Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - EMERGENCY POD: Bam Adebayo Scores 83 points!! Passing Kobe for 2nd-Most in NBA History

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to get together for an emergency pod to react to Bam Adebayo scoring a historic 83 points for the Heat tonight. We discuss the significance of him passing Kobe for 2nd-most points in NBA History and some wild reactions around the league. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Joining me from across the street here in Los Angeles is Tim Botep's. You'll be shocked to know, McMahon, that I'm doing this podcast from Windows Hotel Room, which is, of course, the presidential suite. J.W. Shocked to know. Joining us from Dallas, Texas, when he did the podcast we recorded earlier today, He was in Oklahoma City because he was at the Thunder game last night as Van McMahon. Howdy, partners.

I just brushed my teeth to get the vomit taste out of my mouth after watching that despicable display of stat chasing. And let's celebrate it now. All right. So we are doing this as an emergency podcast because Bametabio had 83 points, the second highest number of points in NBA history tonight against the Wizards. Modern NBA scoring record. Bon Temps and I were in Crypto.com Arena where we were going to attend the Timberwolves Lakers game.

And basically, and look, where we were doesn't matter, but just to describe the scene, like Bam is racking up points and all the NBA personnel who were at the game. Coaches on the court. Yeah, we're on court side watching the game. And everybody was watching the game. Everybody was watching the game on their phone and reacting. and being inside crypto.com arena, the home of Kobe Bryant, when this went down, was interesting. I'm just going to tell you right now, people are going to be in their feelings about this. And I think some people on this podcast are going to be in their feelings.

And I'm going to get out of that way. I'm just going to say one thing. Ordinary time is wonderful because you get special things that happen in ordinary time. That's what makes it special. And the second thing I'm going to say is we celebrate basketball and we celebrate great accomplishments. That's right. And Bamadabio had a great accomplishment tonight. But people are going to be in their feelings.

And with that, Ben McMahon. And listen, I'm being a bit over the top of this. The guy had 31 in the first quarter. You know, he had 50, but pretty early in the third. But man, this was a hilarious exhibition of hideous basketball against the Washington. No, not the generals. The lizards. My bad.

I don't want to disrespect him. The lizards. The blatantly tanking deserved to be humiliated Washington lizards. But goodness sakes a lot. I mean, I get it. Bam's your guy. You know, he's got a chance to chase him history. But you're up 20-something intentionally foul.

to extend the game with minutes left. You are like, he's jacking up threes while being triple-teamed. I mean, it was just, it honestly was just awful, hideous, disgusting basketball down to stretch that I admit I was cracking up laughing while watching. But I never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to hear about heat culture and professionalism and all that crap again, because that was the most blatant stat chasing I've ever seen. Honestly, it's the worst stat chasing since Ricky Davis tried to get a rebound on the wrong basket to get a triple double. But the difference is this was minutes and minutes and minutes and minutes and extend the game stat chasing. So it was embarrassing for the lizards, egregious for the heat.

But, hey, you got your 83. I enjoyed the Ethical 39 by Wimby more than I. I enjoy the egregious 83. But I'm old, I'm grumpy, I admit it. Like, man, just doesn't want to be working at 10 o'clock at night, central time on Tuesday night. After a rough travel day when he slept in at his nice relaxing lunch, had his podcast at 2.30 for a podcast at 1 o'clock, I should say,

so he could fly home at 2.30 in the afternoon, have a nice relaxing dinner, sit down and watch the game. Hold on. Forget all. No one cares about my itinerary. This wasn't the most egregious example of stat chasing you've ever seen. If anybody criticized Russell Westbrook for stat chasing but enjoyed this, they're absolute hypocrites. If anybody's ever called Shea Gildes Alexander a free throw merchant, but you were fired up to watch BAM out of bio shoot 43 free throws.

And by the way, God, how do you keep fouling the man? My gracious. The rest had to change their whistles out midway through the fourth quarter. Well, here's all I'm going to say. One, I have not had as much fun as I've had at a game in a long time than as I had before the game tonight with Brian and about 10 other people watching this game and watching the end of the game. Everybody in the building was locked in on it and enjoying it outside of, I would say,

some Lakers partisans who were, let's say, not so thrilled, because he passed a certain Kobe Bryant. I will also remind everyone that almost exactly 10 years ago, let's say just under 10 years ago, there was a game across the street at Staples Center where Kobe Bryant had 60 points on 50 shots that was lauded as one of the most incredible games of all time. And by the way, it was, it was great.

It was his swan song. It was Kobe night. That's all fine. It was 48 minutes of egregious stats. Chase, no question about it. And it was awesome. And it was a memorable game and it was fun to watch. I was sitting in San Francisco watching the Warriors win their 73rd game going, man, it would have been cool to be at Staples to watch Kobe do this today. And you know what? It would have been really cool to be down in Miami to watch this game today because it was great. Bam is an awesome player. Won a couple gold medals. He's been a great player in the league.

and like you said, McMahon, he had 31 in the first quarter. It's not like he had 35. Right. Something like that. It's not like he came into the first half. Oh, 40. Yeah. And then he was, I think, over 60 after three.

It's not like he came into the fourth quarter with 32 points. And then it became a farcical exhibition to get him down to the end. And yes, the final two minutes. I don't know what that word you said was, but it sounds like it wasn't great. And this was not great to get him to the end. Again, the last couple minutes there was intentional fouling. to get him a few extra points. Oh, my gracious.

Bond Tim. Stop kissing butt and at least be honest. I had a great time watching it. Okay, that's not the point. I thought it was super fun. Don't act like, oh, there were foul and intensity with like three minutes left. Listen, I mean, it was two minutes left. And it looked like, it actually looked like on the screen,

Bam was trying to say not to foul. I couldn't really tell. But then they just, then once they did once, they kept, going. But look, I don't really care. Just like I, just like there was nobody after that Kobe game saying, oh, Kobe. Staff chasing, going for 60. Oh, of course it was. I mean, look, the overwhelming opinion coming out of that game was that it was an awesome way for Kobe's career to end. And it was an awesome night. And I would say this is the same thing. Like, it was awesome to watch. Everybody at the game was having a great time watching it.

And yeah, I mean, again, it's an ordinary time game. It's a middle of March, Tuesday night. You don't expect, I mean, this has been my tweets all year. It was an awesome thing that happened tonight. And, you know, it's going to be one of the most memorable pregames I'll ever have in my career. I'll tell you what. Of course, about that. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this.

That A-Rod down the ray, I don't know if he was. watching, but he was there. Yeah, Rob Polenka there. I'm sure he has thoughts on this. If anybody loves phony stat chasing, it's A-Rod. How are doing? Drive-by's on at Freds of the Bud.

Well, listen, his stats were a little pumped up, let's just say. But 20 of 43 from the floor, 7 of 22 from 3-point range, 36 of 43. The 43 free throws are wild.

This was, this, that 83 was as authentic as most of the women's faces are sit court-side in that arena. All right. I want to just say, we don't have video of, can one of you guys get the fourth quarter stats for tonight? I just picked it up in NBA.com, it wasn't loading, but it was, I'll pull it up. All right.

So I have Will Chamberlain's box score. We don't have video of it, right? We have no idea how ethical that was. I do know somebody who played in that game, Sam Sith, Bonaventure, St. Bonaventure legend. I talked to him about it. Will was 28 to 32 from the line. 36 of 63. All right. Hold your water.

Hold your water. Oh. There's no water. Don't bring up St. Bonaventure right now, Bontems. Bonham's just great. The Will Chamberlain in the fourth quarter of that game, okay, he had 21 shots in the fourth quarter of that game. He was 12 of 21. He had 10 free throws.

Do we, you know, do we think that there may have been. some shenanigans to get him to 100 points? Some stat chasing? Absolutely. Okay. I just, I'm not, I'm just saying, like, you know, if you're going to praise Wilt and you're going to praise Kobe, like there may have been, you know, I'm, you know, I don't know what happened. So, Bam, in the fourth quarter of this game was three for eight from the field. He was one for six from three, and he was 14 for 16 from the lot.

He had 21 of his, he had 62 points after three quarters, at 21 points in the fourth. Wilts shooting in that game. He took 14 shots in the first quarter, 12 in the second quarter. 16 in the 3rd, 21 in the 4th. He was 12 with 21 in the 4th court. He was hoisting a little bit, gents. So, you know, like just, you know, dick going back to the 60s.

Like, I'm just, right. As long as we acknowledge that it was a completely meaningless game, that Bam got hot and they decided to prioritize only chasing stats and we can celebrate. I'm not sure that Kobe against Toronto was actually for high. day because that was an ordinary time game, you know. So. Almost right around the same time of the year. I don't remember exactly what date it was.

I think it was in February. But look, I, the one thing I didn't like, I didn't like the heat fouling to extend the game. That I did not like. I mean, that was embarrassing. Yes. But the majority of his points were scored. Look, they're a bad team.

They're a bad team. The lizards? Yeah, they're a bad team. I agree. But they're a bad team every night and you don't see somebody put up 80. No, I mean, it's definitely a historical feat. It's just, I mean, fisch. The percentage is hilarious. I'm sorry.

Some 50% for the floor. You know, whatever 7.22 is, it's sub 33%. 43 free throats. And honestly, how embarrassing for the list. that they've got their triple teaming him in the fourth quarter and they still are just hacking. They were definitely fouling him and especially the last one where he got the 83. It was a body slam. Spolstra challenged a charge on BAM when they were up 25 with less than three minutes remaining.

Well, the Wizards then challenged another foul surely their afternoon. Was there a Spolstra Brian Keith postgame handshake? I didn't see it. But Spolstra, I'll tell you one thing. In all, like, real talk here. You make fun of me if you want. Eric Spolster never smiles. Never.

Oh, he was smiling. He was, definitely laughing on the sidelines. Eric Spolstra rarely smiles not ironically during the regular season. I'll allow that he will sometimes smile ironically and that he will smile after I've covered him when he's won championships. he will smile after he helped the U.S. team win the gold medal in Paris. He smiled. He was smiling in the fourth quarter of this game because he knew that this was a special

moment. And he was drawn, they were drawn up all kinds of wacky stuff to get him open. But like, here's the thing. A lot of the wacky stuff is just throw the bam over three guys and, like, a little bit of a lot of them happened. The one thing that ended up happening, you know, they were triple teaming him. And he was throwing up threes over triple teams. And the heat kept getting offensive fouls because the Wizards were all out of position for rebound because they weren't guarding anybody.

How about when the heat intentionally missed the second free throw to try to get an opportunity to get him the ball? He actually got fouled on that play. He should have gotten free throws, but they didn't call it. I mean, Jesus. I just say, let's not focus on the last five minutes. Let's focus on the 40 became before it when he was having a mastery game. The guy had 62 on 50% shooting through the first three courts. Like, it's not like, again, that's all I will say.

Like, we're, me and Brian, we're at the game. We're walking around. I think we're walking out to the court. And we got an alert that Bam had 31 in the first quarter. It's like, holy crap. Bam, at 31 in the first quarter. And then, like, everybody was kind of like keeping an eye on it after that. Yeah, you were hearing people around the arena going.

He's got 47. He's got 58. Right. He's got 63. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people are like, holy crap, he's got 62 points in three quarters. And then when he got in the 70s, people were like, 71, 72, like, you know, and like.

DeAndre 8 was in the middle of his workout. He was like asking what was going on. Yeah, DeAndreighton came over and was watching on someone's phone. It was so much fun. And I guarantee in the back all the players were watching on TV. I guarantee. Oh, I'm sure. For sure.

Yeah. But I will tell you that as we were leaving the arena to come over here to do this, there was some grumbling going on from Laker. There were some frowns. Oh, I don't doubt that at all. And again, listen, is that hypocritical? Yeah, because Kobe's swan song, the 50-point swan song, was a historic display. 60 on 50 shots. 60, that's right, the 60-point swan song.

That was a historic display of statues. But it was also great. And I watched it just like I watched this one. And it was great. It was fun. It definitely was entertaining. I will fully admit that. It was entertaining.

It was egregiously entertaining. It's really cool for, and look, look, regardless of the final couple minutes of the game, I think it's cool that a guy like BAM who, I don't know anybody in the league who doesn't like BAM, like he's a universally like guy. He's obviously made several all-star teams, part of a couple gold medal winning teams, like is not a guy that's known for being a high-scoring guy. Like I was talking about this with a couple people at the game as this was happening. there were probably six people on the teams at Staples today

that you would think could get do this before you take the ban. We did say that. We said in this game tonight, you have Ann Edwards, obviously you have Luca, who's had a 70-point game. LeBron. Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves.

Probably not as Reed and Don't even Shenzzo, frankly. Julius Randall. Julius Randall? So LeBron, or I'm sorry, BAM's previous season high was 32. He had 31 in the first quarter. I think it was 41. His career. His career was 41.

Season high. Sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. I was once at a game where Kevin Love, I think, scored 31 in the first quarter. And he was so exhausted after that. I think he scored like seven or eight the rest of the game. So by the way, it takes a lot.

You can make fun of this. It takes a lot of endurance to take 50. How many shots do you take 46? It takes a lot of endurance to take 46 shots. No, 40. And then 36. So he took 80. 43 from the floor and 37 from the line.

He had like 60 shooting possessions in the game. It's like it's crazy. But yeah, like it was, it's just cool to see a guy like that that wouldn't have been like I somebody sent me. 43 and 43, 86. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's it's like a 65 shot, a 65 possession game.

Like you, uh, Bill Simmons, I think, tweeted there wouldn't have been the top 50 guys you would have picked to do this before the season. And you wouldn't have put BAM in the top 50. It might have been the top 100 if you'd really pick somebody to do this. We thought third highest on his own team, Tyler Hero and Norm Powell, where you would definitely think would do this before he would. Yeah. So it's awesome. It's a special.

Here, I don't say to this, Bam has gold medals. I don't know. He's been in a couple of finals, you know, he's, but he'll always have this. This will always be remembered. And you know what? In seven, eight, 12, 15 years, people are not going to remember. that they fell at the end of the game. Sour Puss is like you, McMahon.

Yes, they will. Yes, they remember it. Trust me. That was a memorable scene at the end of the game. How many Kobe fans out there in that arena tonight who were pissed off? How many of them would remember how many free throws Kobe took when he scored 81? That whole fourth quarter was free throws for him. 12 or 13 and the fourth.

Okay, Bamhead 16. Like, is it that far off? You know? No. No, of course not. I will say this. What was great? would you have said, McMahon, what would you have said if they pulled them with like 67?

Hell of a game. And people would have been like, how could they not leave them out there? It's a once in a lifetime. Yeah, and listen, I get that. Honestly, though, the fouling intentionally, the intentionally missing free throws. I mean, I'm sorry. It was disgusting basketball. The last 5% of the scoring was unethical.

but what about the other, what about the rest? That's what I'm saying. Again, it's not like he scored 40 points in the final 15 minutes on garbage stuff. That's what I'm saying. We're talking about like the final handful of points. When again, the guy was exhausted and trying to get open and the Wizards were triple teaming him. I mean, obviously at that point, there was a lot of silly stuff going on. But it was still great to watch and it was super fun.

It was great. Like, if you like basketball, at which everybody in the business, Everybody on the court likes basketball. That's why we're all employed there. Everybody was having a great time watching it. Brian, I think it can attest to that. Lakers people were watching it. Wolves people were watching it.

Scouts were watching it. It was great. I was talking to Rob Plinkett before the game. I don't know how Rob, Rob disappeared. I assume Rob would not have been thrilled about it for obvious reasons. He left the court, I think, before that. It got to that point.

By the way, Kobe's 81. He was 28 of 46 from the floor. Eight teams, 20 from the line. Better efficiency. 37 made free throws. Again, hey, celebrate it. Just never ever, ever do I want to hear him. He went five of eight.

He went five of eight on threes in the first quarter. And then what, two of what, 14? Two of 16, the rest of the game. Two of 16. No, two of, two of, two of, two of, 14. Hey, do you think Jaylen Brown enjoyed it? He was back there. He was back there in the locker room after getting tossed. Jayden and Brown was tweeting from the locker room. Why don't he tweet about Bam's game? He was tweeting about getting tossed. He should have just been back there

a lot tweeting Bam's game. So Bam and 57 games this season has taken 274 free throws. He just upped his free throws for the year by like 30% in one game, 20%. That's awesome. That's just great. This is awesome. I mean, it is hilarious. It's a random night in March. Ordinary time. And I'm never going to forget watching it. Never going to get watching it.

Never going to forget where I was at. It was awesome. Band's a great dude. Happy for them. It's really cool. I had like seven different group chats of people like, you know, I was trying to watch the game in my pocket is exploding. The, you know, everybody, everybody whose phone that we're watching it on,

there's like three or four people, different people were watching it. All of their. Texts are just flying in. There's all their group chats are alive. Like, this is, this is my point? Like, can't we say that we all had a moment on a Tuesday in March? That's kind of cool. Exactly.

Just like we did on a, whatever it was, a Sunday in April 10 years ago when Kobe did that. I remember when LeBron broke the record for Kareem's record, they harvested every piece of memorabilia that was existence. Now, granted, LeBron's memorabilia is going to go more. in BAMS, but the one-off value of this, I'll bet that the heat are pulling everything they possibly can,

short of tearing up the court itself. Well, I hope they've got an eye in their security guards, then. I was like, how much is that, you know, BAM was chewing on that mouth guard, you know, how much is that mouth guard going to go for? That was great. That was a wildly unexpected

way for the night. to go. Hey, listen, at least the lizards rather have played one entertaining game this year. Hey, by the way, if we're going to talk about tanking teams since we're sitting here, we got a shout out to Memphis Grizzlies. This is some unbelievable

tanking that they are doing. Wait, did they pull a loss out of their hat tonight? Oh, they sure did. They were losing the whole game to the Sixers without, I mean, VJGGM came back and played, but all their other guys were out, losing the whole game. They wind up, or what, they, are

they were winning the whole game. They wind up losing by 10. Oh, my. They are now, they were at one point, 15 and 16 and 18 and 23. They are now 23 and 41. That is five, that is, there's so many losses in a row. Yeah, got outscored by 16 in the fourth quarter. That's good work.

All right. Yes. It's just some all-time tank and maneuvering. Well, if you're going to talk about another game tonight, You should talk about the Spurs beating the Celtics, which was a quality win. But Jalen Brown was ejected in the first half by a friend of the pod, Tyler Ford. No, I'll say this.

Tyler gave him the first T and made the, or didn't make the call that was the, you know, Jaylon Brown was upset about, but. Yeah, he did. He didn't eject him. The other ref came in and ejected. There was no foul. That's what Jalen was upset about. He was upset that there was no foul.

Yes, he didn't make the call. He didn't make the call. Right. Yeah. And he, Tyler, little fellow, five foot, nine in his hocus. But, you know, personality's bigger than his stature. Just stop taking the years. No, I'm serious.

He was very patient and Brown earned his first tee. It was extended. It was pointing. Tyler was trying really hard not to give it one. The poor report says profanity, of course, there was profanity. And then Brown kept going and going and going. and Tyler didn't give him the second tee. The other ref came in and teed him up and tossed him.

But like, dude, that's what normally happens. They have the back. People are mad at the referee. How about once you get a tee, you've had, you said what you had to say? How about you don't get ejected in a big game for your team? How about holding the player accountable? I mean, look, then Jaylon goes to locker room and tweets about it. I'm sure he's going to get a huge fine.

He was complaining after the last first game about fouls. I was at that one. I'm sure he's going to get a big fine for this whole thing. But the thing about it to me is like he was selling a call. There was a little bit of contact with Stefan Castle. It's not like he got tackled out of bounds. So like if you want to be annoyed about it, okay, fine. That's a wild call to get ejected from that game for.

Victor Wynama had 40, 39. Hell of a win for them. 8 to 15 from 3, 10 and 0 when he hits at least four Bontos. I mean, listen, I'm on that team too. I wish he wouldn't shoot that many threes, but, you know. Listen, when he hits. It's going to look great. There's no question about that, as we've said many times.

All right. That's enough. We're talking about Bametabio. Congratulations to Bam. Congratulations on 83 points. There's a new second place modern holder. And the Kobe fans are going to rally at the statue in a short time. McMahon, if you get down here fast enough, we can save you a spot.

I'm not that passionate about it. I'm just calling like a seat. All right. All right. Thank you to our producers. Mark and Jackson and Devon for staying up late. We'll talk to you guys on the other pod very soon. Adios megos.