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Levar Arrington
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Carson
I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's the Bachelor.
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But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him.
Host of Hoops Tonight
If I could press a button and
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rewind it all, I would.
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That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here.
Host of Hoops Tonight
This case has gone viral. The Dating Contract Agree to date me,
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but I'm also suing you.
Carson
This is unlike anything I've ever seen before.
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I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host of Hoops Tonight
The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. We have a double episode day. We're going to be breaking down the national TV slate from last night. I'm excited to talk about the spurs and the Celtics as well as the Lakers. Kind of sort of starting to look maybe like a team that could compete in a playoff series, which did not look like the case for most of the season. But we're going to wait and talk about that in a second episode that's going to be coming out just a little bit later today. Bam. Adebayo scored 83 points last night in one of the wildest high scoring performances in the history of the NBA. Carson, my buddy from Nerd Sesh was kind enough to donate some of his time to us this morning and I'm bringing Carson on because last night he had a tweet that got viewed one and a half million times where Carson said. And to be clear, Carson, you did backtrack this just a little bit. You to you toned it down a little bit. So. And I'm going to give you a chance to kind of frame it.
Carson
Yeah, yeah, sure.
Host of Hoops Tonight
But you said Bam just had the grossest historic game ever. He became the first player, first ever player to score 70 while shooting under 50% on field goals. 20 for 43. He attempted 43 free throws and made 36, both the most ever. And he played 42 minutes and his team intentionally fouled to prolong a 30 point blowout. So what I would like to do today is just take, you know, about 20 minutes, just debate this Bam out of bio performance because I think people are overreacting to it a little bit. Carson, we've had some fun debates over the years. This is a very different type of debate, but I thought this one would be fun. Why don't you just kind of frame that tweet and give us your perspective on how you're feeling after Bam's performance last night. I should also say really quick, we're not going to talk about the Miami Heat today, but they have won nine out of 11. They have been playing some pretty good basketball and this kind of distracts from that a little bit. We'll talk about that some other time. But Carson, what did you think about Bam's night last night?
Carson
Yeah, Heat fans, before you get mad at me, my co host Logan had the Heat ranked above the Pistons as a contender on the show yesterday, which I was not expecting. He's drinking the Heat Kool Aid and I think he's now going to take credit for summoning a BAM 83 point game with his optimism. I really do stand by what I said in that tweet. The only shift that I've had in my view of that game is sort of going from like disgust watching it in real time to just more of an appreciation of like how funny it was, how absurd it all was. Like people enjoying it. From that perspective I really do get. It is hilarious that of all people, to top the 81 point mark that Kobe set in 2006, Bam Adebayo is the one who did it. It is hilarious that he did it on a Tuesday night game against the tanking Washington Wizards and in a game in which they were forcing him touches every single possession and the war and the Wizards were triple teaming him and they still couldn't keep from fouling him. And like, that being as gross and nasty and just stupid as it was is really funny. That being said, people treating this as though it is, like, the performance of the year, as though it is one of the greatest scoring performances of all time. To me, that's just insane considering I know that we all just watched the same thing and it was absurd. It was a clown show. It was a singular effort to get a guy to a single point total. I have people telling me that was the best basketball performance of the year. That wasn't even a basketball game, man. Like, it was a joke. So I do not in any way hold it against Bam that he went for this record. I do not hold it against the Heat that they went for it. Like, you are playing the Wizards on a Tuesday night meaningless game. Like, have some fun, man. You have a chance to break Kobe's record and become the player to score the second most points in NBA game ever. You're Bam out of bio. Your previous career high is 41 points. Like, go do that, dude. But the notion that we all have to revere this as a historic performance and pretend that we enjoyed watching it, pretend that we were impressed by a second half in which Bam was 7 of 19 from the field and 24 of 29 from the free throw line. Like, I admire the commitment of this effort to get him that many points, but the first quarter was incredible. And also when I tweeted that, and I acknowledged this at the time, but I hadn't even watched the first quarter. Like, I didn't tune into the game from tip off. I came in to watch the second half and what I saw for the entire second half was Bam chucking up garbage or getting fouled every single time that he did ultimately score. So it was very unappealing to watch. And ultimately, I think it's more of like a funny sort of oddity moment in NBA history than it is like, this incredible, incredible performance. And like, it's still obviously by far the best scoring game of Bam's career. But personally, it would have left a better taste in my mouth if he got 60 just by, like, playing more within the flow of a normal basketball game and not shooting 20 of 43 from the field and taking 43 free throws.
Host of Hoops Tonight
You know, there's so many angles I want to get into here. I. First of all, if you were watching Heat Wizards instead of some of the other games in that slate last night, I do feel bad for you. We all kind of joined in at the end. I did get a text From Jackson at one point he's like, Yo, Bam. Had a 30 point first quarter. And I was like, oh okay, that's interesting. Like I'm looking forward to watching that. Then all of a sudden the next time I checked he had 77. So like yeah, I similarly caught it, got into it at the end and of course that was when it was super ugly. What I'd like to do because there's a historic way to look at this because I think there's a big difference between the high scoring games in NBA history that were bigs versus these like pull up shooters. Because there's a very specific type of player that like Donovan Mitchell, Luca Doncic, Kobe Bryant, Devin Booker type of player that's like a guy who can get red hot on pull up jump shots versus like spam who like hits a bunch of threes early but is obviously not a good shooter. So then when he started chucking threes late it was like brick, brick, brick, brick. You know that and that that's the difference between the, the, the bigs versus the pull up shooters. But I do think the bigs, it manifests in a different way because first of all we have to acknowledge the, the framework of most of these games. Almost every super high scoring game in NBA history has been unserious in large part because of the fact that a serious basketball game is not going to allow a player to get to that type of point total. In, in the vast majority of circumstances. You dig back, the Knicks team that Wilt scored a hundred on was, had like they were like 20 games below 500. That was a bad team. The Raptors team that, that Kobe scored all of his points on, that was a very bad defense. The like When Lucas scored 70, it was against the Wizards. This team against the Wizards, The Devin Booker 70, that was when the Suns were a really bad team. So he was jacking up like it. There's a certain air of unserious basketball. You need to assume these types of point totals. Now with, with this particular game. It kind of reminds me of the storytelling surrounding the Wilt game because again there's no video of the Wilt game. It's all just what we've heard from stories. But famously he got fouled a lot. They were intentionally fouling to get the ball back. A lot of like similarities to what we saw at the tail end of the game. What the first piece of this, he goes 20 for 43 from the field. When I went back and watched the game this morning, he came out early and was just absolutely frying everybody and then on every single deep catch, whether it was on a post up, whether it was on an offensive rebound, whether it was on a drive, the Wizards were straight up like bear hugging him and like tackling him under the basket. So like, let's say they just concede more of those as layups. Then he's probably 30 for 53 and we're not having the field goal percentage conversation. So like there's a certain amount of like he was getting bear hugged underneath the basket that I think hurts the numbers in kind of that weird, that specific weird way. And I would argue the main way that he was able to get to the 83 was down the stretch. He was just super physically aggressive towards the baskets and the wizard just, the Wizards just kept fouling him. So like I think it, because it was a big man high scoring game, it was not esthetically appealing. That is the biggest thing that I agree with you. It was not an esthetically appealing performance after the first quarter because every perimeter jump shot he took was a brick and there was a lot of him getting hacked and fouled underneath the basket. But my whole thing is like, I just think there's a lot of selective outrage because I would imagine if the Wilt tape existed, it would look a lot like that. Today's show is brought to you by presenting sponsor Hard Rock bet. Florida's sportsbook March is here and that means college basketball takes center stage. The stakes are rising, the shots are falling, and now's the time to hit the hardwood with Hard Rock Bet. Sign up today and double your winnings on your first 10 bets. Max $50. That's right. Your winnings are doubled on your first 10 bets. So if you would have won 100 bucks on your bet, make that 200. That's how you start March hot. And the welcome offer is just the tip off all tournament long. 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This is the story of the One as a procurement manager for a hospital system, she keeps every facility in her network stocked and ready. That's why she counts on Grainger to be her single source for thousands of products from disinfectants to lighting, air filters and more. And with fast, dependable delivery, Grainger helps her keep every facility safe, stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click ranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
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Carson
So the warriors in that game literally intentionally fouled to prolong the game to get Will to a hundred, just like the Heat did in this one. Now I don't know that it was quite as ridiculous where you have some of the Looney Tunes possessions late in this game where like they're trying to have Bam cherry pick kicking and they're just like launching a touchdown pass and it sails like 12ft over his head. Like you know, some of the turnovers that he'd had just trying to force the ball to Bam was so ridiculous in this game. But absolutely I would not sit here and say that Wilt's 100 point game was legitimate. Now what does feel different about that to me is Wilt already had the record by that point and they were just trying to extend it. Whereas this, even though it doesn't pass the record, obviously Kobe's 81 has been seen as the modern total to aspire to, right? Or can somebody get that in a single game? And to me that's been a really interesting question. An experiment that I would like to see. And we saw a version of the experiment. It was just deeply anticlimactic in terms of how unserious it was. And you mentioned absolutely we have seen unserious, super high scoring total performances. Like among the ones that you Mentioned the Wilt game with the intentional fouling at the end. And also Wilt shot 63 times in that game, I believe. And then the Kobe game, you know, I do think was like significantly more legitimate than this one. Like, I've seen people try to draw comparisons. They're like, oh, Kobe shot 13 of their last 17 shots in that game. I'm like, you think that compares to what we just saw from bio in the Miami Heat where not just is he staying in a 30 point blowout, they are intentionally fouling, they are forcing the ball to him every single possession. Like, no, obviously you have to be selfish pretty much to. To score 80 points. Like you said, like, just because defensive coverages in any sort of remotely serious game are going to dictate, hey, that guy is 70, let's make him start passing. And so I'm not saying that it's not about being selfish. You have to do that to get these sort of totals. But you can still do it in a way that is more efficient and like, still certainly less egregious. And then I would add, even on top of some of the examples that you mentioned, like twice we've seen a player go off for 70 when they're actively going for the scoring title. David Thompson did it, David Robinson did it. So there are a number of those instances. What I think is different is in recent years we have seen people be able to get 70 more legitimately. Like Luca did it against the Hawks in a close game. Joel Embiid did it to Victor Wembanyama in a pretty close game. Donovan Mitchell did it in a close game. Damian Lillard even did it in a reasonably close game. So I do think offensive skill is at such a high point in today's NBA that it was not out of the question that that somebody could actually get to that mark legitimately. Now this year we hadn't seen anybody even score 60, so it's a total outlier performance. But again, it came with these total outlier theatrics. I take your point on the free throws and how those otherwise might have just been easy baskets for bam. I would also counter and we'd have to go through and look possession by possession. There were a lot of spots where they were just being so wildly undisciplined and they're fouling him like 14, 15ft away from the basket and he's starting a drive, but he goes into an upward shooting motion and it's just like the dumbest foul you've ever seen. That's what a Lot of it, specifically down the stretch was. And that just objectively sucks to watch. I'm not saying that, like, free throws are unethical, anything like that. I'm pro free throws. The free throw is the most efficient way that you can score in a basketball game. I think that's good. But some of the nonsense I've seen of people being like, oh, well, if you didn't like this game, you can't like Shay as a basketball player. You can't think Shay's a great basketball player. Shay taking nine free throws a game on top of this all time great finishing and shot making. We're equating that to bam out of bio. Just attempting 43 free throws in a game that is ultimately supposed to be fun. Like, when you go for a scoring achievement like this, you're going for the wow factor. You're going for just, oh, my God, what an experience that was to watch it and if people really enjoyed it, that's okay. That was not the case for me. I was watching this, I was like, this is disgusting. It's bad basketball. I do think it's funny. I think it is going to be hilarious to see what sort of ban out of bio narratives pop up three decades from now. Are people going to think this guy had like, just a gear that he could get to as a score, but he was so selfless that he didn't get there often? Like, I don't know. That's going to be crazy to see. It's hilarious to see his name up there between Wilt and Kobe. But again, just as a scoring achievement, I don't really value it and I do like the history. Maybe that's why my reaction was like, horror a little more so initially than other people. Like, I love the history and I wanted to see somebody get to that mark in a way that felt legitimate, if it was going to happen. And it just didn't feel that way.
Host of Hoops Tonight
Yeah, this is another number that you're going to have in that brain of yours that can recall every single lineup from 19.
Carson
I think this one's going to be pretty easy for everybody to remember. I think this one's going to stand out.
Host of Hoops Tonight
Yeah, it's. It's funny because, like, I, you can, you can tell what happened. First of all, one of the, one of the funny little plots. I actually talked about this in our video over the. From the weekend on, on Monday. But, like, the Heat have been having more success and, and part of the reason is like, Tyler Harrow and Bam Adebayo both just been super aggressive. There's no messing around. It's those two guys taking a million shots. I mean, Bam, for the record, never in his career has averaged over 15 shot attempts per game in the seven games before this one. So take this one and get it out of there. In the seven games before this one, he was averaging 20 shot attempts per game. Like, Bam has been chucking for a long time. And he came out and just started chucking on Alex Sar and he was hitting all of his shots and next thing you know he's got a 30 point quarter and you can kind of see how it generates like all, like Spolster said it after the game, all of a sudden he had 50, all of a sudden he had 60. And you just, next thing you know it's like, well, let's go for it. And I generally too, like the 82 game season is really long and I'm in support of teams looking for wins. Especially like, like a Heat team that has been incredibly mediocre all year long. Like I can see, I can see why they would hunt a morale boost like this. I don't really necessarily have a problem with that. It was ugly. I just think it's funny how often it's painted as though these performances are supposed to always be picture perfect, for the most part, records. When you go through NBA history, whether it's like even like LeBron's pat shot that he hit to pass MJ just kind of felt weird because it was in the middle of that season, right, when the Lakers were getting ready to trade all their players, right? Or like Kobe's final game, like the fact that he got hot late and Utah soiled themselves the way that they did, allowed Kobe to have a game winner. And so it had this like, aura. That game was a chore to watch and it was cringy at times when Kobe was jacking up bad shots over and over again over the course of the game. So like, the main point that I've been trying to make is just that, like, yes, it was ugly. Most of these have been ugly to your point. Some have been less ugly. The Kobe one is less, less ugly. The Luka one, which again, as you corrected me, it's against the Hawks, not the Wizards, that that game was less ugly. The Donovan Mitchell one was less ugly, but like they're, they're more esthetically appealing basketball players. That's the other part of this too. And that's where I wanted to differentiate between the Bam and the Wilt one and these ones in the sense that These guys are incredibly refined scores. And one of the things that makes this possible, the reason why we've had so many 70 point games in recent years is like our pull up shooters in the NBA right now are insane. And like, even like Shea adding the step back three, it's made him completely unguardable at the end of these games. You can't really guard the pull up three unless you're double teaming a guy 40, 50ft away from the basket. And so like there's a certain amount of like a dude can get hot and he can have a more aesthetically appealing version of this, but it's almost always against a bad team. It's almost always in an unserious game. There's almost always some shenanigans towards the end of the game where you're seeing the, the other team, double team, the hunting of shots. Like, that's my whole thing is like, I, I think there's a certain amount of like, this is just what this sort of thing looks like because it's an unserious basketball environment.
Carson
I think we will disagree just in terms of how egregious this was. I do not fundamentally disagree with your point. We have never seen anything like this though. Again, the warriors intentionally fouled in the wilt game.
Levar Arrington
I.
Carson
The Suns did it in a game they were losing, by the way, just to get booked to 70. Like we have seen that. We have not seen a prolonged effort. This was this absurd. And by the way, I don't even buy that from Spell. You look up and he's got 50. You look at me, he's got 60. No, you looked up and he had 31. And that was incredible. And that came within the flow of the game. And everything after that felt like such a concerted effort. And we can even take the aesthetics out of it, right? We can say, okay, free throws count the same as everything else. Even though obviously I think it was a less enjoyable viewing experience. If you just look at like the extent to which the game was forced to bam as a score. He had 62 scoring attempts in this game. Kobe in his 81 point game had 53. If you look at all the other guys who have dropped 70, they're like 45 to 50. I think Luke only had like 40. Like Luca's 70 point game was insane in a close game. He missed eight shots and he scored 70. And he like played a relatively normal game. He had seven assists. Like that one is absurd. Mitchell had 11 assists. Like, I do want to be clear, I don't disagree with your point. But I also think there are examples of this being done legitimately, and Bam is the most extreme example of it being done illegitimately that we've ever seen. I truly do believe that the second most scoring attempts any player has had in a game since 2000 was actually the game that you mentioned, Kobe's final game, when he had 55 scoring attempts. And that was. So there's still a gap between Bam and everybody else. And like, if we were judging that game as one of Kobe's great games, obviously it wouldn't hold up whatsoever. What made that game cool is 37 year old Kobe Bryant. He's been terrible all season. Like, let's get one last massive scoring performance in there. And then, as you mentioned, he caught fire at the right moment. If anybody is trying to rewrite history and say that was a masterful scoring performance, and then that was a pretty large, like, no, that game was another, like, sideshow joke. But ultimately, Kobe did at least catch fire at the right time. And we're judging him by a totally different standard because it was a retirement celebration. We all knew that going in as opposed to this sort of like changing meaning as the game went along because it went from being a basketball game to being all about, let's get Bam Adebayo as many points.
Host of Hoops Tonight
It was a basketball game versus the Wizards, though.
Carson
No, that's a great point. And I do think there's an angle here that, like, this is just on the Wizards. This is the fault of nobody but the Washington Wizards. And what's most incredible to me is obviously you can say, oh, my God. Well, they should have gotten way more aggressive with their coverages early in this game. Once they were triple teaming him, they still couldn't stop fouling.
Host of Hoops Tonight
That's incredible.
Carson
That's incredible incompetence. Yeah, it is. Maybe, maybe this is the answer to tanking once a year. You just need to call in the 70 bomb, the 80 bomb, and say, let's shame this team out of it. I don't think it's gonna work. But the Wizards. Something else, man.
Host of Hoops Tonight
Yeah. Last thing we'll hit before we get out of here. I do. I did find the reaction to this incident to be very fascinating in how, like, it evenly split the entire basketball world because, like, it truly felt like half the people were like, this is. And then it truly felt like the other half of the people were like, whoa, cool.
Carson
Bam.
Host of Hoops Tonight
Adebio scored 83 points. Like, I. I've seen a lot of, like, the. The Laker fans in particular are the ones that crack me up because I'm like, Kobe was one of the most shameless shot chuckers in literally the history of the NBA. So, like, now, it never was this bad to your point. But, like, I do think Kobe would have been more amenable to this just simply because he did this kind of shit from time to time. But, like, it has been really fascinating to see. Like, this was the issue, like the 50 yard line issue that would just drop right in the middle of the basketball world and split everybody. Like the amount of people that were so upset last night, like, really upset. Like just, just. Just tweeting through it, like, it was so funny how many people were so upset last night.
Carson
Yeah, I do want to be clear about that. I'm not mad about this. I just didn't enjoy watching it. That was my take. I'm like, it sucks to watch, in my opinion. Not because I'm a Kobe guy. I am not a Kobe guy. Like, it's not some particular effort to be like, we have to preserve the legacy of that game. Like, no, I just wanted to see somebody do it legitimately and that was not it. And now the other thing that I do think is going to be an unfortunate byproduct of this and we should probably all just ignore it, but it's going to happen is the takes we're going to see from the national media today about everything this says about today's NBA. No defense, unserious teams, Anybody can score X if they want to. Bam. Adebayo. Who's that? He did that. Like, it's just going to be the worst. And again, that's not ban fault. I'm happy for Bam. Like, he's clearly loving this, as he should. It is hilarious. It's incredible. It's Bam out of bio who did it. But watching the second half of that game was gross. That was really my only complaint about it.
Host of Hoops Tonight
You were correct. It was gross. Yeah, it was gross. You're right. Today's media cycle is going to be gross. The last thing I'll say is I do think that when we talk about scoring, this particular record is just a novelty. Like, Kevin Durant is arguably a top two or three scorer of all time. That dude never hunted shots to the extent where he could hit massive scoring totals.
Carson
He's never scored 60.
Host of Hoops Tonight
Yeah. Like, when I think of Kobe as a scorer, I think about some of the things he did in the playoffs or extended runs of scoring. Like when he had that one stretch where he went like, 60, 50, 60, 60 or whatever. It was that he did that four game stretch. Like when I think about, you know, even like LeBron James as a scorer, I'm not thinking about the all time scoring record. I'm thinking about like him routinely for years and years being 27 points per game in the postseason on 60% sure. Shooting plus or like, you know, when I think of Donovan Mitchell as a scorer, I literally think about him being the most reliable. 30 point per game, 62%, 60% true shooting guy the last few years. Devin Booker. I think about him hitting tough pull ups over Drew Holiday in the NBA Finals. Like guys, when we're talking about scoring, this is just a novelty. It just is. It's a novelty record. It was from the beginning when there's all we have of the record is a dude holding a piece of paper. Like I do think there's a certain amount of like this is, this is gimmicky by design. Like no real basketball game where will ever have people hitting these kinds of totals. But Carson, I appreciate you taking a couple minutes out of your morning to come hang out with us. This was fun. BAM out of BioScoring83 was fun. It was ugly, but fun. I'm glad we were able to get into it a little bit really quickly. Before we get outta here, can you just shout out nerd session. Tell everybody where they can find your stuff?
Carson
Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate you having me on as always, man. This was a ton of fun. You can find all of our stuff on YouTube. Nerd sesh. We do NBA stuff. We've got an NFL off season show going today too. If Jason isn't scratching your itch there with the NFL, then, you know, come on over. We've got that as well. But yeah, I appreciate you as always, man. Shout out to Bam. Out of bio. Shout out to Heat culture. Heat Culture. I guess now they are all about getting dudes 80 points. Yeah, they can do it again. Let's get hero next.
Host of Hoops Tonight
Shameless stat padding for me. Culture. All right, guys, that's all we have for the first episode this morning. We'll be back briefly here in like an hour or so with another episode that's breaking down the national TV slate from last night. As always, we appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We'll see you guys in a little bit.
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This is an Iheart podcast. Guaranteed human.
Date: March 12, 2026
Guests: Carson (Nerd Sesh)
Theme: An in-depth debate and reaction to Bam Adebayo’s unprecedented 83-point game, questioning both the basketball legitimacy and the entertainment value of the feat.
This episode dives into the wild, unprecedented 83-point game by Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo against the Washington Wizards. Host (Hoops Tonight) and guest Carson from Nerd Sesh break down the aesthetics, legitimacy, and historical context of the feat, debating whether it truly belongs among the NBA’s greatest scoring performances or if it was simply a novelty enabled by a highly unserious basketball environment.
The conversation is lighthearted, irreverent, opinionated, and filled with inside jokes about NBA stat-padding and tanking culture. Both speakers are candid, poking fun at the absurdity but also providing sharp historical context. Carson's tone is analytical yet up front about his emotional reaction, while the Host balances bemusement at the spectacle with a nuanced appreciation for the novelty of NBA records.
Bam Adebayo's 83-point game is, above all, an NBA oddity—more funny and “gross” than legendary, but a memorable moment sure to be endlessly debated in the years to come. The speakers ultimately agree: appreciate it for what it was, but don’t mistake it for one of basketball’s finest hours.