The historic 83 point game of Bam Adebayo may have happened almost a week ago, but nearly everyone in the NBA media has had to have their own say on the matter. And that includes NBA on NBC lead analyst Reggie Miller.
NBC was able to show some of Adebayo’s history-making performance on national television thanks to live look-ins during their Tuesday Coast 2 Coast broadcast. Mike Tirico gave updates on Adebayo and featured the FanDuel Sports Network local Heat broadcast in the closing stages as Bam reached the now magical number of 83.
But Sunday Night Basketball provided an opportunity for Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford to weigh in on NBC’s marquee matchup of the week. And Miller in particular did not hold back on his thoughts regarding critics of Bam saying that the effort was unethical or deserved some kind of asterisk.
Instead, he took the increasingly popular position of applauding Bam Adebayo, Erik Spoelstra, and the entire Miami Heat organization for going for it. He also channeled Bill Simmons in calling out the Washington Generals (Wizards) in saying that’s where anyone’s hate should be directed for their inability to stop him.
Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford on the ‘unethical’ comments about Bams 83:
Reggie: I’m ok with how everything transpired. He had 31 after 1, 43 at half, and 70 at some point early in the 4th. What do you want him to do? Self impose and bring himself out? I’m sorry. As Malcolm X… https://t.co/uuvR2LxPc1 pic.twitter.com/IYerfPillU
— Heat Central (@HeatCulture13) March 16, 2026
“I don’t care if it’s your local church league. You get a chance to go for history, you go for it. And I’m so tired of all these podcasters and all these guys who never played the game talking about ‘oh the sanctity and they ruined basketball.’ I do not care. 83 is 83 and for Coach Spoelstra and for Bam to be getting a lot of hate from this, your hate is misdirected. Because it should be towards the Washington Generals. I know they’re the Wizards, but the way they were playing they looked like the Washington Generals. And that’s where your hate should be,” Miller said.
“I’m ok with how everything transpired. He had 31 after one, 43 at half, and 70 at some point early on in the 4th. What do you want him to do, self impose and bring himself out, Jamal? I’m sorry. By any means necessary as Malcolm X would say ‘I’m getting the job done,'” Miller added.
While touting his own scoring of 119 points in a rec league game, Jamal Crawford also applauded Bam’s efforts. But he also said that his 83-point effort might inspire others to chase their own history.
“Scorers score. If you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t poppin’. Bam did what he had to do. We’re going to talk about it. But what he may have done even more so than score 83 is show that it’s possible to score more. To your point, there could be guys out there, Luka Dončić to name one of them, who could go for that and possibly break 83 points,” Crawford said.
Jamal Crawford raises an interesting point. Scoring has exploded in recent years and the three-point shot has transformed the game. If someone who’s not even a traditionally high-scoring player in Bam Adebayo can get 83 points, what would be possible for Luka, SGA, Donovan Mitchell, and other players who can routinely fill it up? If it inspires a generation of NBA stars to go for more records and put up all-world performances, wouldn’t that be good for the NBA for players to go all-out in showing everything they could do? At least it would quiet some skeptics who don’t think the NBA regular season is worth paying that much attention to.