{"id":281503,"date":"2026-05-23T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281503\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T00:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T00:01:08","slug":"miami-heats-bam-adebayo-named-to-nba-all-defensive-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281503\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo named to NBA All-Defensive team"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 After a one-year absence, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo is back on an NBA All-Defensive team.<\/p>\n

Bypassed last year after making one of the two teams the previous five seasons, Adebayo on Friday was named second-team All-Defensive.<\/p>\n

Adebayo was named first-team All-Defensive in 2024, with second-team nods in 2020, \u201921, \u201922 and \u201923.<\/p>\n

The designation comes despite the Heat falling to 14th in defensive rating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adebayo finished in a tie for 11th place for 2026 NBA Defensive Player of the Year that went to San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, with Adebayo receiving just one third-place vote from the 100-member media panel.<\/p>\n

Named first-team All-Defensive were Wembanyama, Oklahoma City\u2019s Chet Holmgren, Detroit\u2019s Ausar Thompson, Utah\u2019s Rudy Gobert and Boston\u2019s Derrick White.<\/p>\n

Joining Adebayo on the second team were Toronto\u2019s Scottie Barnes, Atlanta\u2019s Dyson Daniels, New York\u2019s OG Anunoby and Oklahoma City\u2019s Cason Wallace.<\/p>\n

Adebayo placed eighth overall in the All-Defensive balloting, receiving 10 first-team votes and 51 second-team votes from the 100-member media panel. No other Heat players received votes.<\/p>\n

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra pushed Adebayo\u2019s candidacy during the season, going as far as to compare Adebayo and Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just depends on what flavor you like,\u201d Spoelstra said, \u201ca unicorn shot blocker that totally changes everything in the paint or a unicorn one through five that can do any scheme in this league and is showcasing a real unique ability to impact the game defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adebayo has never won Defensive Player of the Year, with Alonzo Mourning (1999, 2000) the lone recipient over the Heat\u2019s 38 seasons.<\/p>\n

The only players to be named first-team All-Defensive in Heat history have been LeBron James (2011, \u201912, \u201913), Mourning (1999, 2000) and Adebayo (2024).<\/p>\n

Adebayo led the NBA in defensive rating in February<\/a>, with a top-10 defensive rating in March, as part of a solid close to the season.<\/p>\n

Still, Adebayo did not earn a Defensive Player of the Month honor this past season, with those Eastern Conference selections going to Barnes for October\/November, Detroit\u2019s Isaiah Stewart for December, Thomson for January,\u00a0 White for February, and Thompson again for March.<\/p>\n

The Heat had a 110.4 defensive rating with Adebayo on the floor this season, a number that dropped to 115.8 when he was not on the court.<\/p>\n

Adebayo closed the season with 86 steals, marking his fifth consecutive year with at least 80, becoming just the fourth player in franchise history to achieve the feat in at least five consecutive seasons, joining Dwyane Wade (10 straight, 2003-13), Grant Long (six straight, 1988-94) and Glen Rice (five straight, 1990-1995).<\/p>\n

In addition, Adebayo is now just 35 rebounds from tying Udonis Haslem (5,791) for the Heat\u2019s all-time record.<\/p>\n

The defensive respect from teammates remains unceasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s great defensively every single year,\u201d teammate Tyler Herro said. \u201cI mean, he\u2019s the anchor. He\u2019s been the anchor for our defense for the seven years that I\u2019ve been here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 After a one-year absence, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo is back on an NBA All-Defensive team.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-281503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}