Bam Adebayo

About

Edrice Femi “Bam” Adebayo ( AH-də-BY-oh; born July 18, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats before being selected by the Heat with the 14th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft. He is a three-time NBA All-Star, a six-time NBA All-Defensive Team honoree, and he helped the Heat reach the NBA Finals in 2020 and 2023. He also won a gold medal with the 2020 and 2024 U.S. Olympic teams. He has achieved the second-highest scoring game by a player in NBA history with 83 points, achieved in a 150–129 win on March 10, 2026, against the Washington Wizards.

Adebayo was born on July 18, 1997, in Newark, New Jersey, to a Nigerian Yoruba father, John Adebayo, and an African American mother, Marilyn Blount. As a child, he was given the nickname “Bam Bam” by his mother when, while watching The Flintstones at age one, he flipped over a coffee table in a manner similar to the show’s character Bamm-Bamm Rubble. Adebayo moved with his mother to North Carolina when he was seven. He had little further interaction with his father, who died…