA coaches J.B. Bickerstaff, Mike Brown, Dwane Casey, Darvin Ham and Dave Joerger.

Adebayo said he relished that opportunity — perhaps with one exception.

“Phenomenal. I got to go on a safari, almost got ate by a lion,” he said with a smile. “I mean, he was having a meal and I guess we looked better than what he was eating.”