Wes Goldberg

And they grab him, and he's this guy who didn't really play a ton at Kentucky, just a little bit, kind of a run-and-jump athlete who said, oh, yeah, he could probably be pretty versatile.

We don't really know if he's a power forward or a center.

And he comes in, doesn't play much his first couple years, and there's real friction between him and the coaching staff in terms of –

he wants playing time and they're not giving it to him.

Very similar to what's happening with Kahlil Ware recently, but he kind of goes, goes through all of that, turns himself into this dribble handoff hub, the heat, make the finals in the bubble with Bam kind of becoming this guy and this defensive anchor at that point.

And then it's just this Jimmy Butler led experience with Bam as sort of the passenger in, in like writing shotgun for this whole thing.

And,

You know, eventually he's just logging minutes and logging time, and it's almost this Udonis Haslam type effect where UD was sort of the passenger with D. Wade, but Haslam's just logging games, logging minutes, and he keeps climbing up like Miami Heat franchise record books.

And suddenly, like, Bam is now the all-time leader in Heat defensive rebounds and the second player in Heat history to score 10,000 points.

And you look up and you're like, oh, my God, this guy's been here for a really long time, just sort of quietly putting the work in and developing and improving every single year to the point where now...

He has a legitimate three-point shot.

He's averaging almost six three-point attempts per game this year.

Again, run-and-jump athlete who didn't have much of an offensive skill set has turned himself into a 10,000-point scorer just like a week before he scored 83 points in a basketball game.

It is the most improbable thing I've ever seen in the NBA.

The honest answer is yes, and I'm ashamed because I have been online for so long.

I'm like, of course this was going to suck afterwards.

Of course nobody could just be happy for the guy.

I do understand the Kobe factor, and I am sensitive to it.

I understand that Kobe is people's hero, and the way that Kobe did it when he scored 81 was so –

Kobe like right it was majestic scoring mid range artwork but Bam was not artwork Bam was Godzilla tearing up the town like it was just it was it was brutal it was ugly and I understand why I might not have been for everybody but it happened and I just I don't