How what happened in Vegas changed Gabe Vincent’s Heat trajectory

MIAMI – Initially, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo wasn’t fully sure what to make of Gabe Vincent.

Granted, the two already had spent three months quarantined together at Disney World in the NBA’s pandemic bubble at the end of the 2019-20 season. And, granted, Vincent’s first full NBA season had included 50 games on a two-way contract as Adebayo’s teammate in 2020-21.

But it was at a game that didn’t count that ultimately counted most for Adebayo when it came to counting character.

That came in Las Vegas, on July 10, 2021, as part of Olympic preparation for Adebayo and Team USA.

That night, Vincent and fellow Heat teammates at the time KZ Okpala and Precious Achiuwa were the opposition on Nigeria’s national team, in the type of exhibition that tends to devolve into a thanks-for-the-sparring-session walkover.

Only it wasn’t. Nigeria won 90-87, led by 21 points from Gabe Nnamdi, who goes by Gabe Vincent in NBA competition.

That, Adebayo said, was when he knew the Heat had something special in the undrafted guard out of Cal-Santa Barbara, the type of player who would step up Sunday night to lead the Heat with 23 points in their Game 2 victory over the Denver Nuggets that tied the NBA Finals at 1-1 going into Wednesday night’s Game 3 at Kaseya Center.

“Man, when he torched us in the Olympics, in the exhibition game facing Nigeria,” Adebayo said of his come-to-Gabe moment. “He came out with that type of energy, that type of voracity and that type of anger. I felt like, from there, he’s one of us.”

Generally soft-spoken and introspective to the degree that he meditates in the locker room before games, Vincent has shown the ability to morph into Nnamdi on demand.

“We love Nnamdi,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, as he turned his attention to the first of these consecutive Finals games in Miami. “We really do. If you don’t know that, the national media, because you’re not following us, please look that up, Nnamdi. He’s a special guy. He really is.”

Asked to define the growth curve that created the confidence to continue with the relative neophyte as starting point guard even after former All-Star Kyle Lowry recovered from his midseason knee soreness, Spoelstra again chose the name game.

“Are you talking about Nnamdi, Gabe?” he asked. “I would say that old saying that we use a lot: People severely overestimate what you can get accomplished in a day, and they grossly underestimate what you can get accomplished in a matter of months, years, when nobody is paying attention. And he’s the epitome of that.”

The confidence of that July 2021 night seemingly always was in place. The canvas of that court in Las Vegas allowed it to manifest. It has been growing since, which should have Vincent a coveted asset this summer in NBA free agency.

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On that night in Vegas, Vincent found himself going against stars.

Now he is thriving alongside.

“Our stars, Jimmy [Butler], Kyle, Bam, they have just been in my ear and telling me just to play, play basketball,” he said of his further metamorphosis in this postseason and this series. “They trust my IQ of the game, and they want me just to go out there and play hard.”

Having had his moment against Team USA, the challenge now comes against an elite Serb in Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and an elite Canadian in Denver guard Jamal Murray.

“He’s just an incredible winning player,” Spoelstra said of Vincent, whose father emigrated from Nigeria. “This year, he’s been a starter for us; he’s been great. He’s off the bench; he’s been great. He’s like a lot of our guys, the competitive spirit. You get challenged like we’re getting challenged in this series, you hope it brings out the best in you. And that’s what it’s doing with him.”