Bam Adebayo’s 83 Among Most Improbable Games in Sports History
- Sheehan Planas-Arteaga
- Mar 16
- 5 min read
Is Bam Adebayo's 83-pointer the most improbable game in sports history? It's tricky.
Wilt Chamberlain, then Bam Adebayo, then Kobe Bryant. After an 83-point performance in last Tuesday’s game against the Wizards, the Miami Heat C/PF launched himself into the rarified air with the second highest scoring game in NBA history. Wilt scored 100 in 1962. Then we have Bam’s 83. Then comes Kobe’s 81 from 2006. It is practically unbelievable that we can now discuss Bam in this way; such is the ripple effect of one of the most improbable games in the history of the NBA, and the history of sports, for that matter.
Let’s walk through a couple of the most out-of-nowhere games we’ve ever seen, starting with Bam Adebayo’s masterpiece.
Most Improbable NBA Games
I’m not here to argue about “ethics” when it comes to Bam’s 83. Both Wilt and Kobe’s game had some tomfoolery as the final minutes ticked away, in an effort to reach history. Bam’s game is no different, but you cannot deny how he got in this position. The man had 31 after the first quarter. He was essentially the only option on offense for Miami (Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, and Kel’el Ware were all out). The Wizards stink. He had 62 at the end of the third quarter, which already broke LeBron James’s single-game franchise scoring record, before any of the intentional fouling shenanigans began. You can clutch your pearls at the final 5-10 points if it makes you feel better, but the man had 70 with 9+ minutes left in the game, fair and square. The fouls were also legit, it’s not like he was getting cheapies.
Anyway…
What makes this game so improbable is Bam’s résumé. Before Tuesday night, his single game high was 41, which he dropped against the Nets in 2021. If you eliminate Kobe’s 81, his next highest scoring game was 65. Wilt’s second highest was 78, which is fourth on the all-time list. In fifth place is Luka Doncic’s 73 from 2024. Luka’s second highest scoring game is 60.
The second best games of the other top single-game scorers are all in the ballpark of their absolute best night. Bam more than doubled his career high. Preposterous.
The career averages of the top single-game scorers paint a similar picture. Wilt was at 30.1 PPG for his career, Kobe at 25, and Luka’s at 29.1. Bam? A mere 16.1. Nothing to sneeze at in a vacuum, but certainly not a candidate to pop off for a historic night like he did last week.
Also-Rans
Tom Chambers (18.1 PPG) poured in 60 in March of 1990, though he averaged 27.2 that season. Jumpin’ Joe Fulks (16.4 PPG) scored 62 in 1949, but again, he averaged 26 in 1948-49. Bam was averaging 18.9 points before his 83-pointer. The most improbable in terms of the state of the player at the time of the game was, ironically, Kobe Bryant scoring 60 in his final game, in a season where he averaged 17.6. I’m not gonna sit here and question the “ethics” of that game either. Until further notice, I’m dubbing Bam Adebayo’s game as the most improbable performance in NBA history.
Most Improbable MLB Games
There are really only two options for all-time games if we’re comparing MLB achievements to Bam’s achievement: perfect games and four-home run games. These still pale in comparison to scoring 83, which only one other player has done, but the fact that there have been just 24 perfect games and 21 four-homer games since 1876 makes these feats about as rare as you’ll find on the baseball diamond.
In terms of perfect games, one name rises above all others in terms of improbability: Philip Humber. On April 21st, 2012, Philip Humber of the White Sox went 27 up and 27 down against the Mariners in Seattle. Humber was coming off the best season of his career, throwing 163 innings and putting up a respectable 3.75 ERA and 116 ERA+ in 2011. This proved to be the only good season of his eight-year big league career. His perfecto was his second start of the 2012 season. In his first he’d allowed only one run across five innings, but there was plenty of traffic on the bases (six hits and three walks). Then came the 21st perfect game in MLB history, a game in which he also struck out nine. Then came...a nine-run loss.
Humber finished the season with an unsightly 6.44 ERA in 102 innings. He was even worse in 2013 (7.90 ERA in 54.2 innings), which was his last in the Majors. His career ERA+ is 81, i.e. he was 19% worse than average overall. Philip Humber simply wasn’t a good Major League pitcher, but on that sunny April day in 2012, he was decidedly untouchable.
It’s harder to pinpoint the most improbable four-homer game. Scooter Gennett had 38 home runs across four-plus MLB seasons prior to his all-time game in 2017. Bobby Lowe, the very first man to accomplish this feat in 1896, hit 17 that entire season, and 71 over his entire 18-year career. Those are probably the two most unlikely, but I’m still giving the nod to Philip Humber as the most improbable single-game feat in MLB history.
Most Improbable NFL Games
Now it gets really hard, since football has way more positions and opportunities for once-in-a-lifetime games. The immediate two who jump out at me are Jonas Gray and Matt Flynn.
Jonas Gray of the New England Patriots famously rumbled for 201 yards and four scores on a whopping 37 carries against the Colts in a 42-20 win in 2014. Gray, who had spent less than a month on the active roster after being signed off the practice squad, was inactive the following week due to being late to a meeting. He finished the season with 412 rushing yards and five touchdowns, and finished his two-year career with 588 rushing yards. His touchdown total held steady at five. Gray is one of only ten players to rush for 200+ yards and score four or more touchdowns in a single game.
Then we have Matt Flynn. Flynn came in to start the final game of the 2011 season, as the 14-1 Green Bay Packers decided to rest Aaron Rodgers with no playoff seeding implications on the line. Flynn went out and threw for 480 yards and six touchdowns against the Lions in a 45-41 victory. Similar to Jonas Gray’s feat, Flynn is one of ten QBs to throw for 450+ yards and six scores in a single game. This was just the second start of Flynn’s career, and he would only start five more in his seven-year NFL career. He threw 17 career touchdowns.
So who takes the crown as the most improbable game in sports history?
There Can Only Be One...
It’s not Bam, but I think he takes the cake in the NBA realm of what-in-the-world-was-that games. Matt Flynn, Jonas Grey, and Philip Humber all have a very good claim to the throne. But in the end, there have been far more MLB games pitched than NFL games started at QB and RB, and Humber’s accomplishment, a perfect game, is purely defined, whereas Matt Flynn and Jonas Gray’s games, although spectacular, are more arbitrary. Perhaps most importantly, the pressure did not build as Flynn and Gray progressed in their all-time great games, as it did for Humber as he approached immortality.
I hereby dub Philip Humber’s perfecto as the most improbable game in sports history (of the ones I know about). Bam Adebayo’s 83-point masterpiece is the most improbable NBA game ever. As for the NFL…gimme Jonas Gray, mostly because he wasn’t even on the team for a month when it happened, as opposed to Flynn, who was fully acclimated with the offense as a fourth-year backup in Green Bay, and wasn't an undrafted player, as Gray was.
Agree? Disagree? Know something about hockey or soccer I should consider? Let me know in the comments, jabronis.
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