This season, as his Miami Heat qualified for their third straight NBA play-in tournament, Bam Adebayo expanded his game. Standing six-foot-nine, weighing in at a muscular 260 pounds, Adebayo has spent most of his career in the low post. But this year—his eighth in the league—saw the 27-year-old venture behind the three-point line with more regularity. Known mostly for his defensive prowess, Adebayo attempted 2.8 threes per game during the 2024-25 campaign, well up from his career average of 0.6.
As Adebayo’s game evolves, so too does his life. Or maybe vice versa. He became an All-Star by blocking shots and stifling opponents at the rim, not focusing on offense. But that was the old Bam, who was still eating a lot of candy and getting pummeled by Australian brutes.
Now, he’s a full-on wellness devotee. A five-time member of an NBA All-Defense team (with another nod potentially on the way), Adebayo has to sculpt a body that can withstand all the carnage that comes with guarding the best athletes in the world. This led him to a partnership with BodyHealth, whose protein-focused supplements fueled him as he played the most minutes of his career. As any wellness head will tell you, though, it’s never just one thing. The Olympic gold medalist spoke to GQ about the importance of the sauna, learning from three GOATs in Paris, and the food that made its way from his childhood lunchbox to his NBA locker.
Bam Adebayo: My main things, honestly, are quality sleep, really drinking water, and taking care of your body as much as possible. So, not only working out on the court, but also getting in the gym and lifting, actually pushing your body to certain heights where, when you are in your weight room, it's like, “Hey, I'm really hurting.” But when you're out there on the court, you're not as sore, you recover faster.
Yeah, I'm one of those people. The [bottle] that got the whole list. It starts at 7 am and then you drink down. It's harder to try to gauge how much water you drink from trying to drink as many bottles as possible. If you give me a whole gallon, you can kind of space it out. You might need something to drink, you might want to snack, you might just be thirsty, and by the end of the day you’re like, dang, I really went through that gallon.
I wouldn't say swear by, because I have a problem. I’ll forget to take them. But growing up in this league, you try to find things that are healthy for your body, and BodyHealth has products that are safe for athletes but also people that don't play sports. The Greens and Reds are kind of good because it's for the fruits and veggies. At certain times, you can't get as many greens as you usually can, so you can make up for it [with the supplements].
My situation was actually self-inflicted. I had to learn from my own mistakes.
I went to the University of Kentucky, and back then, that was when Kentucky was the staple when it came to guys going to the NBA. Behind the scenes, people didn't realize—we were so good, but when we practiced, we practiced. It was conditioning, it was scrimmaging, going through the gauntlet every practice. For me as a 17, 18-year-old kid, I'm thinking I can eat bad because I conditioned so much. You can see where the story's going.
I love Domino's and Insomnia Cookies. I would get the thin crust pizza and two apple juices. On road games, sometimes when we would get back, the only thing open would be Insomnia and Domino's. I just didn't think about it. I was like, “Man, I'm just hungry and need to eat!” That was my vice. One game, I remember going out there and I felt so terrible. It honestly scarred me to the point where I didn't eat Insomnia Cookies for five years. People think exercising does it all. No, it's really what you eat.
I had to learn that firsthand. So, now, being in the NBA, I'm way more conscious. I don't really eat sweets and cookies like that anymore, or candy. I'm just like, yeah, I'm cool. A lot of people need to fall on their face one or two times to understand, yeah, I can't be doing this.
I mean, you don't really have to have the conversation because you see it. You know what I mean? I've seen how LeBron takes care of his body, I've seen Steph take care of his body, I've seen Kevin Durant take care of his body. The thing about it, everybody's different. Bron is an anomaly because he's 40 still playing at this high of a level. For him, it's more body work. What are those things called? Hyperbaric chambers, saunas, having those things implemented.
I think for Steph it is more the way he eats. I see Steph specifically asking for certain things pregame, or right after the game. The snacks, he's very particular on that. Then obviously Kevin Durant is one of the most gifted out of the three. His is more, I wouldn't say a workout, but it's more his warmups, getting prepared for the games, and how he warms up when nobody's looking. He really goes through a 45-minute routine to get his body in order to go out there and perform.
I understand why they have been around in this league so long. The accolades speak for themselves, but the way they take care of themselves, how they are consistent with it. That's what you start to really realize—when people are that great, they're so consistent at being consistent.
Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, because I scarred myself in college, it was kind of a match made in heaven for me. I get somebody that can actually tell me my body fat! When they take your blood and do all your tests, they can tell if you got low iron, vitamin A, vitamin B. If you're low in this, you need this supplement, or whatever the case may be.
For me, it was just getting here and understanding they really care about people being at their peak performance at all times. You see around all leagues, when people don't take care of their body, the first thing they do? They pull something. They pop something. For the Miami Heat, they're trying to prevent all those types of injuries. If somebody tweaks an ankle, you can't prevent that. But if you've been working on your mobility, you fall awkwardly and you’ll still be able to bounce back. I feel like that is one of the things that they really hone in on: having guys available.
If it’s a 7:00 game, we’ll have shootaround at 10 am. I'll leave my house by 8:15. It's probably like a 45-minute drive because I'm in rush hour. You got school traffic, you got people trying to go to work, the highway’s busy.
I'll have breakfast around 7:30 and then leave the house at 8, get there around 8:45, 8:50. I go get treatment from 9 to 9:30, and then from 9:30 to 10, I'll be up in the practice court getting shots up before shootaround. After shootaround, I'll play this shooting game with my rookies, then I'll shower and go home.
I'll eat probably around 1 or 1:30. Game days are mainly pastas and stuff like that for the carbs and the energy. I'll take probably a 20, 30-minute nap depending on if I can sleep, because sometimes I'll just be like a kid in a candy shop when I get the opportunity to play basketball. It's hard for me to sleep before games. I just have that much adrenaline rushing. But I'll try to take a 20-30 minute nap just to calm me down. I'll probably leave the house around 4:00, get to the arena around 4:30, shoot at 5. After I get done shooting, I'll go back in the locker room and eat me a little something. My little secret that I indulge in? PB&J sandwich.
Yeah, a PB&J sandwich before the game, and some fruit for a little boost of energy.
Everybody’s routine is different. I like lifting after a game, so sometimes it takes me a little longer to leave. But if I played 40-plus minutes, I'm probably not going to lift. Either my chef will make something, or we will go out to eat, but like I said, it's about what you eat a lot of times rather than when you eat. I’ve kind of got it down to a science.
I got it all. When you see guys—honestly, Bron is at the top of that list when you talk about longevity, Dirk [Nowitzki], Kobe Bryant—but when you see all these guys play 20 years and still play at the highest level through a lot of their career, you want to be one of those guys. A lot of it comes down to really being disciplined. Do you really want to go out after the game? Because we live in Miami, it's really a party city. Or, do you want to go get this eight hours of sleep so you can be at your top performance for the next game? Things change game-to-game, so you want to be prepared for every one.
Yeah, but their life is a lot different. My rookies are two-way guys. [A two-way contract allows players to split their time between the NBA and the G League, where they often get much more playing time.] So they go from us and they'll travel to Sioux Falls. It's a hard balance for them. I give them a long leash, and I can't be too hard on them, because a lot of times you can only eat what's there.
But as they get older in this league and they get more comfortable, obviously I want all my rookies to get paid! As they get paid, that's when we start having more in-detail conversations about eating right. Getting certain machines in your household, getting a chef, all those things. How long do you really want to be in the NBA?
Honestly, it sucks because I'm getting older and a lot of the younger guys are calling me OG. I don't know how I feel about that.
Aron Baynes. I went to go offensive rebound—in the NBA, everybody boxes out different, first of all—and some box outs are meant to be fouls. We don't call them, and that's okay, because I like that type of physicality. It should be a part of our game to be physical on a box out. But one day, my rookie year, I went to go offensive rebound, and this man borderline punched me in my chest. It caught me off guard because I was like, okay, now every time I offensive rebound, I have to always be aware of what's going on around me. As a rookie, you're like, oh, I'm just going to try to run in there and just go get a rebound.
But at that point, Aron Baynes was probably four years in the league. We've got seven-foot grizzly bears in our league. You got to fend off a lot of people. I'm just a rookie going to offensive rebound, he punched me in my chest, and I remember literally stopping in my tracks thinking about if I really wanted to go offensive rebound for the rest of the game.
A hundred percent. And most people don't even know who Aron Baynes is, but that is one strong individual. Shout out Aron Baynes.
For GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.