Bam Adebayo Calls Out Brian Windhorst After The ESPN Analyst Claimed He Could Be Benched At Olympics

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It's unlikely that Bam Adebayo needed any extra motivation ahead of Team USA's matchup against South Sudan at the Olympics, but ESPN's Brian Windhorst may have provided some anyway.

After Jayson Tatum was benched for the entirety of Team USA's win over Serbia, many wondered if there was another player on the roster who would suffer the same fate against South Sudan on Wednesday. Windhorst suggested that player may be Adebayo, but he couldn't have been more wrong.

"South Sudan’s got a bunch of athletic wing players," Windhorst said during Monday's edition of ‘The Pat McAfee Show.’ "Tatum’s gonna be out there. They’re gonna be switching all of those screens because they gotta play the perimeter, and there may be a guy like Bam Adebayo that gets benched."

Adebayo went on to lead the American squad in scoring with 18 points to go along with a pair of blocks in Team USA's 103-86 victory. After his standout performance, Adebayo made it abundantly clear that he was aware of Windhorst's comments by sharing the video on X with the well-known clip of rapper 50 Cent saying, "what he say fu-k me for?"

Windhorst isn't exactly batting a thousand with his predictions so far in these Olympics. Not only did he swing and miss with his call about Adebayo, but he also suggested that Kevin Durant could miss the team's opening game against Serbia. Durant went on to lead the team in scoring with 23 points off the bench and was a perfect 5-for-5 from three-point land.

Joel Embiid ended up being the player benched for the entirety of Team USA's victory over South Sudan. Some in the media are making players being benched a bigger deal than it is, but with shorter games and the the tournament still being in the group play phase, superstars getting a full game off is nothing worth sounding the alarm about.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.