Rockets Have Varying Opinions on Bam Adebayo's Historic Night

Ime Udoka has seen stellar NBA play throughout his basketball life. The Houston Rockets coach has spent two decades in the NBA.

Seven of which was spent as a player and 13 as a coach. Udoka spent nine years as an assistant and four years as a head coach.

Udoka witnessed Kobe Bryant drop 65 points when he played for the Portland Trail Blazers. He also witnessed Joel Embiid drop 41 points and 21 rebounds, just several games after dropping 49 points and 14 rebounds.

He's also seen Kevin Durant drop 40 and 10 twice. He's also seen Jayson Tatum drop 50 points twice.

Again, he's seen dominance. Yet and still, he was unimpressed by Miami Heat star center Bam Adebayo's historic 83-point night on Tuesday.

Udoka blatantly admitted it.

"First thing you think is how — not because of him but because of the way he plays. I saw he only made six threes but 40 free throws or something like that, tells the story right there."

Udoka paused and continued to unload.

"And the Washington Wizards."

Udoka’s response was quite different from that of Rockets forward Kevin Durant, who gave Adebayo his flowers, admitting how insanely difficult the feat was.

Adebayo took 43 shots, converting on 20 of them, and took 22 threes, which isn't easy to do. Especially for someone who isn't necessarily a sniper or outside specialist.

Adebayo officially went 7-of-22 from deep and took 43 trips to the foul line, making 36 of his free throw attempts.

Udoka’s slight towards the Wizards is interesting, as the Rockets just faced them five games ago and won by five points, with a score of 123-118. Granted, the game wasn't necessarily that close and certainly didn't feel that close.

But the Rockets held a 19-point lead in the game and saw the Wizards slice the deficit by going on a 10-3 lead to close the game.

It's worth noting that former Rockets sharpshooter Reggie Bullock had a much different take on Adebayo's historic feat, which he shared on social media.

"Give my dog his Flowers for the 83! That teammate sh— blows me."

Bullock was referring to Philadelphia 76ers wing Kelly Oubre taking a shot at Adebayo by pointing out Joel Embiid's 70-point performance during the 2023-24 season, noting that Embiid pulled off the feat through three quarters. Although the minutes were about the same for both, with Adebayo playing 41 minutes and Embiid playing 37 minutes.

The variance of opinions is interesting here. At the end of the day, 83 points is still 83 points. If it was easy, Adebayo wouldn't have been the first to do it.

Sometimes it's best to give players their flowers. It's certainly the easiest.