A special moment between Heat’s Bam Adebayo and Erik Spoelstra after they won the gold medal in Paris during the Olympics. #HeatCulture
🎥: @Demar305 pic.twitter.com/UqxJwnt4BO
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) August 10, 2024
For Adebayo, this is his second gold medal as the first time was in Tokyo, Japan back in 2021 as it adds to an impressive offseason on top of signing a contract extension with the Heat worth $166 million lasting three years. In the gold medal game against France, Adebayo scored two points and collected one rebound in nine minutes of action where the only score would be an eye-opening dunk that made his USA teammate and former Miami star LeBron James hyped.
BAM ADEBAYO TWO-HAND SLAM WITH AUTHORITY. 🔥🇺🇸
📺 NBC and Peacock | #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/yIua44XCJ6
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
The Heat center also made more history as Adebayo is the only player in franchise history to win multiple gold medals with two with the closest being Dwyane Wade who won gold in 2008, but won bronze in 2004.
Heat representation was strong during the Paris Olympics
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This is Spoelstra’s first time as an assistant coach on the main roster under Steve Kerr, but had been with the Team USA program when Adebayo was in Tokyo, but was the head coach of the select team that prepared the Olympics roster. Like Adebayo, Spoelstra also received a contract extension, but his happened during the season that was described as “the most committed money in North American coaching history” which is eight-years, worth more than $120 million according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Adebayo and Spoelstra were not the only ones celebrating a medal as a part of the Heat as Nikola Jovic received the bronze medal as a part of Team Serbia which lost to USA as they blew a 17-point lead. It is the first time multiple Miami players have won a medal at the Olympics since Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway did it back in 2000.
As Adebayo, Spoelstra, and Jovic will celebrate their medal wins, they now will rest and prepare for the upcoming Heat season as media day is Sept. 30 with training camp in the Bahamas set to start on Oct. 1.
Zachary Weinberger is a credentialed Miami Heat reporter and an Associate Editor covering the NBA at-large, NCAA Football, and NCAA Basketball for ClutchPoints. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University in 2022, covering sports at the FAU University Press and later at The Palm Beach Post.
