Winning the Skill Game at all-Star weekend and being nominated for the All-Star Game for the first time has given many fans an acquaintance with Bam Adebayo from the Heat. Along the way, Adebayor's basketball path has not been smooth.
During his freshman year of high school, Adebayor attended North Side High School in Pine City, east of North Carolina. Toward the end of the school year, two of Adebayor's teachers and a coach called his mom, Marlene Blunt, to the school to discuss the child's future. Because at that time, Adebayo's height had exceeded 6 feet 8 inches (about 2.03 meters), teachers and coaches advised Adebayor to take the professional basketball path, but his mother was also a little worried.
"God gave Bam such a talent," said Bam, Adebayor's mother, Blunt, "and at the same time may take that talent with us today." It's either tomorrow or today. So don't take everything for granted. ”
Adebayor was a well-behaved boy and a good student from an early age, and all this made Blunt proud. Especially as a single mother, Blunt is even more caring for Adebayor. Growing up, almost every morning at 5:45 a.m., Blunt would get up and prepare a hot breakfast for Adebayor while he was still asleep. When Adebayor went to school, Blunt would work as a cashier at a nearby butcher's shop. The job earns her about $1,000 a month, but it's also tiring. By the time Adebayor returned home from basketball training, Blunt was often asleep.
Blunt doesn't drive herself, so she usually asks Adebayor's friends or coaches to take him where he needs to go, while also avoiding letting her son go to bad places. Blunt also asked the school's teachers to guide Adebayor individually, because her son had a good academic record and hoped to use his grades to apply to good universities.
However, Adebayor himself had different ideas, and he had already communicated with his mother face-to-face once before. "When I was very young, I felt, 'Mom goes to work just like any other adult.'" "But when I grew up, the way I looked at things changed. I began to notice my mom's hard work, and every time she came home she was so tired that she didn't want to do anything. So I kept thinking, 'My mom shouldn't live this way.' So my motivation turned to wanting my mom to get out of the trailer where she lived. ”
So Adebayo chose to play basketball, and when choosing a university, he also chose Kentucky, coached by Calipali. The famous coach of the NCAA has sent many talented young people to the NBA, and Adebayor also feels that this is a fast way to "get rich".
Later, Calipali himself came to recruit Adebayor and met her in the butcher shop where Blunt worked. After that meeting, It also made Calipali determined that he must cultivate Adebayor well. "I said to myself, 'We've got to let him type it out, thinking it's the compliment this lady deserves.'" Kalipari said.
After entering Kentucky, Adebayo set mom's trailer as a mobile phone wallpaper. Later, when he joined the Heat, he printed out the photo and hung it in his locker, reminding himself of it all the time. Such a serious attitude and firm goals impressed the well-informed Pat Riley. "He was already a very mature man," Riley said of Adebayor before he was chosen. Heat head coach Spollstra felt the same way. "His relationship with his mom is really wonderful," Spoo said, "and I want to do all the right things for him and for her, and I don't want to mess it up." ”
Now, Adebayor has been named to the All-Star team for the first time, and can basically secure a big contract after the rookie contract expires. More importantly, he has gained a foothold in the NBA and is seen as the heat's present and future. "He's zo (Mourning), he's ud (Haslem), down-to-earth Dwayne (Wade)," Riley said of Adebayor, "these guys set the standards for carrying the team, and Bam is such a person, he's really capable." ”
Today, Adebayor rents two in a nice apartment in downtown Miami, where he lives on the 48th floor and his mom on the 5th floor. In almost every home game, he drives his mom to the arena and goes home together after the game. He also bought his mother a bear dog, but most of the time he walked his own dog. The mother also joked that her son had bought him a dog for himself.
Blunt also keeps the stubs she received her first salary at the butcher's shop that year, marked $240. She used the way to remind herself of the hardships along the way. "In the past, you would squeeze every penny because you didn't have the money to be afraid," Blunt said, "and now I'm still going to save money and buy clothes for my baby, and make sure he has money on the road." Sometimes I sit in the house and the tears just can't stop flowing, looking around, I can't even believe it's true. ”
In high school, Adebayor had already practiced a variety of offensive skills, but after entering college, Calipairi, out of tactical considerations, more often let him cover for his teammates and defend hard. "John [Calipali] won't let him do anything," Heat President Riley said with a laugh.
So, at that time, Adebayo at that time, after each training session, pulled Kentucky's assistant coach Kenny Payne to accompany him to do various skills training. "He was really eager to play as a defender," said Adebayor's teammate Diaron Fox in Kentucky, "plus he went to class every class, and he took a lot more classes than I did." ”
Although transformed into an inside "blue collar", Adebayor's speed and basic skills will be shown in every game. He trusts his coach and that the NBA scouts will see his possession skills in training and that they will learn about him from assistant coach Payne.
Later, in the joint trial before the draft, Adebayor used his actions to let more teams know his strength. What was even more impressive was that he was then confronted with questions from the team, and when asked about his interests off the court, his answer was: "I usually play basketball and then stay with my mother, and nothing else." Hearing such an answer, many NBA executives again can't help but laugh.
But even so, Adebayor's forecast order is still not high. "More people are still skeptical that he can contribute on the offensive end," said Camille, a senior adviser to the Heat. In order to further "test" Adebayor, the Heat conducted a special trial for him. The audition focused on his "hand" skills, with six Heat crew members surrounding Adebayor and randomly throwing basketballs at him. And every ball thrown was caught by Adebayor steadily.
Later, a Heat staffer asked him what his bottom corner three-point shooting percentage was in training, and Adebayo answered without hesitation: 60%. The staff member asked him to prove it, and then Adebayor threw 31 of 50 shots — a 62 percent score.
Next, the Heat arranged a number of practical training contents - continuous jumping cap shooting under the basket, foot test, and agility test. Several projects took almost an hour, and with Adebayor already a little exhausted, the Heat began the one they really wanted to test. They asked Adebayor to change defensive strikers, including another potential newcomer to the team's audition, Justin Jackson.
This arrangement immediately made Adebayor angry, and he shouted at everyone present, including Riley and Spollstra, "Oh, you xx fooled me, you xx are playing me." "What Adebayo is trying to say is, don't you know my strength?
"Our reaction was: 'Is this guy crazy?' Spoorstra said later.
Juwan Howard, who was still working as an assistant coach at the Heat, was also there, and he made eye contact with dan Craig, the coach who presided over the trial. "We both saw that ecstasy in each other's eyes," Howard said, "and we both couldn't help but say, 'This boy has a heat temperament.'" So he took the ball and said to him in front of Pat Riley, 'Don't choose me after that.' That's definitely something the Heat players can do. ”
In fact, before the trial, the agent had warned Adebayor to lose his temper first. "If I had conceded two goals in a row, I would probably have lifted the ball to the other side of the field," Adebayo said, "I didn't want to do that in front of Pat Riley, but I would still keep talking dirty when I closed the door." I'm lucky that they like players with tempers. ”
Adebayor's competitive spirit is very strong, even a little out of the normal range. However, he was always able to steer this excessive competitive spirit in the right direction. This not only allows him to maintain a strong fighting spirit, but also not to lose his mind because of excessive greed.
Last summer, the U.S. men's basketball team cut Adebayor before playing in the men's basketball World Cup. At that time, Adebayor once said harsh words to people close to him: "They will pay the price." "He mentioned them, including the team's head coach Popovich, but also every player who ended up in the World Cup." When I see them again, I'll remember," Adebayo said.
This is indeed the case. On Jan. 8 of this year, during the Heat's match against the Pacers, Adebayor fooled Miles Turner, the U.S. team's full-time Indian center in the World Cup, and Adebayo completed a dunk on Turner's head. "His buckle put Turner on the ground like a giraffe," Adebayor's coach in the amateur league, Kevin Glavis, quipped.
On August 9, local time last year, the U.S. training team announced that it had cut Adebayor after a training session. He didn't have much nostalgia and flew back to Miami that night on a red-eye flight. On August 10, when Camille, the team's adviser, arrived at the training hall and found that Adebayor had begun to practice. Throughout the summer, Adebayor did not relax, and the team's assistant coach Chris Quinn has been practicing with him.
Referring to Adebayo's "revenge," Kentucky assistant Payne has another good example. It was last April, and the Heat came to Minneapolis to take on the Timberwolves on the road. Kentucky was also playing nearby, so Payne brought in Adebayor, along with Calipari and Downs of the Timberwolves, to dinner the day before the game. Towns also graduated from Kentucky and left school two years before Adebayo. Payne half-jokingly asked Towns to take care of the "master and disciple". Don't be too the court for our baby Bam, don't embarrass him, Payne said.
"It depends on whether their coach has someone to wrap me up," Towns replied.
As soon as these words came out, Payne immediately felt that the atmosphere was different. "I could feel the table Chinm's legs were shaking," Payne recalled.
The next day, the Heat were training for a game-morning shooting session in which Spoelstra began practicing his defensive strategy against Downs, including his bag. "Go xx, Spoo," Adebayor yelled at once, "we're determined not to wrap him up." ”
"I was like, 'Okay, then I think we'll just leave it alone,'" Spoorstra recalled.
In the end, Downs scored just 13 points and made 11 turnovers, a career high. Adebayo completed four steals against Downs, forced him to take a walk, and a dribble. "I see this game as a personal vendetta," Adebayor texted Payne after the game, "do you think he respects me more now?" ”