The NBA Haters
By 
I’ve been remiss at covering the NBA here this season. The state of the NBA media is this–everyone hates the NBA for reasons that seem primarily to do with nostalgia for their youth. Everything that happens today is bad, everyone sucks, every record that is broken is an atrocity.
Last night, Bam Adebayo had 83 points for the Miami Heat, the second highest scoring game of all time. This is insane. Only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game is higher than this. But for reasons that completely ignore the context of other how high point scoring games took place, everyone is furious that Bam DARE pass the rapist Kobe Bryant, beloved because these commenters liked him when they were kids or young men. It’s just haters begetting haters and the NBA should be pissed off about all of this. The always useful Awful Announcing went off about this.
It’s hard to recall a time when a singular athlete’s scoring achievement has been so derided and vilified.
ESPN’s Chris Russo, predictably, ranted about the “complete disgrace” of Miami’s game plan. The Indianapolis Star’s Gregg Doyel said the achievement required “ugliness.” The Athletic’s Sam Amick said Adebayo should have stopped at 81 in order to preserve Bryant’s spot at No. 2 all-time. A Los Angeles Times commentary literally booed Adebayo in the title. And plenty of NBA podcasters and content creators grabbed their pitchforks.
The criticisms seemed to fall into several camps.
One, Adebayo doesn’t deserve credit because the Washington Wizards are terrible.
Well, guess what? The team Kobe Bryant scored 81 points on, the Toronto Raptors, sucked that season. The team that Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 against, the New York Knicks, were among the worst in the league that year.
Two, Adebayo benefited from a game plan built around getting him easy points via free throws, and the offense eventually focused on giving him as many scoring opportunities as possible.
Okay. Sure. You think no NBA team or player has ever worked the system to raise their average or set a record before? Grow up.
Finally, there is this sense that Adebayo should have respected Kobe Bryant’s legacy and allowed him to keep that all-time spot behind Chamberlain, rather than moving him down the list.
Bam Adebayo doesn’t owe Kobe Bryant anything. No one does. If Kobe’s 81-point game now being No. 3 overall takes something away from his legacy in your eyes, that’s a you problem. And if Bam stays in the game just long enough to pass Kobe on the list angers you, that’s weird. Especially when I guarantee you don’t actually remember anything about Bryant’s 81-point game. It’s a number on a list today, just like it was two days ago.
These media figures are total children, complete idiots. And any list of idiots in media definitely starts with the Mad Dog, a man who made the men of New York 8 IQ points dumber through his being born.
By the way, that Art But Make It Sports guy is a stone cold genius. He does this in real time sometimes just to prove that it’s only him. I wish I was that smart. Or maybe it would be scary to be that smart, I don’t know and won’t ever know.