Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra Refuses to Put A Ceiling on Bam Adebayo
Two years ago, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra came up with a nickname for center Bam Adebayo.
He referred to him as “No Ceiling.”
That remains the case as Adebayo enters his fourth season. The Heat have no idea how good he could become.
“That’ll continue to be the case,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t know where his game is going to grow. I just know he’s competitively wired and how much he cares about this organization, about his teammates, about winning. He will continue to make dramatic improvements on how to impact winning. He’s desperate about finding ways to win … He’s already in the gym. Those checks will not change his work ethic or his approach. I think he’s just going to find bigger and different ways to impact winning.”
The Heat rewarded Adebayo, who averaged career highs in points, rebounds and assists and was an All-Star last season, by giving him a max contract extension offseason. The five-year deal is worth $163 million. Spoelstra compares Adebayo to teammate Jimmy Butler because both impact games in other ways just scoring each night.
“I’m really happy for Bam and his family,” Spoelstra said. “He’s really worked for this in the right way. He’s all about Heat Culture and impacting winning. In so many ways, he’s like Jimmy. Just from the standpoint, he’s not your prototypical max player. The average fan is just going to see you’re leading the league in scoring and assuming that player impacts winning as somebody else. Bam impacts winning all across the board. He does it on both sides of the floor. He’s really grown as a leader.”
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