Heat’s Bam Adebayo making strong All-Star case: ‘I feel like I deserve to be in it’

Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo has been asked multiple times recently while sitting at the dais for postgame news conferences whether the desire to prove he deserves to be an All-Star this season adds any extra motivation. He has politely sidestepped the question each time.

So when Adebayo was asked if the opportunity to make his All-Star case in Tuesday night’s nationally televised matchup against the Boston Celtics was the motivation behind his dominant performance, he did it again.

“No, it was the rivalry,” Adebayo said after leading the Heat to a 98-95 comeback win over the Celtics on Tuesday at Miami-Dade Arena with 30 points and 15 rebounds in co-star Jimmy Butler’s absence. “They booted us in the Eastern Conference finals last year. I feel like a lot of guys on our team carry that.”

But the truth is Adebayo wants to be named an All-Star this season and believes strongly that he deserves to be one, and he has made that clear in more private settings.

With the starters for the Feb. 19 NBA All-Star Game set to be revealed on TNT on Thursday night, Adebayo almost certainly won’t be part of that announcement with superstar names such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid considered the front-runners for the three Eastern Conference frontcourt spots. Fans account for 50 percent of that vote and Adebayo was not even among the top 10 vote-getters for the East on the most recent returns of fan balloting.

So Adebayo’s All-Star fate will instead be decided by the head coaches, who select the seven All-Star reserves for each conference. The All-Star reserves will be announced on TNT on Feb. 2.

“I’ll leave fan voting to fan voting,” Adebayo said to the Miami Herald, with the Heat now in the middle of a two-day break before closing its three-game homestand Friday against the Orlando Magic. “There are guys that shouldn’t even be on that list. But it’s fan voting. That’s what it is and you got to live with that. I mean, right now I’m in a position where it’s based off the coaches in the East. Now that, I’m going to be [upset] about if they tell me somebody else has played better than me this year considering I’m leading the NBA in paint points and I’m one of the reasons why we’re winning.

“So for me, it’s just that fan voting is fan voting. I’ll let that be. But when it comes to coaches voting, that’s when I feel like I deserve to be in it.”

Among the East frontcourt players ahead of Adebayo on the most recent return of fan balloting for the All-Star Game were Washington’s Kyle Kuzma, Orlando’s Paolo Banchero, New York’s Julius Randle and Brooklyn’s Nic Claxton. Jimmy Butler is the only Heat player who has made the top 10 list at their respective position in fan voting this season.

“I think Bam not being on that list is crazy,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “He’s been a top-three, four, five center in the league all year on both ends of the floor. His numbers went up. I think he’ll definitely be an All-Star, whether it’s coaches or fan voting.”

Adebayo, 25, definitely has a strong case to be selected as an All-Star, as he’s averaging career-highs in points (21.6 per game), rebounds (10.2 per game) and minutes (35 per game) while providing his usual elite defense in his sixth NBA season. He has reached the 30-point mark in 17 games during his NBA career, and eight of those games have come this season.

Adebayo is dictating the terms of engagement against opposing defenses by getting to his comfort spots on the court regardless of what coverage he’s facing on his way to averaging a career-high 16 shot attempts per game this season.

“We don’t want to go too many possessions where we haven’t tried to get him the ball,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And he’s great at getting all the way to the rim. ... But his paint shots, right in the circle, that’s such a go-to shot for him. That’s a credit to the work that he’s put in particularly against drop coverages, just to really be so efficient on those little 12- to 14-foot shots.”

The numbers confirm this, with 84.4 percent of Adebayo’s shot attempts this season coming from inside the paint compared to 82.9 percent last season and 77.8 percent in the 2020-21 season. Adebayo entered Wednesday leading the NBA in total paint points with 702 this season ahead of second-place Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and third-place Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“I’m just getting to my spots and nobody has a problem with it,” Adebayo said. “Guys want me to be assertive, they want me to be aggressive. That’s why they throw the ball in the pocket. From there, it’s either shot or pass. I’m doing a lot more shooting, though.”

The most important aspect of Adebayo’s production is it’s leading to wins. The Heat is 7-1 in games that he has scored 30 or more points in and the team has been 9.1 points per 100 possessions better when he’s on the court compared to when he’s not on the court this season.

“Certainly I’m rooting for it,” Spoelstra said when asked about Adebayo’s All-Star case this season. “I thought he should have been an All-Star last year. There’s really no reason he shouldn’t have been an All-Star last year. He missed five weeks, so what? He was playing at an All-Star level. There have been other guys that have missed more than five weeks and still got in.

“It’s deserving. That’s not really my nature to go out and campaign, I just think he’s an All-Star. He showed it [in Tuesday’s win over the Celtics]. Thankfully it was a big win, it was on TV. I hope people notice and he really impacted the win, particularly going down the stretch.”

With the Heat winning 15 of its last 22 games following a 12-15 start to the season, the Heat stands five games above .500 for the first time this season at 27-22. That recent success should improve Adebayo’s chances of making the All-Star Game, which will take place at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.

Adebayo has been voted to the All-Star Game just once before during his NBA career, as he was picked as a reserve for the 2019-20 season.

“It just means I’m growing as a player,” Adebayo said when asked what it would mean for him to be named an All-Star for the second time. “I want to keep going to the All-Star Game, you want that accolade. Obviously, it’s notoriety and all that comes with it. But for me, I do it for the name on the back but also the name on the front is who I represent.

“Me and my family, it’s dope to be a two-time All-Star and bring your family there for that one weekend where you get the top 24 in the NBA in one arena. It’s an experience that you can’t really explain because you’re part of the top 24 in the league. For me, it’s just earning respect.”