Inside The Heat

Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo Calls Out Media Over Defensive Player Of Year Voting

Shandel Richardson

Oct 13, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) defends against New Orleans Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray (5) during the second quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Oct 13, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) defends against New Orleans Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray (5) during the second quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo has no problem calling out the media for how the Defensive Player of the Year voting is handled.

He's done it before. So has coach Erik Spoelstra. And expect both to continue doing so until Adebayo wins the award.

The latest criticism was Adebayo taking a shot at the voting process while speaking with Jeremy Tache of Bally Sports Sun: Heat. Adebayo basically accused the media of paying too much attention to analytics instead of actual defense.

“For me, it’s getting stops," Adebayo said. I’m not into advanced stats. I'm not into the analytics, metrics, anything like that. To me, it's who can guard their yard? And that's 1-5, that's in zone. That's in whatever coverage your coach puts you in, you can excel. That, to me, is the DPOY, but the media has different opinions. They look at steals and blocks.”

STARTING FIVE PROGRESSING

Spoelstra prefers to step aside for this one.

The Heat are in their first full year with Terry Rozier in the lineup. After so much continuity by fielding basically the same roster since 2019, this is arguably the biggest adjustment.

Spoelstra said things are going smoothly so far.

"I like it but who cares what the head coach thinks," Spoelstra said. "They like it. They're comfortable. They're gaining confidence. The most important thing is they're intentional about the work and the process of putting it together to start the season. We'll see what happens once we get into it."

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Miami Heat On SI. 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