{"id":424167,"date":"2026-10-10T12:34:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T12:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424167\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T12:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T12:34:48","slug":"miami-heats-bam-adebayo-has-moved-on-from-lamelo-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424167\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo has moved on from LaMelo moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 An exhibition with meaning? Perhaps not to that degree. But Bam Adebayo would\u00a0 have every right to look at Saturday night\u2019s matchup at Kaseya Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves as something more than a benign preseason game.<\/p>\n

As part of the NBA\u2019s offseason makeover, one of the most dramatic changes outside of the Heat\u2019s\u00a0acquisition of Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> was the Timberwolves\u2019 addition of LaMelo Ball.<\/p>\n

As in the LaMelo Ball who dragged down Adebayo during the second quarter of the Heat\u2019s play-in loss to the Charlotte Hornets last April.<\/p>\n

With Adebayo unable to play on after only 11:26 of action, the Hornets won that game 127-126 in overtime, on a game-winning drive by Ball, no less, knocking the Heat out of the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t carry hate in my heart,\u201d Adebayo said when asked about Saturday\u2019s matchup and the Ball element of the equation, even without a guarantee that either plays. \u201cIf you spend that much time thinking about that, then you\u2019re not worried about the present and the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened, and it\u2019s over with.\u2019<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t over with, even from the NBA\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the play going without a whistle, the NBA followed up the following day by fining Ball $35,000 and assessing a Flagrant 2 foul for the play, a sanction that would have taken Ball off the court in that play-in game at the same point Adebayo was sidelined for the night with a bruised tailbone.<\/p>\n

The league, in a statement, said the after-the-fact sanction was issued, \u201cupon league office review for making unnecessary and reckless contact with Heat center-forward Bam Adebayo that created a significant injury risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hornets\u2019 season would end three days later, when they were blown out on the final night of the play-in round by the Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where you forgive \u2014 and you don\u2019t forget,\u201d Adebayo said as the Heat continued their preseason drilling at Kaseya Center. \u201cBut no hate in the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

By losing that night, the Heat wound up with their first lottery pick since 2019, with that No. 13 selection part of the package sent to the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> for Antetokounmpo (Tennessee forward Nate Ament was taken with that selection).<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly,\u201d Adebayo said this week, \u201cit kind of worked out better for us that we lost the game. So, I mean, the positive is it was part of us getting new guys on the team. We got a great reset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Saturday will be the first face-to-face since Ball\u2019s takedown of the Heat captain, even with coach Erik Spoelstra hinting it could be a night off for his regulars, with the same two teams to meet in their season opener on Oct. 21 at Kaseya Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll probably have a conversation,\u201d Adebayo said of meeting up with Ball. \u201cLike I said, I\u2019m not going to overthink that. We\u2019re focused on this Heat team trying to do something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cheap shot? Even the NBA agreed, with NBA officiating supervisor Monty McCutchen addressing the play during a preseason officiating briefing, noting that the referees do not have the ability to assess an after-the-fact flagrant foul after there is ensuing play.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the game, lead referee Zach Zarba said to a pool reporter, \u201cThe play wasn\u2019t whistled in real time. Play continued with a fast break. And because play wasn\u2019t stopped immediately, and there was no whistle on the play, the window to review the play was closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ball apologized after the game, saying a blow to the head he took on the drive prior to the Adebayo incident left him clouded with his reaction.<\/p>\n

But if such a play happened in the park, during pick-up, in real life?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is real life. Basketball is real life,\u201d Adebayo said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s Pee Wee, Little League or middle school. You don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or do it again.<\/p>\n

The play last April was eerily similar to one during a January 2024 Heat-Hornets game, when Ball grabbed at Adebayo\u2019s leg while Adebayo played in transition, with Adebayo remaining upright on that play.<\/p>\n

While the Heat did realize a benefit with the trip to the lottery, Adebayo said the reality is that he would have been ready for the start of the playoffs, which would have been a Heat matchup against the Detroit Pistons with a pair of play-in wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy because it wasn\u2019t that long,\u201d Adebayo said of his recovery period. \u201cI probably could have been back playing in four days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 An exhibition with meaning? Perhaps not to that degree. But Bam Adebayo would\u00a0 have every right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-424167","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\/424167","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=424167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}