Bam Adebayo helped create a gold-medal moment Saturday at the Paris Olympics. Next up will be a Miami Heat banner night for the team’s versatile big man.
Sparking Team USA in reserve, as he consistently had done over these past two weeks, Adebayo shared in the glory Saturday of a 98-87 victory over host France in the men’s basketball championship game, the Americans’ fifth straight Olympic gold medal.
With the Heat honoring those from the team who win Olympic gold with banners at Kaseya Center, Adebayo becomes the first player in the franchise’s 37 seasons with dual such honors, having also won gold at the pandemic-delayed 2021 Tokyo Games.
Sharing in Saturday’s gold was Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who served as an assistant to Team USA coach Steve Kerr, whose other assistants were Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue and Gonzaga coach Mark Few.
It hardly was the rout expected of the All-Star-laden Team USA roster, with France within 82-79 with 3 minutes to play, before Stephen Curry countered with a 3-pointer for an 85-79 Team USA lead. Another Curry 3-pointer gave Team USA a 90-81 lead, with a third making it 93-84, and a fourth making it 98-87.
“This is storybook stuff. But that’s what Steph does,” said Kerr, who coaches Curry with the Golden State Warriors. “That’s storybook stuff.”
Curry closed with 24 points, shooting 8 of 12 on 3-pointers.
“This was a test,” Curry said. “Obviously France in their home building, they weren’t going to quit.
“Then the avalanche came. That was an unbelievable moment.”
Earlier in the day, Heat forward Nikola Jovic exited the Games with a bronze medal, with Serbia defeating Germany 93-83 for third place.
As for the championship game, even with France utilizing the dual size of 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama and 7-1 Rudy Gobert, Kerr opted to go without Adebayo in the first quarter, instead relying on the size of Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis.
Kerr stressed throughout the Games that the 40-minute international game clock, instead of the NBA’s 48 minutes, has limited his ability to fully employ his 12-player roster.
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Adebayo entered for the first time with 7:10 left in the second quarter and Team USA down 25-24.
Among Adebayo’s initial defensive assignments was defending Wembanyama, while yielding 7 inches in size.
Team USA outscored France by 11 with Adebayo on the court in his 6:05 stint in the second period, taking a 49-41 lead into halftime. Adebayo was forced to sit late in the second period with his second foul, with the international limit at five.
Adebayo then did not play in the third period, which ended with Team USA up 72-66.
With Anthony Davis thriving off the bench, Adebayo did not return in the second half until 6:29 remained in the fourth quarter and Team USA up 80-70, otherwise sitting alongside Embiid at the end of the Team USA bench. Adebayo closed with two points and two rebounds in 9:02.
Not only did Adebayo have to wait his turn as 10th man, but Tyrese Haliburton and Derrick White were out of Saturday’s rotation, with Jayson Tatum back in the mix after being held out of the two Olympic victories over Serbia.
As Adebayo played off the bench for the sixth time in as many appearances in the Games, Team USA on Saturday opened with Embiid, Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
Bronze for Jovic
In the bronze-medal game played earlier in the day, Jovic played only 2:22, as his limited Olympics role continued in the wake of missing one game during the Games due to an illness and arriving recovering from an ankle sprain sustained during a Heat workout in June at Kaseya Center.
Jovic’s lone stat Saturday was a second-period defensive rebound, playing without attempting a shot.
Nonetheless, the bronze was the second consecutive medal for the Heat’s No. 27 pick in 2022, after the 6-foot-10 big man shared in Serbia’s silver medal at last summer’s World Cup in The Philippines.
Serbia on Saturday was paced by the triple-double of Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who closed with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists.
