Sam Amick of The Athletic weighs in on Bam Adebayo's 83 point performance & the negative perception of it

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30.

We're going to Wednesday.

Adam Copeland, D-Pop Tim Webb with you.

Dude, I go away for like three weeks and I come back.

There's only one guy I want to talk hoops with.

It's my net head.

It's Sam Amy.

He joins us from the athletic for his weekly conversation.

Sam, what's up, bro?

How you been, man?

What's up, Sam?

Adam, Derek.

I'm flattered.

So appreciate you, man.

Yeah.

Good to have you back, man.

Or good to be back and have you on with us.

So I want to open more general, we're getting to some of the staff talk, but I was, I was

good.

Ready for my San Francisco softball league game last night.

And a bunch of guys on my team were touching in the group chat, they got beers before

and some guy goes, you guys watching this lousy 80 point game from that environment.

I was this lousy 80 point game and I laughed at my phone.

I was like, the NBA is weird, man.

I mean, you, you had a piece on this, but like people were kind of miffed by this.

It wasn't a fun thing to see the number of free throws.

What do you make of the 83 point performance that nobody's impressed with?

Yeah, I mean, unless you're a heat fan, it's funny.

I wrote, you know, something that, honestly, you know, you tried to hit the mark talking

about the context of Kobe and the idea that I don't know if you guys had the audio on

during the game, but there was a bizarre moment when he hit 81, you got Jason Reed the

long time he played my play announcer, saying what I kind of wish would have happened,

which he says, oh, you know, bam's going to come out of the game and, and he's, you

know, Kobe's one of his favorite players.

He's going to be honored to share the record with Kobe.

And honestly, guys, my feeling at the time was like, all right, this was a very messy

pathway to 81.

It was, it was about as aesthetically displeasing as you could imagine, but like that's kind

of a cool gesture.

Right.

That would be cool.

Honestly.

Yeah.

And then unfortunately, and it was a, I've learned today, it was just a massive, you

know, kind of moment of confusion where the broadcast got it wrong and that he'd had

no intention of taking that out of the game.

And so then on the broadcast, he's kind of left to say, oh, never mind, he's, he's still

out there.

And it was just, so it was kind of a great cherry on top for a moment and experience that

I think for a lot of people was, was there was just something funky about it, whether

it's the sportsmanship component, which, you know, you, I thought the people in the

league today that are surprised that the heat, you know, are extending the game by fouling

and doing all these shenanigans when you're up by 27 with 90 seconds left.

But you have the other side of the debate, too, with a lot of folks admittedly screaming

at people like me saying, you know, what are you talking about?

It's a record.

You go after it.

That's all there is to it.

So a pretty interesting debate for sure.

Well, yeah, it's like within the rules, but it's sort of like, it's sort of like throwing

a, you know, trying to change the rules so you can't throw yourself by their own rebound

to get a triple double or, you know, I mean, like to get stats like that, but it sort

of feels like it's an extrapolated version of that.

It sort of reminds me.

It's a little bit different of when, do you remember when Devon Booker scored 70 when

he was 20 years old?

He scored 70 in a game they lost to the Celtics by 10, and like it was sort of the same

thing like that.

They were, they were fouling a bunch, but feeding him the ball, mostly, it was just feeding

him to kind of let him get to that number, but it was sort of an pointless near end of

the season game.

But everybody kind of left that one, too, going, eh, scored 70, but you took 26 or 28 free

throws or whatever.

It wasn't aesthetically pleasing, I mean, it's, it's more impressive when we get these

performances in things that matter or in, in big time, real time performances because

they had to do it for the team to win.

Yep, and I'm not meeting you guys in the middle on that one because the fun part of today

or, you know, I guess I'm lighting and entertaining has been having people add in even more context

to this discussion and what I mean by that is, like we can't pretend that some of these

other all-time performances where we're clean cut in their own right, if that makes sense,

like when Kobe went for 81, that was a terrible Raptors team, you know, Chris Post, Jalen

Rose, those guys were great, but they didn't have much else.

The Lakers weren't very good that year.

They, you know, it got a little bit close in the fourth quarter, but you can argue the

last few minutes that Kobe did keep pushing it to getting into 81.

Now the other one that obviously there's no video of and, and it's become just lore and

kind of from the old history books, is will and is 100, the, the filly was, was, you

know, reportedly, let in the next score as quickly as possible just so they could get the ball

back and will pass.

So like the point is, you know, this stuff is never, you know, as perfect as we might

reflect on it to be, but with all that being said, I thought, you know, again, Bams

was, was super, it was impressive in its own right, but it was messy and it was just

kind of uncomfortable at the end.

Every day, excessive delays and denials from big insurers keep patients from accessing

the care they need.

And when care is urgent, these delays can be disastrous.

These practices cost billions in wasteful spending, driving up costs for American families,

but while big insurers put up barriers, America's hospitals and health systems are in your corner,

navigating endless reviews and appeals to get you the care you need when you need it

most.

It's time to curb these harmful practices and put the focus back on patients, brought

to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Health Care.

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And by the way, let's take down Sheryl Miller's 100 point game, too, while we're at it,

let's knock that down.

That wasn't as impressive as we make it up to.

But no, but Sam, all those, all those moments were celebrated.

Obviously, we'll chamberlains and Kobe's, I mean, I remember that well, that was on

a championship NFL weekend and that was the biggest story in sports.

And yes, it was against a Lily Raptor's team, but that was celebrated this yesterday,

like people are kind of down on it because it's against the wizards.

Like you look at email you, Doku and Victor Whitman, Yama, they're asked about it last night

and they don't give it a ton of praise.

So I understand what happened last night.

It did look messy, but are you surprised just like the reaction from the league where

it's not really being celebrated?

Some what and I don't know where I land on is that a reaction to the heat and bam individually

in his reputation as a something there because I do think it's a little, it hits strangely

when you have somebody who's not considered an elite scorer doing something like that.

It's just incongruous, you know, that doesn't take away from it, but I think that was part

of the strangeness of it or is it something just society-wise where maybe we are guilty

of Admit Ticken.

I mean, that's not, you know, I've had people call me today about what I wrote and some

saying, thanks for writing it, some saying I don't agree with you, you know, some from

Miami certainly giving me a shout, but it's just something strange where it's very loud

about in terms of the reaction what he did and a lot of it is not positive.

You know what's funny is I sort of think Sam and tell me if you agree, like it's more

to me, it's less about the way it happened and it was, I mean, people are calling it

slop on our text line and stuff like that.

It's less to me about that and more a reflection of kind of where the league is right now.

Like I mean, we had a situation last week where the bottom 10 teams of the league had

a combined 40 game losing streak and like the tank in situation and the injury situation

and Steve Kerr's talking about the number of games needs to be, need to be lowered.

So I mean, to me, this is more about you just don't get the quality product every night

and so you allow this to happen and this being a story for the league has to be viewed

as a positive in some capacity because of the status of the league in terms of not getting

superstars and these performances nightly.

Yeah, I mean, I hear you and all that.

I think this might be a stress.

I told somebody earlier, I said, you know, maybe this is kind of what the NBA has

wrought when the tanking is an issue where you have the idea that, I mean, again,

the stress could be that you have both parties in this game to some extent differently

exploiting the game for their own individual purposes that are outside of winning the game.

You know what I mean?

Like the point for both teams yesterday was not to win the game.

The Wizards were just doing what the Wizards are doing, trying to get a good draft pick.

They got embarrassed as a result.

They deserve every bit of that, you know, but then on a heat side, you know, when you

are up 27 with 95 seconds left, then the point is to win the game.

You've already won the game and you're now just chasing something for the sake of being

able to say you had it.

As a quick aside, I did find it interesting.

I had a coach at me today saying, man, they're lucky.

The Wizards are apparently mild-mannered, you know, guys as far as the staff, Ryan Keith

is the head coach and his crew because there's some sentiment out there that like, you know,

if you would have done this against some other teams, you know, you might have had some smoke

and been courted.

Talk to Sam Emich on the Uma Guest line.

Yes, as far as other warriors right now, they got their own issues with losing the teams

that are perceived to be tanking in the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls and Porzingis,

you know, his plan again, but a lot of mystery going on with his illness still.

Steph Curry's out for another 10 days.

That's five more games and the expectation is he is going to come back towards the end

of the regular season before we get to the plan, but we'll see if the warriors get to

the plan and the injury is so, you know, unpredictable as they put it with the runners

knee.

So at what point, Sam, do you think it's going to be where the warriors have to ask

themselves?

Is it in their best interest to shut down Steph Curry for the rest of the year?

I mean, I don't think we're there.

I think this feels more like, you know, we've pulled the curtain back a little more to the

point where we now see that, I mean, what I would anticipate is that he gets a couple

games in and then it's rolling the dice in the plan.

That's just kind of what it is.

And I think we talked before about what would be the best practice on that front and you

know that he would prefer to have five or six games, I would imagine, but that knee

is obviously continuing to get him a hard time.

But I think we're still not at the point where shutting it down is the way to go.

If only, I mean, call it delusion college is kind of the confidence born out of what

they've accomplished in the past and just the idea that, you know, they're not going to

roll over.

I think there's still going to go for it to some degree, just whatever that looks like.

But it's unfortunate.

I mean, Porzinga's continuing to, you know, like you said, he's playing, but you don't

know how long, you know, nine and nine out of he's going to be there.

I noticed the other day, I was doing some MVP research and this is just salt in the wound

that jumped out at me that one of the stats that a lot of people look at is, as you guys

know, is player efficiency ratings, P.E.R. and Jimmy Butler, to my surprise, was like top

five in the NBA and P.E.R. and it's just kind of a reminder of what they lost with

Jimmy and kind of what might have been, not to say they were on their path to another

title, but I think they could have been competitive.

So this is a very different calculus and we'll see if they can sneak in a little step

time at the end before the plan.

Sam, we've, I mean, you covered the NBA.

Have you seen what's happened in the NFL with this match, Frostb, trade situation?

He just made it.

So I know the trade was, was rescinded and then the set of my analysis was a viral meme

where somebody had like a WWE video where they had supposed to be maxing a wheelchair

where they like to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So basically, basically what happened to the agree to send two first runners to the

Raiders and again, it couldn't have been finalized like until today.

Right.

That's what it would have become official.

They did the physical with Max Crosby and then yesterday the day before after the Raiders

have come to terms, but not signed all these other players.

They say we're not going to sign Max Crosby.

We're pulling back our offer because in our minds, he didn't, he didn't pass the physical.

We didn't like what we saw in the physical.

Some people think it's shady.

Now they hear no there.

What I was going to ask is about in the NBA even because teams go through this stuff.

And it comes to physicals because we've been kind of joking like oh, Max Crosby didn't

pass it, but poor Zingas did.

It's up to the team.

Is it not?

At what level they're willing to take a hurt player?

Yes.

Yes.

I mean, the first example that comes to mind is Mark Williams last year with the Charlotte

and the Lakers.

That was a really interesting one that kind of touches all aspects of this discussion

because you had a lot of skepticism that the Lakers were telling the truth about their

medical concerns and a lot of people theorizing that basically once they saw the negative reaction

publicly to the trade that they had a kind of come to Jesus moment and suddenly didn't

want to do the trade.

And then you had the Lakers certainly insisting that they found things that they didn't

previously know about and they were concerned.

But yeah, if they wanted to look the other way and say it's fine, we're going to work

this out.

They could have done that.

So yes, it is up to them.

So what I was going to ask is like in the NFL, like the way that's just went down, it

looks bad and it seems shady and maybe there was some some shady stuff they did behind

the scenes.

I don't know.

Neither are there.

The bigger point to me is they were allowed to do what they did.

They were within their their window to say we actually don't want to do this trade.

It just it just sort of screws over the Raiders.

I remember this kind of happened with the warriors and the pay the the blazers a couple of

years ago with Gary.

Would you be two?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I said really what this comes down to for me is like how do teams view that GM?

It's not your image across the league.

And maybe if they think you did something that was that was not above board or you kind

of lied about something that it goes.

It goes south relationship wise, how has that kind of stuff affected GM relationships

in the NBA?

Is it really just individual based or does it or does it seep into the organization where

the warriors would say we don't deal with this team anymore just at the NBA level.

How does that that transpire?

I think it's probably a more predictable answer than you would think meaning it's just

human nature, right?

Like if you if you're sore at somebody because of the way they handle it and if that you

know those two front offices remain, I think those dynamics can certainly affect future

negotiations.

You know, I I'm trying to think of examples but back in the day when I covered the kings

as the beat writer in the blue 2000, there was this kind of hilarious thing where Jeff

Petri of the Kings would always do these trades with Atlanta, but I think it was Billy

King at the time was the GM like and they just had a good dynamic.

So like they that was a positive example of two GMs who could really talk things through

and find what they thought was a win-win on trades.

So the inverse of that is a do you have the relationship in the B if you have some sort

of dysfunction or history with like something like this, then you know, that can definitely

impact, you know, the deals the do or don't go down.

This one is unique though because you have this connected tissue between the hawks and

the warriors with Ulsey Salah having come from, you know, Golden State's front office.

And so I think certainly on both sides of respect remains there and, you know, use the

word mysterious and I don't know what other adjectives we want to put on it.

It just continues to confuse me in terms of the way it went down and kind of the surprise

on the warriors part that this is where it is just because this is all kind of stuff

we knew.

So, you know, still kind of a head scratcher for me, but that's kind of how I see the personal

dynamic.

All right.

Last one for you, Sam.

And it's probably the most important story going in the NBA right now.

Why did the NBA make the hawks cancel this magic city night?

I'm hot.

I'm pissed.

I'm like, what up?

What's going on?

I mean, first of all, like regardless of the outcome, magic city getting to my

list.

I'm waiting.

Well, everybody else been getting my list and magic city for years.

That's the only fear that they get you know, my, for posterity, I'm about to go check

it out when I wrote to Atlanta.

It will be a journalist, you know, exactly.

Yeah.

Indeed.

Yeah, we might have an internal running gag going in our place like we're going to do

the investigator journal.

Yeah.

The problem is all over.

It's all over.

It's already got us.

Indeed.

I'm going to.

I, you know, it's, it's a, how do I answer that one?

I don't feel there's a businessman.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

When I don't know exactly, this is not a formal voting type thing, but you got 30 teams.

Let's say 23 of them were uncomfortable with this partnership or this sponsorship or

this, you know, marketing idea, then the room is going to win over the one market.

You know, I don't know to what extent, you know, what kind of what voices played the

biggest part, the loudest one publicly, of course, was Lou Cornette from the Spurs, you

know, wrote a letter to the NBA indicating that he felt like it was disparaging to women

and disrespectful to women to, to elevate that sort of a company.

You know, so I think that's it.

I mean, Adam came from NBA, he came from, you know, the David Stern era where you're,

you're growing the game and once he decides that, that the, you know, it's going to lead

to something in the red and not the black on the, you know, kind of the revenue business

side.

And I mean, he said not to say that this is, there's no ethics in the league, but that

is the driving force behind the vast majority of decisions.

And I think likely with this one as well.

Yeah.

See, Dramon said he thought I was an art form.

He should have written a letter instead of got a podcast.

Maybe he would have got some, some real movement.

Sam, David, the voice you hear covers the NBA for the athletics.

Sam, always appreciate the time.

Good to talk to you, man.

We'll do it again soon.

Thanks, Sam.

Appreciate you guys.

Be good.