- 7 hours ago
The radio voice of the Miami Heat breaks down Bam Adebayo's journey from overlooked draft prospect to reaching an unbelievable milestone last night.
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00:00He was on the call last night on the Miami Heat audio experience.
00:04And then I'm watching Jax and Amy postgame on FanDuel Sports Network Sun.
00:09And Jax was saying, and I think of this being a broadcaster, he was saying, started to hit me at
00:16one point that like, I need to deliver this game call with the proper importance because this is a game
00:24that is going to be remembered forever.
00:26And so it started to hit Jax. Like, when did it start to hit you last night?
00:32Like, at what point did you say to yourself, you know what, this audio is going to get played over
00:36and over and over and over for years and years and years.
00:39And I need to be cognizant of it.
00:41Well, the great thing about the Miami Heat broadcast department is there's three of us that call games so they
00:47can work between Jose in Spanish, Eric Reid on television and yours truly on the audio experience.
00:53So they can cherry pick the best stuff, which is great for the organization in our little mini movies that
00:59I'm sure will be made on this situation.
01:02It was after I was silly on Bam's dunk to pass LeBron for the single game total, where I was
01:14like, yeah, I can't do Bam's Slamwich anymore.
01:17This is going to have to turn into...
01:20That was like your barometer of like, all right, I don't want this call to be played 40 years from
01:25now when people hear me say Bam's Slamwich.
01:27Could you imagine my grandchild going, Popsio, what made a Slamwich? What made a Bam's Slamwich?
01:34And I would probably make up something right there with ham and tomatoes and peanut butter and toasted on pumpernickel.
01:45It would be something of that nature.
01:46But it was, I did kind of, a gravity moment kind of hit me at that point because I'm looking
01:52at the clock.
01:53And I had already, as Solana knows, I was musing about the Kobe dynamic way too early, about when we
02:00got halfway there, late in the second quarter, because I know how much Kobe meant to Bam as a kid.
02:08And yeah, there's no way to anticipate that on a Tuesday night against Washington in the Heat's house.
02:14I was really focused on the fact that there was a six straight win, and I called it a week
02:20ago that the Raptors were moonwalking like Michael Jackson in Motown 25 celebration back in the 80s, and that the
02:28five spot was going to be available.
02:30That's really where I came into the night going, this is all feasible, people.
02:35And then it's, oh, Tyler's out.
02:37Oh, wait, Kal-El's out.
02:40Norm and Wiggs and Nico, they're not all, nobody, they aren't coming back.
02:45And then Elda Barge isn't playing except for Jazz in the Gardens.
02:49Oh, I'm sorry, Trae Young.
02:51And so it was, it was just this, it was just this weird setup of what was going to happen.
03:00And by the way, Bilal Cooley Bally would like a word with you, Shannon.
03:05In French, by the way.
03:06Kalubile.
03:08What's his name?
03:11Bilal Cooley Bally.
03:14Can he whoop me, can he whoop me, Jax?
03:16We're not going to, come on, we have enough international issues for you to be battling our friends in Paris,
03:23okay, over Bilalcatraz, as they call him in D.C.
03:27Oh, that's a great nickname.
03:28Yeah, solid, that's solid.
03:30Listen, the jail door was open last night a couple times.
03:34He wasn't doing anything.
03:36Speak quickly, because I know Crowder's got questions too, but just speak quickly, because you're around BAM all the time.
03:41For what this means for BAM, the man.
03:45Like, we saw it last night post-game, and then he was up on the podium with Asia, but you're
03:51around him and you know him, and this guy has been deified by Dwayne Wade, who was the holder of
03:58the heat culture torch.
04:00And so, as a guy who's around him all the time, speak on what this means for BAM, the man.
04:06And I think, I'm glad you're giving me this space to do it, because this is what Chris Russo was
04:12missing.
04:12This is what Dan Patrick was missing this morning when I was visiting with him and Scal and Isola earlier
04:21this morning.
04:21It's been fun, because all these people haven't called me since the 2023 finals were blowing up my phone.
04:28But this was about a young man who we saw come in here out of Kentucky, have a press conference
04:35with another young man out of Kentucky who happened to draft him in Pat Riley, saying that 13 was going
04:42in the rafters at the first press conference.
04:47And most of us are going, wait, I only watched this man for nine months with Cal and him in
04:52Lexington.
04:53What are we doing?
04:55Pat, not only with those bag of rings in his office, clearly has a crystal ball as well, because BAM
05:02is and has become already on this day prior to yesterday somebody whose number was going to go up in
05:08the tip top because of what he has become.
05:11He came in here as a rebounder and defender, and he has done that at an elite level.
05:18Then over the eight and three quarter seasons, altered to what was necessary for this team, first being an orchestrator
05:26of offense from the five, and now clearly being an annihilator of others from that position, incorporating a elbow game
05:36that is immaculate.
05:39And now a three-point shot that is serviceable, if not better, that makes him extremely challenging to defend while
05:47he is all up inside your jersey on the other end.
05:50There aren't a whole lot of fives who want to chase their man out to the edges, right?
05:55And now he's working on the force.
05:57You know, there was all this rumbling, and Alejandro knows, Jimmy knows, all this rumbling around about BAM being less
06:05than when he has to deal with a guy his size or smaller.
06:09And so look around who was on the floor last night, a bunch of guys that were less than or
06:15smaller, and he wore them all out historically.
06:19Get to the guy.
06:20Your question is awesome because I think about BAM, son of a single mother in a single wide trailer in
06:27the backwoods of North Kakalaka, trying to figure out what a dream is, let alone having a dream.
06:35My father had a line, we were from about 20 miles north of Columbus, Ohio, and he talked about how
06:41poor they were when he was a cowboy laughing because I didn't have to be that poor.
06:46They went to college and were successful.
06:48And they talk about, they were so broke, they didn't have the piss to put in the pot that they
06:54didn't have.
06:58They were dehydrated.
07:00They were walking around looking for hot hoses on a faucet, which back then we called a spigot.
07:07Tell them about the spigot.
07:10So anyway, I think about that type of beginning and being able to emerge to be one of the top
07:19450 players in the world, then being one of the top 24 players in the world,
07:24them being one of the top 12 players in the world, and he has the gold medals to prove that
07:29fact.
07:29I know it's a selection process and some of the great players don't participate, but to hell with that.
07:35Those gold medals will tell you something else.
07:37And then taking on the stewardship of Alonzo Mourning, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Udonis Haslam, and so many others of
07:46taking care of the place where you work too.
07:49There are thousands of single mothers and young children, both in North Carolina.
07:56By the way, that was North Kakalaka for the folks that didn't know that.
07:59And then here in South Florida, altering the way they see the world because of his kindness.
08:08And so if we were going to miss some free throws, and if we were going to double team, and
08:13if the game got a little sideways to help someone like that have a forever moment,
08:19I'm cool.
08:21And none of this starts, by the way, thank you, Alejandro, for noting that it was Washington that got froggy.
08:30All the heat did was jump.
08:33And Jax, and Jax, we'll talk about the last three minutes because that was a big topic.
08:37Oh, yeah, 48-minute game.
08:37All I want to talk about is three minutes.
08:39That's what it did.
08:40And that's the last.
08:40Trace Minutos!
08:42Trace Minutos!
08:45But you talk about, like, I brought up humanity with it.
08:48Is that, that stuff, I don't know if that's the first time.
08:51Let me know if I'm wrong.
08:52Where I was listening to the Heat Audio Experience.
08:55I was getting off the plane, I got in my truck, and I listened to the fourth quarter.
08:58I'm glad we could moisturize the labyrinth of your ear.
09:01But I'm listening to the fourth quarter with you, and you're almost joking about it.
09:05Okay, they're inbounding the ball.
09:06It's going to bam.
09:07It's going to bam, where Spoh, the ultimate X and O guy, saw that moment and said,
09:13I don't know what the, I don't know what the timeouts were.
09:18Hey, man, give the damn ball to 13.
09:20He got 70 already.
09:21Y'all know what to do.
09:23Yeah, no, it was, that even might be the better part of the story,
09:28is that you take the immaculate manner in which Spoh goes about his job
09:33and the way that he demands from his staff and from the players of how we're going to do this
09:41and recognizing, to hell with that, man.
09:44This cat has given me a decade of his life at the highest of levels,
09:48recognizing who we are as an organization, what I want to do,
09:52and the changes that I want to make, right?
09:55Go back to those first 21 games.
09:58We're running all up and down the floor, 100 possessions.
10:00Jackson needs oxygen.
10:01Ah, here we go.
10:02So, Bam was in that mix.
10:07I'd have to pull down, but that was a lot of, hey, man, look at this Wiggins cat.
10:13This is something else.
10:14Oh, look at Norm.
10:15What in the hell were they thinking out in California?
10:18Boy, I can't wait until Tyler's back in this mix.
10:21Bam just maintained a connective fiber, and because of that, there was that,
10:26he says slump, so I'm going to say slump.
10:29And then for the last 30 games, somebody go ask your mom about Bam out of pie.
10:33He's been all-star caliber offense with first team, all defense,
10:40and if you ask him, he want that defensive player of the year stuff again.
10:45And it's clear because, guys, the differential of when Bam is on that floor versus when he's off
10:51is a plus-minus of 27.
10:5827.
10:59It's a Cavendish guy.
11:02They are plus 20 when he's on the floor.
11:03They're minus seven when he's not.
11:06I mean, I don't do a lot of math because it takes a minute.
11:10I like the arts.
11:12I got into this business because there was no one.
11:13I'm with you, baby.
11:14I like the ha-has and the giggle giggles.
11:17I don't need a calculator otherwise.
11:19Jax, because, you know, Bam has, I want to use the word sacrifice over the years,
11:26and I know he's, you know, improved his game, as you mentioned,
11:28but he is the guy that does the dirty work,
11:30and he takes the bulk of the criticism when things don't go right,
11:34doesn't take enough shots, doesn't score enough points.
11:36Do you think, last night, Spoh committed to this in the fourth quarter
11:43as almost maybe a thank you to Bam?
11:47Like, yeah, we're going to get him this tonight
11:50because he's bought in to everything we've been about,
11:54sometimes at a cost to the type of player he can be.
11:58Potentially to be, yeah.
11:59If the reins were taken off.
12:02So we're going to take off the reins of what we do,
12:05and we're all going to commit tonight for this one moment to Bam Adebayo.
12:10It was the confluence of winning, right?
12:14Having a six-game win streak at the most important time of the year.
12:19And that.
12:21I think if the game's nip and tuck, you got to have –
12:26I think there's a third layer, too.
12:27The rotation was all jacked up because of how many cats were out.
12:30When Bam played all 12 minutes of the first quarter,
12:34that got fueled by the fact – well, he's just balling.
12:37He's out here going at it.
12:40Al had the audacity to get in our ears and talk about –
12:44oh, no, it was Ben.
12:45It wasn't you.
12:46It was Ben Rivera, who was our producer, going,
12:50oh, this is going to be fantastic, just watching Saar and Bam go back and forth.
12:54I'm like, no one signed up for this.
12:57There's two dudes just running down, up and down the floor.
13:00But young Mr. Saar, another Frenchman who would like to line up
13:05if you say coulid belly one more time.
13:09Saar could not hang.
13:12That man had a beautiful first.
13:14He had a – in all intents and purposes, had a really impressive game.
13:18It was just at a certain point, somebody had 20 more freaking points that he did,
13:22and it was the third quarter.
13:24And so it was all of those things.
13:29It was a beautiful thing.
13:30I think you have to be a part of this thing,
13:33particularly if you're going to wear the trophy gold jersey, by the way,
13:37to the office.
13:38Borrowed it from my friend Alejandro.
13:40Okay.
13:41I was like, that is a deep dive of all the Bam jerseys.
13:44Shout out to Micah McCullough because Solana was the first one in line.
13:48Didn't you buy two of these trophy golds?
13:50I do.
13:51The trophy gold.
13:52The other one has a two and a two on the back, so it's not as –
13:55There you go.
13:56Listen, rip off the top and put Wiggins on that thing, baby.
13:59It still – it lives.
14:00It lives.
14:01But this was for us.
14:04This was for Heat Nation.
14:06And everybody else can just kick rocks, man.
14:08Lakers fans, I used to be one.
14:09So I know.
14:10I get it.
14:11I get it.
14:13That's about the line I'm drawing on people having something to say about it.
14:16There's enough real stuff to be mad about in the world.
14:20It should not be Bam.
14:22It shouldn't be sports ever.
14:23Right?
14:24Turn on CNN for 10 minutes, and then you can get your outrage.
14:29One other quick piece of outrage here, and I'm speaking on behalf of –
14:34I just went global world affairs, and you're like, hey, yeah, enough about that, Jax.
14:39I speak for those of us who may have bet –
14:44Oh, no.
14:45Well –
14:46Alejandro, do you not tell this man what I can and cannot do?
14:50Myron Gardner.
14:51If I even come on.
14:52Myron Gardner.
14:53Jaime.
14:54Four made field goals.
14:56Look at me, Jaime.
14:57Was this fair to those of us who may have wagered on Myron Gardner,
15:01four made field goals?
15:02Was it fair to take all the attempts and thusly take them away from Myron Gardner?
15:09Mr. Hockman, I have been a slightly above average employee for the Miami Heat
15:16for 22 seasons.
15:18I would like eight more.
15:20Next question.
15:22When do they play?
15:23Tomorrow night?
15:24Tomorrow night?
15:24Yes.
15:24What do you think Bam's over under on points?
15:26He's going to be tomorrow night, and would you go over?
15:28Push the button, Jimmy.
15:29Push the button.
15:31I could go more sports-y now, Jack.
15:34You know, I got to bring the hate out.
15:36I just saw Bam go 22 or 43.
15:39I can't have 12 shots next game.
15:41You got to put it up at least 25 times, Bam.
15:45Listen, here's what I hope, guys.
15:47I hope that the folks who are dedicated to you all in this space at least had some fun.
15:53It was fun on a night where you had no idea what was going to happen.
15:59And that, you know, let's get Dr. Jack Ramsey some love.
16:02He always said, never give up on an NBA game.
16:06And I bet you a bunch of folks did.
16:08They didn't give up.
16:09They never started on that game last night after they saw, you know, maybe who wasn't going to play and
16:14who wasn't going to go.
16:15I was trying to give away tickets at 3.30.
16:17That's not usually my deal.
16:19I'm usually, tickets are gone like three weeks out.
16:21I was making fun of the matchup on the show last night because I looked at who was missing.
16:25And I'm like, wow, Tuesday night, look at these two lineups.
16:28Don't play with it.
16:29If you thought you needed to go watch a rewind of Metlock or something, you didn't go well.
16:36Didn't go well for you.
16:37And I had the under on Metlock as well, too, which, I mean, I just killed me.
16:42There's an undercarriage on Metlock.
16:44James and Jackson.
16:46Oh, and by the way, before we run, Hawk, thank you so much for posting that flashback to Hot Seconds
16:54with Jax, the media edition on the artist formerly known as Twitter.
16:58It was just fun to think back to those times where we all liked each other and we're better together.
17:03That was 15 years ago.
17:04Me, Jack, Levitard, and Stugatz on the, what was it called back then?
17:10Was it just, I believe that was just, it might have been.
17:15Fox Sports Sun.
17:16Fox Sports Sun.
17:17But it was 15 years ago.
17:18There's been a few.
17:18It's on my Instagram.
17:19You can see it because it's not a story.
17:21It's a post.
17:21So it's on my Instagram.
17:22Radio.
17:22It was like a little game show we played and it was phenomenal.
17:26And none of you followed the rules per usual.
17:30Man.
17:32Jax is like, oh, Jax is aging like wine.
17:35Hawk, you age like a banana.
17:38Well, it's funny.
17:38Somebody wrote on the post, somebody wrote, everybody looks so young except Hawk.
17:46All you got to do is moisturize.
17:48Tell him, Crowder, well, you get some of that Lubaderm.
17:51You'll live forever.
17:52I tried to give him cocoa butter.
17:55He didn't want to have my cocoa butter.
17:56He tried to give me Beijing for my hair.
17:58I don't know what to believe with this guy.
18:01Don't knock it till you try it.
18:03That's what I'd say.
18:05There's only so many gifts we've been given.
18:07Miami Heat audio experience.
18:09We love you, Jax.
18:11The love is strong.
18:12Stay black, all of you all, not just Crowder.
18:15So long.
18:18I did what you did.
18:19I'm going to do it.
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