Bam Adebayo's Scoring Outburst Highlights Why Tanking is Terrible
On April 9, 2023, I declared, "The toxic combination of tanking and load management cheats the fans who buy tickets to see their favorite players, compromises the integrity of playoff seeding, devalues individual and team statistics, and creates a host of issues regarding legalized wagering" (emphasis added).
There are many examples of inflated/devalued statistics, but the tragicomical farce perpetrated by the Miami Heat--and their partners in crime, the perpetually tanking Washington "Wheeze-hards"--tonight is Exhibit A: Bam Adebayo scored 83 points on 20-43 field goal shooting and 36-43 free throw shooting as Adebayo's Heat won, 150-129. Adebayo made just seven of the 22 three pointers that he jacked up, and he scored six points--all on free throws--in the final two minutes with the Heat leading by 25 or more points. Officially, Adebayo now owns the second highest single game scoring output in NBA history, surpassing Kobe Bryant (81 points) and trailing only Wilt Chamberain's legendary 100 point game. Unofficially, this travesty--this "traveshammockery" (travesty, sham, and mockery)--should have a giant asterisk next to it, and that asterisk should include a picture of Adam Silver's face wearing clown makeup.
The "Wheeze-hards" gave up 40 first quarter points on .542 field goal shooting, with Adebayo scoring 31 points on 10-16 field goal shooting; their only goal is to lose, and they achieved that goal in a spectacularly disgraceful manner. Perhaps the Wizards assumed that the Heat would call off the dogs once the outcome was no longer in doubt, but by that point Adebayo was so close to surpassing Bryant that the Heat began force-feeding him the ball. Even tanking teams apparently have some standards, so the "Wheeze-hards" began focusing all of their meager efforts on not letting Adebayo score, and then the Heat began fouling to get the ball back and missing non-Adebayo free throws on purpose to generate more shot attempts for Adebayo.
The "Wheeze-hards" have been tanking for several years and have made the playoffs just once since 2018 (2021, when Russell Westbrook averaged a triple double for the fourth time in his extraordinary and often underrated career. Adam Silver should relegate the "Wheeze-hards" and other tanking teams to the G League and should forbid the tankers from receiving the national TV revenue that teams share. I know that he will not do that--for a variety of reasons--but drastic measures must be taken to prevent the NBA from degenerating into a complete farce.
How absurd is it that Adebayo scored 83 points in an NBA regular season game? Adebayo's previous career high was 41 points in a 128-124 Heat loss versus the Brooklyn Nets on January 23, 2021; that was one of just four times that he scored at least 35 points in a game in the first 624 regular season games of his NBA career.
Luka Doncic is a great player, but after he poured in 73 points in a game on the same day that Devin Booker scored 62 points, I called out the NBA for destroying the sport and the record book:
Regular season NBA games are starting to resemble the NBA All-Star Game in terms of lack of defense/lack of competitive effort, and last year's NBA All-Star Game may have been the worst basketball game ever. Prior to Monday, there had been one day in ABA/NBA history during which two players had 60 point games--and now that has happened twice in five days. Pointing out such facts is not "hating." The NBA powers that be have drastically altered the game, and not for the better: instead of featuring the best athletes in the world competing at the highest level, the NBA has degenerated into a glorified skills exhibition. I have attended dozens if not hundreds of NBA games in person as a credentialed media member or as a fan, and I have seen firsthand that even "non shooters" in the NBA can shoot an absurd percentage on uncontested warmup shots; this helped me to understand how great NBA defense is (or was). With all due respect to Doncic, in his 73 point game he shot .850 from the field on shots that were not much more difficult than warmup shots.
The modern NBA has lowered the bar competitively, which devalues each game and cheapens the record book.
Less than two months ago, I wrote about how much the NBA has changed for the worse in the 20 years since Kobe Bryant's 81 point game:
The rules changes and style of play changes from the past 20 years suggest that the NBA decided that fans have such short attention spans and so little appreciation for the nuances of the game that the only way to keep them interested is to transmogrify the sport from a game of ball movement and player movement featuring diverse offensive strategies into a one dimensional game during which teams jack up as many three pointers as possible; three point field goal percentages have not improved in the past 20 years, but the volume of three point shooting has more than doubled. "Stat gurus" may believe that high volume three point shooting is inherently efficient, but shooting twice as many treys at less than a .360 clip while eschewing midrange shots and shots in the paint does not add up to efficient basketball, nor does it create aesthetically pleasing basketball.
At its best, basketball is an all-around game featuring skillful offense balanced by shrewd, physical defense. The step back move as utilized by Adrian Dantley, Larry Bird, and Dell Curry was a thing a of beauty. I used to practice it in my driveway while being careful to not take an extra step. In contrast to that technical artistry, what is called a step back move today is a travel and/or an offensive foul if basketball's rules were enforced as written. Commentators and fans scoff that old school players "had no bag" (did not have a bag of fancy ball handling moves), but the reality is that what is called a "bag" today includes traveling, carrying, palming, and flopping and flailing to bait referees into calling fouls against defensive players. No player epitomizes the NBA's emphasis on elevating offense over defense more than James Harden, who literally "traveled" through the NBA's record book thanks to the generous whistle that he received during his prime years.
Bryant scored 81 points in a game and averaged 35.4 ppg at a time when most NBA teams struggled to score 100 points per game; it is easy to picture prime Bryant averaging at least 40 ppg in today's NBA, and the same should be said of Michael Jordan. Julius Erving's hands are so big that when he played he could catch a basketball with one hand and go up for a shot without touching the ball with his other hand; it is tantalizing to dream about the wonders that Erving would perform in today's game when defensive physicality on the perimeter has been eliminated while offensive players are permitted to do just about anything with the ball short of running from one end of the court to the other with no dribbles. Erving shot .343 from three point range in his final three ABA seasons, so it is easy to picture Erving becoming a successful, high volume three point shooter if that had been a point of emphasis during his career--and that would have made him impossible to guard in today's NBA, leaving defenders with the unenviable choice of watching him bury three pointers or watching him fly to the hoop to dunk without facing rim protectors.
I often think about Erving, and I lament how much the game has deteriorated since the era when he ruled the court (and the airspace above the court). Erving shares the ABA playoff single game scoring record (53 points) with Roger Brown, and Erving scored a career-high 63 points in a four overtime loss in 1975, but his NBA single game career high was a relatively modest 45 points. He could have scored a lot more points, but Erving did not chase personal glory or individual statistical achievements. I asked Erving about that, and he replied, "Putting your second team in when you're up a lot of points is really what you should do. I mean, those guys want to play, too. To just run it up to 125 so the crowd can get hamburgers or whatever, that’s not good," and then he added, "Yeah, putting a guy back in the game so he can get an assist for a triple double or whatever, that’s crass. It's just crass."
"Crass" is the perfect description for Bam Adebayo jacking up 22 three pointers and scoring 83 points in a 21 point blowout win versus the tanking "Wheeze-hards."
Labels: Bam Adebayo, Julius Erving, Kobe Bryant, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards
posted by David Friedman @ 11:58 PM
18 Comments:
I completely agree. And people are still surprised by how many fans who never missed an NBA game in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s now have zero interest in watching today’s NBA. It’s not because they suddenly stopped loving basketball overnight. It’s simply because this version of the NBA just isn’t appealing. You’ve got 11 out of 30 teams tanking, referees not enforcing the rules, constant flopping, almost no real defense, and four players standing on the perimeter while the paint is empty. This version of the league is a long way from the NBA of the 90s that captivated the world. Back then you could proudly say, “I love this game” or “The NBA is fantastic.” Today… not so much.
The 43 free throws is also a record, I think.
He got 83 points on 20 made field goals and 20-43 FG shooting. 83 on 20 made shots...
Now it is true that a lot of other high scoring games in the history of the game were not exactly normal games either. Wilt's 100 featured intentional fouling to deny him/give him the ball too. But it was Wilt, greatest scorer in history, and the man who averaged 50.5 PPG that same season. David Robinson's 71-point game was the last game of the season, with him competing for the scoring title, so he was force fed the ball. But he was competing for the scoring title for a reason.
And so on. Whenever someone had an outlier scoring outburst, it was an all-time great player having the night of his life. Quite often the points mattered.
In Kobe's case, which makes what happened yesterday particularly painful, none of his high-scoring games was a circus one. Except for the 60 he scored in his last game, but that was entirely understandable, no issues there. Those who watched the game had tears in their eyes, not a sour taste in their mouths when it ended. It was a fitting ending to his career.
Other than that every time he scored 60+, his team very much needed him to do that to win. Including that 81-point game. The Raptors were not exactly great at the time, but the Lakers were going to lose that game without Kobe scoring 81.
But yesterday we had a 9-year veteran, who had only ever been a fringe All-Star and who had only ever barely scored 41 points once, score 83...
Just absolute travesty.
And no disrespect to Bam Adebayo, he is not to blame for anything, Adam Silver is the one responsible.
Kenny:
Many NBA games are difficult to watch and unpleasant to write about now. I miss the game that I grew up loving.
Anonymous:
I believe that Wilt's teammates only started fouling after the Knicks were intentionally fouling other players to keep the ball away from Wilt. As you noted, Wilt averaged over 50 ppg and had numerous high scoring games, so his 100 point game was not the abominable aberration that Adebayo's 83 point game is.
I remember when many media members who I don't respect used to trash David Stern while celebrating Adam Silver's rise. I wasn't sure if Silver would be a good Commissioner until I saw who praised his rise, but after I saw that I knew he would be terrible. Henry Abbott sticks out in my mind as someone who loved Silver's rise, but there were other "journalists" who did so as well. Unprepared and uninformed "journalists" did not like the way that Stern would publicly rebuke them at press conferences. Stern was not perfect (no one is) but he was a great Commissioner and he was a much better Commissioner than any Commissioner who currently presides over the major U.S. sports.
I feel that Wilt is underrated even though he's top 5 all-time at the very worst. But, his 100-pt game was absolutely a farce, at least partially. Regardless of whatever was happening, the Warriors were blowing out the Knicks. The Warriors kept Wilt in the game every second and were trying to force feed him the ball so he could score as much as possible. Obviously the Knicks would try to prevent him from scoring 100 especially when it's a farcical game. The game ended in a clown score of 169-147. The Knicks had 3 players score 30+ points themselves. Wilt was a force of nature, but this game became a joke. Most of these high-scoring individual games are a farce in some way, though not all, and the opposition is almost always a bottom-feeder team. Kobe's 2 games of 81 and 62 in 3 quarters definitely weren't. The Lakers were actually getting blown out by 18 in his 81-point game before he turned the tide. And he sat out the 4th quarter in his 62-point game, or else would've likely had scored mid 70s at the very least.
Anonymous:
Wilt averaged 45.8 mpg during his career, which is one of his most incredible records and one that is unlikely to ever be broken. It was not unusual for him to play all 48 minutes regardless of the game situation.
In that era, teams did not tend to run out the shot clock when leading by a lot. I am not sure when that became a thing. I think that both teams should play until the final buzzer.
Thus, in that era it was not unusual for Wilt to be on the court at the end of a blowout or for his team to still be trying to score.
That game got weird in the fourth quarter because the Knicks held the ball for the entire shot clock even though they were losing, and then they started intentionally fouling Wilt's teammates so that Wilt could not touch the ball; the Warriors "retaliated" by fouling the Knicks to get the ball back. I would not call it a "farce," and it is important to realize that the Knicks were the ones who deviated from normal play first.
Also, unlike Adebayo--who is a fringe All-Star at best and not a big-time scorer--Wilt was a proven scoring machine who averaged over 50 ppg in a season and who scored 60-plus points numerous times.
This was an absolute disgrace. Horrible. Kobe, Jordan or Iverson would’t average 40 in today’s NBA, they would average 50. What a circus the nba has become. Horrible
Anonymous:
It keeps getting worse, but as long as the NBA can sign big media deals the league office and the owners are happy. Fans say that they are upset, but fans keep buying tickets and merchandise while subscribing to cable or streaming, so the NBA may no longer be fantastic but it remains quite profitable.
>Wilt averaged 45.8 mpg during his career
That season he averaged 48.5 MPG (which is the most assuredly unbreakable record). He never fouled out and played all 48 minutes and all overtimes, every single game of the then 80-game season.
So him being in the game with the game decided was just standard operating procedure.
It wasn't a normal game, but he put up 70+ points on numerous occasions, so him scoring over 80 at least once was expected, and then they did feed him the ball to get to 100.
P.S. At this point I am starting to feel scared about the 100 too.
If Bam Adebayo can score 31 in the first quarter against a team that tanks, what prevents someone who can shoot threes well to jack up 25 wide open threes in the first half against another team actively trying to lose and playing no defense, get to 55 points, then he is fed the ball the rest of the game and various fouling shenanigans are implemented, all with the goal of reaching 100?
Spoelstra was apparently actively facilitating it yesterday, which is a stain on his reputation. Another coach might well do the same in the future in the kind of situation I described.
Anonymous:
Correct--Wilt playing the whole game was standard operating procedure for most of his career.
After Kobe scored 81, I thought that his "non-Wilt" record would last a long time--and I suppose it did, if we consider 20 years a long time.
In light of last night's fiasco, I would not be surprised if Wilt's 100 is broken within the next five years. In a good season, Bam is a 20 ppg scorer who has to work to score more than 35--and he scored 83 last night without even shooting that well. It is easy to picture Luka, SGA, Edwards, a healthy Lillard, Booker, Mitchell, and possibly a few other guys jacking up 40-plus FGAs versus a tanking team while also getting to the line more than 25 times. All it would take to score 100 now would be 31-50 FG (including 13-20 from 3) plus 25-30 from the free throw line. With no defensive resistance from a tanking team, that stat line is attainable for several current NBA players.
It sounds very curmudgeonly to say that Adebayo’s 83 point performance wasn’t “real” basketball but it really just wasn’t. I wasn’t following the game live but when I found out about how many points he scored and more importantly how he scored them, it left a bad taste in my mouth. It was similar to how I felt when Anthony Davis “broke” Wilt Chamberlain’s record for most points in the All-Star Game. Before last night I thought that Bryant’s 81 was safe and Chamberlain’s 100 was untouchable but now I won’t be shocked if someone has over 100 points within this decade. The question is just how many points over 100 will they score and when will the league realize that this sudden influx of broken records isn’t a positive thing for the game.
>With no defensive resistance from a tanking team, that stat line is attainable for several current NBA players.
100+ points have been scored many times at lower levels of the game. Wilt's game is so unique because the NBA is the highest level.
That logic works in reverse...
Michael:
The NBA measures success by the size of its media deals, and the most recent round of media deals set records. So, from the NBA's standpoint, whatever is happening now must be positive.
I don't enjoy watching the games nearly as much as I used to, but the numbers suggest that large numbers of people are watching--if for no other reason than to keep track of the progress of their wagers; the game coverage is saturated with references to betting lines, and it is clear that gambling fuels a lot of the current interest in the NBA specifically and sports in general.
Anonymous:
I agree with what you are implying: the level of the NBA game is not as high as it used to be, which means that it meant more to score 100 points in Wilt's day than it would (will?) mean to score 100 points in this era.
It might not have been unusual for Wilt to play the entire game in that game or even in a blowout, but it was completely unnecessary as it was a blowout. The game was definitely a farce at least in the 4th quarter and both teams absolutely contributed to it. The Warriors obviously wanted and were trying to help Wilt get 100 points.
Both teams should continue playing until the final buzzer, true, though the team leading in a blowout with the ball with less than 24 seconds left doesn't need to try to score anymore unless the opposition continues to pressure them for some reason. But force feeding the ball to Wilt so he can score 100 points and keeping him in the game in a blowout is completely unnecessary. Do you really deny this? Any opposition would try to hinder that, right? What team in the league would allow that? Look at the Wizards in Bam's game. They did the same thing even though they have little interest in winning anymore games.
Anonymous:
"Unnecessary" is your subjective interpretation.
Wilt playing the entire game every game was standard operating procedure, so his 100 point game is not the only blowout during which he played the entire game.
Feeding the ball to a player is one thing; that can happen in a number of different situations, and is not inherently unusual.
The Heat intentionally missed free throws so that Bam could get more shots. They tried getting the ball to Bam even if he was double or triple teamed. He jacked up 22 three pointers even though he is not a great three point shooter and even though he was not making a lot of three pointers. None of those things are standard operating procedure for Bam or the Heat.
Most significantly, Wilt and Kobe were always the main hubs for their teams offensively. It made sense to feed them the ball early and often. Bam is not the Heat's main scorer, and his previous career high was 41.
The Warriors were feeding the ball to Wilt because they always fed the ball to Wilt. He averaged more than 50 ppg that season! Wilt played the entire game because he always played the entire game (unless he got ejected). Wilt's 100 point game was a logical extension of how he and his team normally played.
Bam's 83 point game is an aberration born out of (1) the Wizards' tanking and (2) the Heat going well outside the realm of standard operating procedure.
new anon: I agree with the general sentiments, but don't understand a prior anon's statement "Spoelstra was apparently actively facilitating it yesterday, which is a stain on his reputation." If it's a League-wide/Silver problem, then what did Spo do that's (so) wrong?
Anonymous:
Tanking is a league-wide problem. The slanting of rules and rules enforcement to favor offense is a league-wide problem. The overemphasis on three point shooting is a league-wide problem. All three of those league-wide problems helped Bam Adebayo score 83 points.
Spoelstra's specific contributions to Adebayo's aberrant performance include (in no particular order): (1) leaving Adebayo in the game with the outcome no longer in doubt, (2) instructing his players to intentionally foul to get the ball back so that Adebayo could jack up more shots (even Adebayo--perhaps ashamed of this nonsense--told his teammates to stop fouling), and (3) instructing (or at least condoning) his players to intentionally miss free throws toward Adebayo so that he could try for offensive rebounds/more shot attempts.
Adebayo is a hard-working player who is clearly beloved by his coach and teammates. That does not change the fact that the way that he surpassed the 80 point barrier is, as I put it in my article (quoting Julius Erving about stat padding in general, years before this outlandish example), "crass."
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