Bam Adebayo with his mother after winning the skills competition at the NBA All-Star Game in 2020. (Twitter Photo)
Former Kentucky standout Bam Adebayo played a huge role helping eighth-seeded Miami get to the NBA Finals against Denver.
Just like he did at Kentucky, he credited his mother for helping him develop confidence to be a leader.
“I know I talk about her a lot. I hope she doesn’t call me during media,” he joked. “But it’s been my mom because she’s been a leader in my life, since I’ve been born.
“Seeing my mom go through every adversity, all the adversity she’s been through. My mom walked to work. My mom was a single parent. We lived in a single wide trailer. I lived off of $12,000 a year from my mom. Having that type of person lead, I feel like it was just bound for me to be able to get in that mold.
“Definitely uncomfortable when you first start being — when people start looking at you and saying you have to be more vocal, you have to be a leader of the ship. I just look back at those days how my mom just lived for me, and it was by example.”
He said he always had the “will to lead by example” but was not always vocal.
“Every moment in the moments of truth, I’ll take the chair, and it counts for whatever it counts for, maybe once or twice a game, just depending on it. I feel like it’s by example, and I’m the person that if you’re going through something, I will come to you and talk to you,” he said. “Everybody has their different versions (of leadership).”
Adebayo has become a stabilizing force for Miami, especially on defense. He’s a physical player just like he was at Kentucky and depends on film, not analytics, to prepare himself.
“I definitely do watch film, look at tendencies, look at plays, see if I can see hand motions to see what types of plays they’re running,” he said. “Just the little things, the little details that you don’t look at throughout a game, I try to find the little things in the film.”
One Response
Bam is a great ambassador for the Cats !