BAM’S TOP JAMS? KATY, WHITNEY
MIAMI— Bam Adebayo smiles a wide smile, because he can’t deny what has been and what will continue to be even nowthat he has moved on fromthe University of Kentucky to the Miami Heat.
“No, it continues,” he said as he worked hisway into the Heat’s culture these past fewweeks after his No. 14 selection in the NBA draft. “I mean, I’m not going to change because I’m in the NBA now.” So Katy Perry it will be. Yes, Katy Perry. The musical preference predates even his time with the Wildcats, the affinity made public on, of all things, college coach John Calipari’s personal website.
“I mean,” the muscled big man said, “they just see a big dude that’s 6-10 and they think he’s listening to all the hip-hop and stuff like that. I just listen tomy Katy Perry.
“It’s just her mood toward her music. She’s always happy and perky. So, I mean, I like to be happy. Might aswell listen to happy music.”
Asked when the Katy fixation began, Adebayo told the Sun Sentinel, “It started when I thought she was cute and the music kind of came with it.”
But wait, there’s more that is equally unexpected.
There is a specific song he listens to immediately before games (Katy Perry is reserved for more personal times than game nights).
“I play one Whitney Houston song,” he has said of “I Will Always Love You,” “and after that I’m good.”
So will that continue when the Heat reconvene for more than summerleague games?
“Probably,” he said, smiling, attempting to escape the questioning through a side door at the Heat’s practice facility at American Airlines Arena.
Adebayo said there is no specific inspiration for the Houston selection.
“You know, I don’t know, it just calms me down,” he said.
So there it is, a Bam that is about more than boom.
And won’t change with this transition to the NBA.
“It won’t.” he said.