Inside The Heat

Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo Apparently Has Best Nickname On Team USA

Shandel Richardson

May 1, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) shoots against Boston Celtics center Al Horford (42) during the first quarter of game five of the first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
May 1, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) shoots against Boston Celtics center Al Horford (42) during the first quarter of game five of the first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports / Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo already goes by one nickname.

But when playing for Team USA, he is known by another.

The Olympic roster recently began again poking fun at "Bamonte," his alter moniker. A video surfaced of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday saying it was the best nickname on the squad.

How often do you have this many iconic nicknames on one team? 🤯 #USABMNT

Posted by NBA on Thursday, July 25, 2024

The name started during the 2020 Olympics when Adebayo was having a conversation with teammate JaVale McGee while they walked off the practice court. McGee was unsure of Adebayo's real first name was short for. At first, Adebayo responded by saying Bam stands for "By Any Means" Necessary. McGee then corrected him: "No, that's an acronym."

He goes by Bam because of The Flinstones character "Bam-Bam," but McGee had no idea. So he guessed it was Bamonte. The name has stuck for the last four years. It has since been a running joke among the Team USA players.

"At the last Olympics, JaVale McGee asked him what his real name was," Holiday explained in the video. "He was like, `It's probably Bamonte or something."'

If anything, the video showed Jayson Tatum knows Adebayo the best. When asked if he knew Adebayo's real name, Tatum said this:


"I know his social security number, his middle name."


Tatum and Adebayo have been friends since their high school days, so it's probably true. They've also battled it out for supremacy in the Eastern Conference the past five years.

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Miami Heat On Sports Illustrated. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here