It took nine years and countless moves on the roster, but the Miami Heat have finally clinched the first seed in the Eastern Conference to make their way into the NBA playoffs as heavy candidates for the championship.
Even though many players have come and gone, some things remained unchanged for a long time in South Florida. Pat Riley has continued to pull the strings, while Erik Spoelstra has stayed as the head coach. And it paid off. Bam Adebayo is one of the many Heat players who is enjoying the moment after showing a lot of progress in Miami.
Two years ago, Adebayo was part of the Heat team that reached the 2020 NBA Finals in the Orlando bubble. The outcome wasn’t the best, though, as the Los Angeles Lakers emerged victorious. But this time, Adebayo won’t settle with anything less than a ring.
Heat star Bam Adebayo has his sights set only on the NBA championship
“Obviously we want to get to the Finals, and we want a different outcome when we get there,” Adebayo told Wes Goldberg in an interview. “We don’t want the same outcome, to come up short, ‘a fairy-tale story,’ this, that and the third.
“I want to win. I want a championship. I want to see what it feels like to be the last person standing. And that’s the bottom line. And everybody here is willing to sacrifice to get that accomplished.”
The Heat have taken everyone by surprise by reaching the finals in 2020, and even though this season has been longer and Miami proved what a competitive team they were, it feels like they’re still being doubted.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that they do not have an MVP contender or a main superstar that takes all the credit, maybe it has to do with their painful playoff loss to the Milwaukee Bucks last season.
Either way, Miami looks determined to prove the doubters wrong and bring home their first championship since the Heatles era. Adebayo has already warned that’s how far they want to go.
