Bam Adebayo Makes History by Breaking Kobe Bryant's Record – 5+ Interesting Facts About the NBA Star

The basketball player just did the unthinkable, and even the home crowd didn't know how to react.

Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo made history on March 10, 2026, when he dropped a staggering game against the Washington Wizards, pushing past Lakers legend Kobe Bryant to claim the second-highest scoring game in NBA history.

The moment sent shockwaves through the league and left fans everywhere asking: Who exactly is this guy? Let's find out!

A Night That Rewrote the Record Books

Bryant had held the No. 2 spot in league history since January 22, 2006, when he scored 81 points for the Lakers.

Twenty years later, Adebayo didn't just match it; he surpassed it with 83 points in a 150-129 win, leaving two extra points to spare. Only Wilt Chamberlain's iconic 100-point performance in 1962 remains ahead of him in the record books.

But that wasn't the only achievement of the night. Adebayo set a new Heat franchise record, topping LeBron James' previous mark of 62 points, with a slam dunk 22 seconds into the third quarter.

He also became the first Heat player to attempt 40 field goals in a single game, finished with a record-breaking 36 made free throws, and joined Chamberlain as the only players ever to record 20 field goals and 25 free throws in the same night.

In an emotional tribute to the legend whose record he surpassed, Adebayo posed with a handwritten sign reading "83," a direct nod to the iconic photo of Chamberlain holding up his famous sign after the 100-point game in 1962.

"So this is a special moment. Wilt, me, and then Kobe, which sounds crazy," Adebayo told reporters afterward.

But not everyone was as happy.

When his 83-point total was announced inside the arena, the reaction was something nobody quite expected. Video from inside Crypto.com Arena captured a wave of boos from the crowd, a jarring response to what was clearly one of the greatest individual performances in the sport's history.

As for Adebayo himself, the emotion was all about one person he never got to meet. After the game, he reflected on the significance of reaching 83 points and surpassing Bryant, wondering what kind of advice or feedback the legend would have offered him.

He also admitted that he had always dreamed of sitting down for a conversation with Bryant and finding himself in the same category as the person he idolized throughout his childhood felt completely surreal.

After the final buzzer, he celebrated with the two most important people in his life: his girlfriend, WNBA star A'ja Wilson, who joined him on the podium, and his mother, Marilyn Blount.

But there's a lot more to this man than one historic night. Let's discover several facts about him, including the history of the nickname that started it all.

The Man Behind the Record

Most of the world knows him as Bam, but his full name is Edrice Femi Adebayo. The nickname came before he could even walk properly: at just one year old, he flipped over a table while watching "The Flintstones," channeling the show's toddler powerhouse BammBamm Rubble.

The moniker stuck, and it turns out, so did the energy. But growing up, Adebayo had a complicated relationship with his full name.

His father, John Adebayo, was largely absent after his mother moved the family from Newark, New Jersey, to a small town in North Carolina when he was seven. The distance created resentment, and for years, the Nigerian surname felt like a daily reminder of someone who wasn't there.

"My father passed away, but I never really talked to him," Adebayo told The Undefeated in September 2020, after learning of his father's death in Nigeria through a surprise call from his half-brother.

"He was around when I was younger, and then my mom moved to North Carolina. So, he kind of became distant. I can't really credit him for a lot of stuff."

Then, he said, "But, at the end of the day, he did make me. So, I give him props for that."

However, the complicated feelings about his heritage ran deep.

"I feel like … my dad's not in my life," he admitted, and therefore added:

"I don't want to learn about that part of my family. And, I had to grow out of that. And, it was tough for me, it was growing pains. Because, from 15 to younger, everybody has regular names like Williams, Bennett, you got all the names that sound normal. And, then you got the one kid that has Adebayo. Everybody's like, 'Oh, you're African,' and this, that and the third. And, coming from a small city, everybody looks at you differently."

Around 16, something shifted. He started learning what his last name actually meant. "Adebayo" translates roughly to "born in the joyful time," and it changed everything.

Today, he's a self-described fan of fufu, the popular African and Caribbean dish, and credits his mother for supporting his journey back to his roots.

His past, it turns out, shaped something far more meaningful than he once realized.

Honoring the Past

Before basketball brought him fortune, it was just a way out. In 2020, just weeks after signing a five-year max extension worth close to $200 million, Adebayo used it to make a promise to himself come true: he surprised his mother with a home of her own on her 56th birthday.

But he didn't forget where they came from. The two had spent years living together in a single-wide trailer, and he wanted that memory preserved, not erased.

He explained that his mother had never owned anything to call her own before this. To honor that journey, he placed a photograph of their old trailer right by the front door of her new house.

Adebayo intentionally chose that prominent spot so that every visitor would see exactly where they started. And now that his life has gotten so much better, the NBA star has found another woman to love.

The Power Couple

This relationship has quietly become one of the most talked-about in sports.

Adebayo and Wilson, who confirmed their romance publicly in February 2025, first connected at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where COVID restrictions kept athletes largely confined to hotel lounges.

They passed the time playing Uno and dominoes, and a friendship quietly became something more.

"The best thing about our relationship, we started out as great friends," Adebayo told TIME in late 2025. "We didn't just jump to, 'Hey, what's up? You and I will make a great thing.' Nah, we really eased into this."

They went to great lengths to keep the relationship under wraps early on, even dining in secret at a "Dining in the Dark" restaurant where servers wear night-vision goggles, just to avoid being spotted.

Wilson, a four-time WNBA MVP and reigning champion with the Las Vegas Aces, has called Adebayo her life partner. He calls her his best friend, and the feeling is mutual in every direction, including with their families.

Wilson joked that her father calls the house and asks for Bam, and that her mother gets information from him before she does. "I didn't know I was outside the group chat," Wilson laughed.

As for what's next, both have been open about wanting a family.

And as for a wedding? Adebayo kept it playful:

"Y'all will know, because people are nosy and they'll look at her hands. There you go."

Not bad for the kid who once flipped a table while watching cartoons.