Heat’s Bam Adebayo on how he became close with Damian Lillard and the ‘waiting game’

Miami Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo decided not to be on USA Basketball’s World Cup roster this summer, but his Olympic experience with the national team continues to pay off.

Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard has made it known he wants to be traded to the Heat and nowhere else. The seven-time All-Star’s trade request became public on July 1, but trade talks between the Trail Blazers and Heat have been slow-moving as the NBA moved into one of the quietest periods of the league’s calendar.

Lillard wants to be dealt to the Heat for various reasons. He’s intrigued by the possibility of playing alongside Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, he sees an opportunity to be the missing piece on a championship roster, and no state income tax in Florida with the opportunity to play in an appealing market like Miami helps.

But one of the biggest reasons behind Lillard’s interest in joining the Heat is his close friendship with Adebayo. The two developed a strong bond while playing together and winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021.

“Demeanor,” Adebayo said Saturday during a break at his fifth annual youth basketball clinic at SLAM Miami Charter School when asked why he and Lillard became so close during their Olympic experience. “How he walks, how he talks, how he presents himself, we have a lot of those similar characteristics. Dame isn’t the loudest person. I’m not the loudest person. We’re two down to earth people that gelled well in the Olympics.”

During a June appearance on The Last Stand podcast with Showtime’s Brian Custer before requesting a trade, Lillard revealed a move to the Heat would appeal to him in part because of his relationship with Adebayo.

“Miami is the obvious one,” Lillard said on the podcast. “Bam [Adebayo] is my dawg. Bam is my dawg for real. Miami is the obvious one.”

“It just speaks to the volume of who I am as a person,” Adebayo said of those comments from Lillard. “For you to be able to say without basketball, I can really hang out with him. It speaks to the volume of your character and also the skill level I have on the court. The things I do to get the job done on the court and the mentality that I have.”

Despite Lillard’s request to be traded to the Heat last month, a deal to land him in Miami was not considered imminent as of earlier this week.

The Trail Blazers have remained disinclined to engage the Heat in serious trade discussions up to this point and key decision-makers from both teams have been on vacation recently, according to league sources.

The expectation is that trade talks between the Heat and Trail Blazers could pick up in the coming weeks, with training camps around the NBA opening on Oct. 3. But the reality remains that Portland does not love what Miami has to offer and hopes other teams eventually put in their own bids for Lillard.

The problem for the Trail Blazers is Lillard has suppressed the market by making it known he only wants to be traded to the Heat. The fact that Lillard turned 33 last month and is owed $216 million over the remaining four seasons of his contract doesn’t help

But that didn’t stop campers from asking Adebayo questions on Saturday about a potential Heat trade for Lillard.

“I can’t answer them right now because I don’t know what’s about to happen,” Adebayo said. “But the biggest thing is business. Everybody wants it to make sense. Everybody on their side wants it to make sense. Obviously, other sides want it to make sense, too. So I feel like it’s just a waiting game until they reach an agreement, if or when it does happen.”

Here’s what else Adebayo had to say during his session with reporters at his youth basketball camp:

▪ Of the Heat bringing back friend Josh Richardson for a second stint with the organization this offseason, Adebayo said: “They brought back one of my brothers. I’ve been losing a lot lately for special reasons that brotherhood can’t come between. But it feels good to see where we were with our friendship when he left and to get to his point where we can rekindle it and start fresh again. We’re two different people from when I first walked into the league and then when he got traded. So it’s good to have a brother back. We know what he brings to the team, we know what we need from him. I feel like J-Rich is one of the most disciplined people when it comes to basketball, life and all other aspects.”

▪ Adebayo called the Heat free-agent departures of Gabe Vincent and Max Strus “bittersweet.” Vincent signed a three-year deal worth $33 million with the Los Angeles Lakers and Strus signed a four-year contract worth $62.3 million with the Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency this summer.

“At the end of the day, [Udonis Haslem] preaches it, I preach it, no matter where the money is, go take care of your family,” Adebayo said. “That’s the biggest thing. Guys get into this situation and have so many opportunities to go take care of their family. The No. 1 thing we want is for guys to do that. … For me, man, it’s bittersweet that [Vincent] is not not going to be my teammate no more. But at the end of the day, we can go on vacation together.”

▪ What has Adebayo focused on during his on-court work this summer? “Being consistent,” he said. “I feel like the hardest thing for anybody in this decade or anybody in life, period, is to be consistent every day – no matter how you look at it. For me, it’s putting in those hours so I can be consistent in the most crucial moments of a game”

▪ Adebayo recently traveled to South Africa to take part in Basketball Without Borders Africa 2023. Adebayo called the experience “dope,” but there was one scary moment during the trip.

“I got on a safari and I almost got eaten by lion,” Adebayo said. ...”“He was having a meal and I guess we looked better than what he was eating.”

Adebayo added: “But for the most part, it was exciting to see the kids play so hard. And being from a different country and the language barrier, whatever it may be, they still understood playing hard was the No. 1 goal.”

▪ Of his fifth annual basketball clinic in Miami, which featured campers ranging from third to 12th grade on Saturday, Adebayo said: “At the end of the day, it’s all fun. It’s for the kids. The kids are our future, as we all know. So the best thing you can do is just teach them as much knowledge as possible while they’re younger. Also, the camp is about teaching knowledge of the game, knowledge of life but also loving on your parents.”

Former Heat teammate Udonis Haslem and current Heat teammate Haywood Highsmith made an appearance at Adebayo’s camp on Saturday.