Pat Riley Slams ‘Unjustified’ Criticism of Bam Adebayo’s 83-Point Game: ‘It’s All Bulls---‘

Bam Adebayo scored 83 points earlier this week and stunned the sports world. The Heat center’s unexpected, historic scoring explosion against the Wizards is one of the biggest sports stories of the year; he now ranks second on the NBA’s all-time single-game scoring list behind only Wilt Chamberlain.

However, his remarkable accomplishment has not been universally celebrated as such. Adebayo’s performance has been criticized by fans and media alike. Those detractors believe his 83-point outing is worth less than, say, Kobe Bryant’s 81 points because Adebayo scored 36 points from the free throw line. Furthermore his team went to great lengths late in the fourth quarter to help push him past Bryant, feeding him the ball at any cost and intentionally fouling Washington in order to prolong the game.

It’s made the “ethics” of Adebayo’s game quite the talking point throughout the week. The noise was loud enough that coach Erik Spoelstra and Adebayo himself issued direct responses to the noise. Their stances were unsurprising: neither will apologize for how things unfolded, nor do they care about what the critics have to say. On Saturday, team president and NBA legend Pat Riley joined their chorus.

In a story published by the Miami Herald, Riley didn’t hesitate to bash the criticism of Adebayo’s 83-point performance. He called it “all bulls---“ and argued anybody who was cynical of the historic moment was just trying to draw attention to themselves.

“It’s bulls---. It’s all bulls---,” Riley said to Anthony Chiang. “It really is. Anybody who is negative on it, anybody who was cynical about it, anybody who talked about it the way they talked about it in a negative way, they’re trying to either get views, hits, or they’re podcasters and that’s their job.

“There are critics today that are just so unjustified in what was going on with the tactics, and we were fouled, and they were fouled. The same thing happened with Wilt Chamberlain when he got 100 back in the day. But I don’t buy any of that. They took an iconic, absolute incredible performance, and they tried to dismiss it. And that’s not fair.”

A very strong stance from the longtime NBA figurehead. As well as an expected one. Riley was as thrilled as anybody for Adebayo’s achievement, greeting him after the game on Tuesday with a big hug and hearty message of congratulations.

Instant pure, raw, historic emotions. Congrats @Bam1of1! pic.twitter.com/16FsMuLNBh
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) March 11, 2026

Riley has been around the block in the NBA, winning five championships as a coach and two more as a front office executive. He’s helped oversee the careers of legends from Magic Johnson to LeBron James. He recently got a statue in front of the Lakers’ arena. And as a famously blunt individual, if Riley had a problem with anything that happened on Tuesday, he surely would have shared it.

Instead Riley pushed back strongly on the idea anyone can discredit Adebayo’s “iconic, absolute incredible” performance. The star center surely appreciates it, and Riley’s opinion should certainly carry some weight as one of the stewards of NBA history. He thinks very highly of Adebayo based on his other quotes from today’s story too.

“I’m so happy for him, because I believe he deserves that,” Riley said. “He has that kind of work ethic. He’s a humble guy.”

The noise surrounding Adebayo’s performance has gotten quieter as the week has gone on. Perhaps Riley’s fiery quote will put a rest to it all.

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