After learning from Heat greats, franchise big man has stepped up his leadership

MIAMI – Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo has finally grabbed the wheel to steer the team after eight seasons of being a co-pilot and learning from their former greats.

Adebayo started his NBA career learning from 20-year Heat forward Udonis Haslem. With six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler leading Miami to two NBA Finals appearances and Heat legend Dwyane Wade returning briefly, the spotlight wasn’t available for Adebayo.

But with Butler, Wade and Haslem gone, it’s Adebayo’s time to truly be the face of the franchise at the age of 28.

“This season, for sure, it’s like I’m the one in the driver’s seat,” Adebayo, a 6-foot-9 center-forward, told Andscape during Heat Media Day on Sept. 29. “That’s a big responsibility. It’s a big ask. But if they didn’t believe in me, they wouldn’t put me in the seat. That’s how I look at it. If I haven’t done things in the past where they were comfortable with saying, ‘He can be our guide,’ and I wouldn’t be in this seat.

“And obviously, God has put me in this seat for a reason. I’ve been patient being in this seat because it’s been a lot of ups and downs.”

For Adebayo, it’s safe to say that his most notable down came last season.

Adebayo has been to the playoffs with the Heat in every season of his career but 2018-19. But none of the seasons had more drama than in 2024-25 after Butler made a trade request. Butler was disappointed with Miami’s reluctance to give him a lucrative contract extension. The Heat were also frustrated with Butler’s perceived unenthusiastic play at times and outspokenness. The team suspended Butler three times before sidelining him indefinitely.

In the midst of the Butler turmoil, Adebayo stepped up his leadership.

“Everybody needs somebody to look at,” Adebayo told Andscape in January. “They need that voice, that one voice where when we get in the trenches and it gets dark, people lose direction. You need somebody to be that enforcer to understand that we can still win, we still have enough.

“We can’t let this season go to s— for the young guys. I look at them because young guys are trying to get a job. Guys are trying to be something in this league, and it’s like you can’t let the outside noise distract that. But for me, it’s really getting everybody on the same page and understand that we can still win.”

The Butler saga ended when he was dealt to the Golden State Warriors in a blockbuster five-team deal on Feb. 7. In return, the Heat received forward Andrew Wiggins, guard Davion Mitchell, forward Kyle Anderson (now with the Utah Jazz) and a 2025 first-round pick. Without Butler, the Heat finished 37-45 and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Looking back on last season, Adebayo was trying to find the diamond in the rough.

“By the grace of God, that’s how I got through it. But I’ll say sometimes when you have seasons like that, you’ve got to look at the positives,” Adebayo said.

The Heat made a major acquisition by trading for shooting guard Norman Powell, who was averaging a team-best 25 points as well as 3.7 assists, 1.2 steals and 45.8% shooting from 3-point range entering Friday. All-Star guard Tyler Herro returned to action this season on Nov. 24 after recovering from foot and ankle surgery and was averaging 23.8 points in his first five games. Adebayo has also been an all-around presence, averaging 19.5 points, a team-high 8.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.

The Heat will be playing in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup against their in-state rival Orlando Magic on Tuesday. Adebayo believes a healthy Heat roster is capable of making some noise, whether it’s in the NBA Cup or the postseason.

“People are going to call us crazy, but I think we’re a contender,” Adebayo said. “We’re going to be called delusional. But how I look at delusion [is] if you ask how many people could be NBA players, what is the percentage of that? So, you’ve got to have a little bit of delusion when it comes to speaking stuff into existence.

“Like I always say, ‘Speak stuff into existence that matters.’ Manifest things that matter. Being able to just dream about that, write it down and keep looking at that. That goes a long way. And some of that is real. So, I think we’re contenders when we’re fully healthy.”

If the Heat beat Orlando, they will travel to Las Vegas for the semifinals and possibly the final of the NBA Cup. Each player on the winning NBA Cup team will receive $500,000. By going to Las Vegas, Adebayo also will visiting the home of the three-time WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces and their star forward A’ja Wilson. The four-time WNBA Most Valuable Player happens to be his longtime girlfriend.

Adebayo said he and Wilson have leadership skills that are “kind of the same,” but she is teaching him how to be a better leader.

“Everybody expects to hear our voices, but I feel like she gives herself grace a lot more than I do,” Adebayo said. “Me? If something’s not going right, I’m going to beat my head in until 4 in the morning trying to figure out what’s wrong. What am I doing wrong? How do I fix it?

“And being with her, she’s helped me give myself grace, kind of heal my mind a little bit. And then how do we conquer this?”

After learning from Wade, Butler and Haslem, all former Heat greats, what kind of leader is Adebayo?

“I’m the more passionate leader,” Adebayo said. “You’ve got to come with the passion every single day. We’re in here to work, do our job and then we leave and go home. We don’t work a 9 to 5 [job]. That’s one thing for me as a leader. I don’t want to feel like we’re having a 9 to 5. We play basketball. We entertain. We go out there, we hoop, we have fun. We’ve been doing this since some of us were 12. Some of us since we could literally start walking. So, we’ve still got to regain that kid love again.

“I feel like a lot of people lose that because throughout a long season it starts to become clockwork. Practice. Game. Off. Game. Practice. It becomes a repeat a lot. So, for me, it is, ‘How do we offset that? How do we make a competition without us playing basketball.’ Laser tag. You can put the blindfold on, walk around. … And it’s just those little things where you don’t know how the season can go. But [you’re] learning how to build that bond of brotherhood, and then it becomes basketball.”

Adebayo is the Heat’s franchise leader in double-doubles, second in rebounds, seventh in assists, fifth in blocks and fourth in points and games played. It appears inevitable that one day the Heat will retire his No. 13 jersey alongside such former Miami greats as Wade, Haslem, Tim Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning and Shaquille O’Neal. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has treasured coaching Adebayo in each of his pro seasons.

Spoelstra said he is excited to see “the next step of development” in Adebayo’s leadership.

“When I first started coaching him, he was a teenager, and now I see him in that leadership and mentorship role,” Spoelstra said during Heat Media Day. “It takes great vulnerability to be able to impact a locker room of a lot of players that are impressionable. And when you’re a player that is respected so deeply like Bam is by everybody in there, that’s because of winning. They’ve seen him play in June [during postseason] many times.

“He’s stacked up a lot of wins and a lot of playoff wins while these young players that are coming in, they’ve watched that, they’ve noticed that. Then, to have the humility and vulnerability to not put yourself up here and telling guys what to do all the time, that’s the mentorship piece that he’s really growing into, and I’m going to enjoy watching him apply that this season.”