Heat’s Bam Adebayo addresses relationship forged with Damian Lillard at Olympics

It’s not so much that Bam Adebayo is making friends in important places. The affable Miami Heat center has that way about him.

Rather, it was the matter of the first name that rolled off his tongue Thursday when asked which Team USA player has been in his ear the most during the Tokyo Olympics: Damian Lillard.

As in the Portland Trail Blazers point guard. As in a player who openly has questioned whether, at 31, he might be better positioned to pursue an NBA championship elsewhere.

“I wouldn’t say been in my ear,” Adebayo said ahead of Team USA closing out Olympic pool play Saturday against the Czech Republic, “but getting to talk to him and getting that chemistry with is Dame, just because I play center, he plays point guard. So it’s kind of we’ve got to build a connection in the pick and roll.

“But just being in his ear and seeing how he thinks that game.”

Adebayo also mentioned picking the brain of Olympic teammate Jrue Holiday, the Milwaukee Bucks championship guard, when it comes to creating steals and developing defensive instincts.

But Adebayo’s comment about Lillard came during the same interview session when Lillard addressed rumors gone wild about his own situation, including a report that he would forgo game checks until dealt to a team of his preference.

“I’ve never said that,” Lillard said in a measured, almost bemused tone. “I literally laughed about that when I saw that, Because I never said that.

“I’ve been as open about the situation as I can possibly be. And things have continually come out, ‘Oh, Dame said he’s 75-25,’ and, ‘Dame is excited about this,’ and, ‘Dame is going to give back money.’ I’ve seen everything and I have not said any of those things. I’ve spoken directly to my team. My team knows the truth.”

Ultimately, this has been a unique Olympic experience for Adebayo and the rest of Team USA because of both the unusual pandemic circumstances and the unique timing, with Adebayo speaking Thursday hours ahead of the NBA draft and just days ahead of free agency, the personnel period when Lillard’s status likely will be further clarified.

That had Adebayo addressing a variety of topics during his session with the international media.

Of Thursday being draft day and his own reflections since being taken No. 14 out of Kentucky in 2017: “It felt like just yesterday I was a rookie walking into the 305. And now, four years, about to be five years later, it’s like, ‘Dang,’ like I’ve developed a home here, like this is a part of me now.”

Of fellow USA Olympian Simone Biles stepping away from gymnastic competition to focus on mental health: “You forget that it’s OK to take time away from this. Because we’re always on edge of, ‘I don’t want to be second. I don’t want to be second.’ Like we’ve always got that number-one mentality, that we forget that we need a break. We need some time to chill.”

Of the level of competition in the Olympic tournament: “At the end of the day it just shows our game is becoming more international than it used to be. And it just makes it more competitive. I feel like it makes it more fun. You know, it definitely puts us on edge, because we don’t go into every game thinking we’re going to beat everybody by 50. So it definitely keeps us on edge, and definitely shows us that we can’t mess around.”

Of routing Iran 120-66 in the wake of losing to France in Team USA’s Olympic opener: “I mean, it’s always good to have a great win, especially as big as we did. Because at this point, points matter [as a pool-play tiebreaker]. And, so, it’s good to get big wins and just feed off that energy. We know what we can do. We know what we’re capable of and we’ve seen that.”