“I want people to know who I am what I represent, and what I come from.” 2x NBA All Star an 4X All Defense Bam Adebayo’s early life in this trailer in rural North Carolina gave him edge he needed and helped make him into the superstar he is today. With the support of loving mother and a drive to be great Bam never forgot where he came from and is dominating the NBA as one of the top all around players in the game. Now he’s devoted to using his story to inspire the next generation. The Heat continue to make Finals appearances led by Bam and we can’t wait to see him get his first ring.
#bamadebayo #nba #basketball
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#bamadebayo #nba #basketball
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SportsTranscript
00:00 I come from a single-wide trailer in the rural area of a small town in North Carolina.
00:09 Like, nobody, if you go to my hometown, you'd be like, "There's no way somebody makes it
00:14 out of this."
00:17 I was very shy when I was younger, and I was one of those kids that was really standoffish.
00:23 My mom raised me to do everything right, be on time, go to school, have perfect attendance.
00:29 But I never said anything when I went to school.
00:32 So my earlier years was like a struggle, because I wanted friends, but I didn't know how to
00:36 communicate, because it was always me and my mom.
00:39 I knew how to communicate with my mom, but at the end of the day, I had to grow to actually
00:46 talk to people.
00:48 Coming from where we come from, and then having to shift from a small mindset of, you know,
00:56 I'm good where I'm at, and then going to playing basketball, and now you're going from city
01:02 to city every weekend.
01:05 It was definitely a shock to me, because I didn't want to grow as a person.
01:11 I was like, "I'm cool with the friends that I have.
01:13 I don't need any more friends.
01:16 These are my friends until the day I die."
01:20 College was like my preparation for getting me ready for the NBA, and it kind of woke
01:26 me up to what I thought the NBA was going to be like.
01:30 Our schedule was packed from sunup to sundown, and that's where it really hit me that I was
01:36 on my own and becoming an adult.
01:39 So sitting in my dorm, I had to figure out how I could understand being on time, getting
01:48 my classwork done, going to the gym, extra hours in the gym, staying focused in the classroom,
01:54 and I had to handle all of that at once.
01:57 And sitting in my room, I remember breaking down, because I was like, "Yo, why am I here
02:02 at this point?"
02:03 You know, that's when you get in those phases where basketball is not going the way it's
02:07 supposed to go, and then obviously the classwork just compounds on top of that to the point
02:13 where it's like, "Why do I have to wake up at 6 a.m., go work out, come back, go to class,
02:22 take tests, and then you walk around and you see all these regular students.
02:25 They get to wake up at 9 o'clock, go to their 10 a.m.s.
02:29 They don't have to do all these sprints that aren't guaranteeing anything."
02:35 College was a wake-up for me, but I just had to figure out how to lock in and make everything
02:41 simple, but make everything the main focus.
02:50 She is one of those people who she's going to find a way, she's going to make a way,
02:55 and even if she has nothing to work with, she's somehow going to make a way for me to
03:02 have clothes on my back, food on the table.
03:07 And I didn't really realize I was poor until I was probably like 16, because my mom had
03:13 done such a great job of comforting me and making me feel like I had enough, but also
03:19 telling me like, "We don't have a lot."
03:23 And she's one of those people, she was always driven to, one, take care of me, but also
03:28 make sure we were both strict.
03:30 So having that moment of me and my mom being at that table in New York, and you see the
03:37 ticker going down, and you get that moment of, with whatever pick the team selects and
03:45 it's your name, it's like everything that you've been through, it's like a matter of
03:51 10-second span where you're like, "Dang."
03:54 And then you remember everything that you went through, you, your family, parents, whoever
03:59 was with you going through anything in life at that point.
04:04 It all goes through your mind and you walk across the stage and it's like, most people
04:10 don't get this opportunity.
04:19 I wanted people to know my name, who I was, what I represented, and what I come from.
04:27 The first time I really understood that it was a business was my rookie year and a guy
04:32 from my summer league team was at the gym.
04:35 So I pull up, his car started outside the front door.
04:38 And I'm thinking like, "All right, he's just putting stuff in the car, whatever."
04:41 And he was like, "Nah, man, I got cut."
04:43 I was like, "I'm going to just work out and try to find a new deal."
04:46 So by the time I walked past him and tell him, "Good luck," I sit in my locker and like
04:51 two minutes later, the guy who, he got cut, the next guy for his job walked in.
04:58 So that's when it hit me, it was like, it's a business.
05:01 They don't care about your feelings.
05:03 They care about the end goal, which is winning.
05:09 It takes a will, it takes an effort, a sacrifice.
05:13 I mean, just a mentality to really put your body on the line to go through that.
05:18 Because a lot of people be like, "Nah, I don't want to play defense.
05:21 I just want to go play offense because it's fun."
05:23 It's funner than getting stops, you know.
05:26 Everybody always looks at the last column, which is how many points did he score in the
05:30 game?
05:31 And people forget that that other side of the court exists because of the entertainment
05:37 business.
05:38 So for me, it's just, it's that will, it's that passion, it's that mentality.
05:43 It's what I've been through.
05:46 And it's just one of those niches that I know I have.
05:50 I want to get defensive player of the year just so I can have the award.
05:56 More than anything, just being consistent.
05:57 I feel like the hardest thing to do in this lifetime is be consistent every day.
06:02 I feel like that's a standard that I'll try to uphold this season.
06:06 I always get a pinch me moment when I do get to walk into the arena.
06:11 You think about the history of some franchises.
06:15 Like Dwyane Wade was my teammate at one point.
06:18 I still get those pinch me moments because it's just, this is the history of our franchise.
06:22 So walking through there, it's like you get to see when they won on those amazing runs
06:27 with the big three.
06:28 You get to hear about the history of when D Wade, UD won the first one.
06:33 So yeah, I still get those pinch me moments.
06:47 Fans are our future and getting them to understand that they have a life that matters.
06:54 No matter where they are on earth, their life matters to somebody, to someone, to whoever
07:01 it is.
07:02 But this camp is really for them to understand that Bam Adebayo cares about your life.
07:14 The fact that me and my team have been to the finals twice out of the last four years,
07:19 but every year they'd be like, "Oh, Miami is a dark horse."
07:25 Miami is not good enough to do that again.
07:28 The first time was a fluke and it's a lot of disrespect.
07:36 Like I said, we've been to two finals in the last four years.
07:40 We've been to three Eastern Conference finals in the last four years.
07:44 And I don't think anybody else in the East has done that in the last four years.
07:49 And we're doing it with 60% of our roster being undrafted and helping us win and somewhat
07:56 at a point carrying us to the finals.
07:59 You know, for me, I feel like that should be a bigger story than it is.
08:04 Everybody always seems to be shocked when we're at the top again.
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