Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo is a three-time NBA All-Star. So he now knows how to navigate the whirlwind that is All-Star Weekend. “I know where I’m going, I know what I’m doing,” Adebayo said after playing in his third All-Star Game on Sunday night. “I kind of know how to schedule out everything that’s going on, plan ahead. The first one was very chaotic. I didn’t know where I was going, I didn’t know what to expect.” But Adebayo is in the middle of his first season as the Heat’s captain. So he hasn’t found a comfort level in his new leadership role yet and the transition has been challenging.
“This [expletive] sucks,” Adebayo said of his first few months as the Heat’s captain. “You can quote me on that, this [expletive] sucks.” To be clear, that doesn’t mean Adebayo intends to give up the captaincy. It just means taking on that role has been a tough adjustment for Adebayo. “Because you got to understand how to translate messages to everybody because everybody is different and everybody has their own stuff going on,” Adebayo, 26, explained when asked what about the new role has challenged him the most. “I got my own stuff going on in my mind, how I want to play and how I want to affect the game. And 14 other guys do, too.
“So trying to get 14 other guys to buy into your message, how you’re saying it, get them to buy into what the coach is saying. It’s tough because guys got dilemmas, guys got feelings.” Adebayo has leaned on former Heat captain and close friend Udonis Haslem for guidance along the way. Haslem, who retired at the end of last season, spent the final 16 seasons of his 20-year NBA career as the Heat’s captain. Haslem used the final few seasons of his playing career to develop and nurture Adebayo’s leadership skills behind the scenes after identifying him as his successor for the captaincy.
“It’s been a work in progress,” Haslem, 43, said when asked last week for his review on Adebayo’s first season as the Heat’s captain. “But the thing about it is he cares. He cares about everybody, he cares about the team, he cares about the organization, he cares about the guys, he cares about winning. So that’s the thing about being a captain — you have to be selfless, not selfish. And he’s very selfless. So that’s the hardest part. He’s got that part covered.” What Adebayo continues to work on is his ability to manage different personalities and different situations on the roster. He’s 55 games into his first season as team captain, with the Heat set to return to practice following the All-Star break on Thursday before resuming its schedule Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center.
“It’s just continuing to keep 15, 16 guys depending on you, keeping everybody together,” said Haslem, who was in Indianapolis for All-Star Weekend to support Adebayo and the other Heat players who took part in showcase events. “Everybody is going to have a different dilemma. Everybody is going to have different emotions about things. But you got to continue to keep guys together.”
Haslem, who was hired earlier this season to be the Heat’s vice president of basketball development, is optimistic the Heat remains together despite a shaky first few months that included the team’s longest losing skid since the 2007-08 season. The Heat (30-25) won six of its final eight games prior to the All-Star break. “I think the way they finished heading into this All-Star break, winning six of the last eight and competing with Boston down the stretch with all the injuries,” Haslem said, “that means that those guys are together.”
Haslem was known as a vocal and demanding team captain who was there for his teammates whenever they needed him on and off the basketball court. He also played the role of on-court enforcer when it was needed after establishing himself as one of the toughest players in the league early in his career.
The stoic and reserved Adebayo leads in his own way while still turning to Haslem for advice throughout the season. “Obviously, I call him almost every day because he’s one of my best friends,” Adebayo said of his conversations with Haslem. “It’s not just about basketball a lot of times. But when I do pick his brain, he’s fully transparent. He tells me like it is. If we’re not playing defense, he’ll be like: ‘Bam, y’all ain’t play no damn defense.’ And those are always the conversations that we have and the dialogue when it comes to the team.” The fact that Adebayo is also one of the Heat’s two best players also adds another complicated layer to serving as the Heat’s captain.
That came into play when Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown threw down Heat forward Duncan Robinson late in a Feb. 11 game at Kaseya Center. With the Heat trailing by nine points and 7:54 left in the fourth quarter at the time of the incident, Adebayo didn’t want to pick up a technical foul or get ejected and hurt the Heat’s chances of completing the comeback. While Haslem may have confronted Brown if he was on the court, Adebayo just tried to diffuse the situation by breaking up Brown and Robinson. The Heat ended up cutting the deficit to two points with 1:49 to play, but still lost the game. “I think that was one of the things that bothered Bam as a captain,” Haslem said. “That was one of those situations where as a captain, you got a decision to make. But also, it’s a close game and you can’t get kicked out. But you also have to protect your guys and be there for your guys.
“Like I said, Bam cares. That was a situation where as a captain, I think he wanted to intervene and be a little more involved. But he also understood that the bigger picture is to try to win the basketball game. I respect that about Bam. He called me and we talked about that. He wants to be the best version of himself for the team.” But to be the best version of himself as the Heat’s captain, Adebayo is learning he often needs to forget about himself. “I feel like that’s the biggest transition for me,” Adebayo said. “You can’t think about yourself if you want to be a captain. You have to always give to the team, you have to always give to the coaches. Even sometimes when you don’t feel like it, you still have to.”
Leave a Reply