Bam Adebayo works toward Olympic gold as Heat continue to vouch for him as money in the bank
LAS VEGAS — The duality of roles played by Bam Adebayo has never been more evident than this month.
For the Miami Heat, there is the freshly minted three-year, $166 million contract extension signed last week as a leading man. For Team USA, there is the supporting role for the Olympic team that again was on display Monday in a 98-92 exhibition victory over Australia in Abu Dhabi.
With the Olympic team, Adebayo said there is an appreciation of merely having to be a contributing component.
“Winning the gold doesn’t matter who scores the most, doesn’t matter who rebounds the most. At the end of the day, you get a gold medal for your country,” he said, closing the exhibition against Australia with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting in 18 minutes.
Adebayo played off the bench for the second time in as many Team USA pre-Olympic exhibitions, with Joel Embiid again getting the starting call at center from Olympic coach Steve Kerr, whose Team USA staff includes Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
The United States opened Monday with a lineup of Embiid, LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards and Stephen Curry. Adebayo then played on a second unit that featured Anthony Davis, Tyrese Haliburton, Devin Booker and Jrue Holiday, as he did in the initial exhibition win over Canada.
Those rotations remain in flux with forward Kevin Durant sidelined by a calf strain.
“No matter the rotations, no matter how it goes,” Adebayo said, “you’re not taking on the regular role as you would in the regular season of, ‘I’ve got to do this, this and this.’ It’s more so you do one or two things and you kind of rally around each other.”
While the turnaround from the offseason to the Paris Games is a three-week whirlwind, Adebayo said there is the comfort of making that transition in the midst of greatness.
“I feel like we’ve seen and played against each other enough to where you understand everybody’s tendencies and what everybody’s skill sets are and you kind of mix into that,” said Adebayo, who won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021. “You’ve got some of the 12 best players. I feel like it should be easy to figure out how everybody needs to jell and how we need to communicate and move as a unit.”
