Former Northside basketball standout and current Miami Heat starting center, Edrice Femi “Bam” Adebayo, was voted into the NBA All-Star game as a reserve last week. The All-Star selection is the first of his career.

The format of this year’s All-Star game will not be decided by the players’ Eastern and Western Conference affiliation. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lebron James were named captains of each team, and they picked each player voted into the All-Star game in a snake-like draft setting.

Antetokounmpo selected Adebayo in the All-Star draft Thursday night on ESPN.

Adebayo put up some eye-popping numbers in his first three years in Pinetown. His freshman season he averaged 17.8 points per game, and 19.8 rebounds per game. His sophomore campaign was an improved replica of his first, averaging 24.3 ppg and 18.2 rpg. Before transferring to High Point Christian Academy his senior season, Adebayo averaged 32.2 points per game and 21 rebounds per contest as a junior at Northside.

Adebayo reflected on his time as a Panther, and on his former head coach, the late-Mike Proctor.

“I feel like me being there brought the city closer. That was the big thing at Northside. Everybody wanted to see me play. The city kind of like joined together when I was there,” Adebayo said. “(Coach Proctor) was just an unbelievable overall person — he really cared about people. It wasn’t just a basketball type thing, he just really enjoyed teaching us, and that’s what I liked about him.”

This season for the Miami Heat, Adebayo is averaging a double-double. Through 50 games, he is averaging 15.9 points per outing and grabbing 10.4 rebounds per game. He is also dishing out around five assists each contest as well.

He garnered his first career triple-double performance earlier this season on Dec. 10, 2019, when he tallied 30 points with 11 assists and 11 rebounds against the Atlanta Hawks.

Adebayo said that it was a dream scenario to have earn a spot in the 2020 All-Star game.
“Man, it’s a huge responsibility, just because you work so hard for something like this,” Adebayo said. “I don’t really know how to explain it. It’s just an unbelievable feeling that I get to go out there and compete with the top-24 dudes from around the league.”

With the season half over, the Heat is currently nestled in fourth-place among the Eastern Conference, which is comfortably in the playoff field. However, Adebayo does look forward to returning home to eastern North Carolina in the offseason.

“I still come down there because that’s home. You can’t ever be tired of home, man,” Adebayo continued. “I miss it, I definitely make sure I come home for at least 2 to 3 weeks in the offseason to see all my family and friends. I get to just kick it and kind of re-live what I did there.”

The past two weeks have been very emotional around the NBA, as the league grieves the loss of basketball legend, Kobe Bryant. Adebayo said that Bryant was an inspiration to him.

“Man, Kobe changed the game for a lot of us. For me, I took the passion and the sense of urgency that Kobe approached the game with, and saw how serious he took the game of basketball — that’s how I want to take it,” Adebayo said. “I’ve looked up to Kobe. He changed generations. His impact was not only on the court but off the court as well. He was one of those dudes that was a philanthropist and just wanted to help people out and see people succeed.”

Adebayo will participate in the 2020 NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. The game will be televised on TNT.