Bam Adebayo becomes 6th former Wildcat to win NBA Player of the Week this season

We’re not even halfway through the 2023-24 NBA season, and yet six former Kentucky Wildcats have already taken home a Player of the Week honor.

Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo is the latest recipient, as he was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday afternoon, the league announced. Suiting up in four games for the Heat last week, Adebayo averaged 23 points, 11 rebounds, 5.8 assists, and one block in 35.8 minutes per outing. He shot 56.5 percent from the field and 78.6 percent from the free-throw line while leading Miami to a 3-1 record.

Adebayo did all of this without the Heat’s star player, Jimmy Butler, who last played on Dec. 30 and continues to recover from a foot injury. This is just the second ever NBA Player of the Week award for Adebayo, his first coming all the way back in Dec. 2019. Adebayo registered at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in all four games last week.

The choice was pretty Bam obvious 💥

1️⃣3️⃣ is taking home the hardware this week! pic.twitter.com/652J8wCMCP

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) January 15, 2024

Despite having missed 10 games already this season (including a stretch of seven in a row during December), Adebayo is on pace to make his third All-Star Game and second straight. The 26-year-old big man is averaging career-highs in points (22.1) and rebounds (10.4) per game this season. He’s also contributing 4.2 assists, one steal, and one block in his 34.67 minutes per contest while shooting 51.2 percent overall.

Following the release of the second batch of fan votes for next month’s All-Star Game, Adebayo was receiving the seventh-most votes amongst Eastern Conference frontcourt players with 410,043. Fan voting only helps decide the All-Star starters though. Adebayo is likely to make the final roster as a reserve, which will be voted on by the league’s coaches.

Throughout the season, former Kentucky players have been making regular appearances on the NBA’s Player of the Week list. Adebayo joins the likes of Tyrese Maxey (PHI), Devin Booker (PHX), De’Aaron Fox (SAC), Julius Randle (NYK), and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) as one-time Wildcats to win the award so far. Fox has been recognized twice, once on Nov. 20 and again on Dec. 4.

Outside of Kentucky, only one other school has more than one Player of the Week winner this season. Former Duke Blue Devils Jayson Tatum (BOS) and Paolo Banchero (ORL) have both taken home the honor once.