Stranger Stats #8: Where Does Bam's 83-Point Game Rank All-Time?

On March 10, 2026, Bam Adebayo, not exactly known for his scoring, dropped 83 points on the Wizards. Only Wilt’s 100 is higher. Kobe’s 81 is now third.

While that’s the second-best scoring performance of all time, there’s a lot more to a game than scoring: rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, taking care of the ball. Was it also one of the best all-around games ever? To measure that, I need one number that adds all of it up.

There’s no single right way to do this. DraftKings, ESPN fantasy and Game Score all weigh things a little differently. Here I’ll use FanDuel’s fantasy score:

FanDuel = PTS + 1.2 × REB + 1.5 × AST + 3 × STL + 3 × BLK − TOV

I ran it on every player-game in the dataset. Here’s Bam:

#5

Bam Adebayo

Mar 10, 2026 · Miami Heat vs Washington Wizards · W

83 PTS · 9 REB · 3 AST · 2 STL · 2 BLK

FanDuel: 105.3 · Regular Season · 42 MIN

• FG 20/43
• FT 36/43
• TOV 5
• 3P 7/22

105.3 fantasy points. Since 1977-78, the first season with every stat in that formula tracked, that ranks #5. Pretty great! But Bam scored 83 and still finished fifth, so let’s look at the four games ahead of him.

#1 · Hakeem Olajuwon, 1987

#1

Hakeem Olajuwon

Mar 10, 1987 · Houston Rockets vs Seattle SuperSonics · L

38 PTS · 17 REB · 6 AST · 7 STL · 12 BLK

FanDuel: 120.4 · Regular Season · 53 MIN

• FG 14/29
• FT 10/14
• TOV 4

12 blocks and 7 steals. At 3 fantasy points each, those 19 stocks are worth 57 points on their own. Hakeem scored “only” 38, and the Rockets lost in overtime.

Fun coincidence: this game was on March 10, the same day as Bam’s, 39 years earlier. For Bam to pass it with everything else the same, he’d have needed 99 points.

#2 · Michael Jordan, 1990

#2

Michael Jordan

Mar 28, 1990 · Chicago Bulls @ Cleveland Cavaliers · W

69 PTS · 18 REB · 6 AST · 4 STL · 1 BLK

FanDuel: 112.6 · Regular Season · 50 MIN

• FG 23/37
• FT 21/23
• TOV 2

The only game above Bam built mostly on scoring. Jordan’s 69 is his career high, but the 18 rebounds are the real difference: 21.6 fantasy points, double Bam’s 10.8. Guards are not supposed to do that.

#3 · Hakeem Olajuwon, 1990

#3

Hakeem Olajuwon

Mar 3, 1990 · Houston Rockets vs Golden State Warriors · W

29 PTS · 18 REB · 9 AST · 5 STL · 11 BLK

FanDuel: 112.1 · Regular Season · 40 MIN

• FG 13/25
• FT 3/4
• TOV 0

29 points, one assist short of a quadruple-double, and zero turnovers. Hakeem again, and he’s not done: he has 16 of the top 100 fantasy games since 1977-78. No one else has more than 7.

#4 · Shaquille O’Neal, 1993

#4

Shaquille O'Neal

Nov 20, 1993 · Orlando Magic @ New Jersey Nets · W

24 PTS · 28 REB · 3 AST · 1 STL · 15 BLK

FanDuel: 107.1 · Regular Season · 36 MIN

• FG 12/19
• FT 0/1
• TOV 3

24 points. Shaq scored 59 fewer points than Bam and still beat him, thanks to 15 blocks (45 fantasy points) and 28 rebounds. In his second NBA season.

One more thing: 4 of the top 5 happened in March. Both Hakeem games, Jordan’s 69 and Bam’s 83. Shaq’s November night is the odd one out.

So Why Is Bam Fifth?

Here’s where each game’s fantasy points come from:

Steals and blocks are worth 3 each, a point is worth 1. The two Hakeem games and Shaq’s got about 48 to 57 fantasy points from stocks alone. Bam got 12.

Almost everything Bam did that night was scoring: 79% of his fantasy total came from points. Of the top 100 games since 1977-78, only two got fewer fantasy points from everything other than scoring: Kobe’s 81 (#11) and Luka’s 73-pointer.

So it’s a top-5 fantasy game, but not really an all-around one. It’s a scoring game so big that the formula can’t ignore it.

Also, look at Luka right behind him. His 60-21-10 triple-double against the Knicks is worth 105.2, 0.1 behind Bam. One more rebound and Luka is #5.

Top 20 FanDuel games since 1977-78

#	Player	FD	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	Date
1	Hakeem Olajuwon	120.4	38	17	6	7	12	4	Mar 10, 1987
2	Michael Jordan	112.6	69	18	6	4	1	2	Mar 28, 1990
3	Hakeem Olajuwon	112.1	29	18	9	5	11	0	Mar 3, 1990
4	Shaquille O'Neal	107.1	24	28	3	1	15	3	Nov 20, 1993
5	Bam Adebayo	105.3	83	9	3	2	2	5	Mar 10, 2026
6	Luka Doncic	105.2	60	21	10	2	1	4	Dec 27, 2022
7	Joel Embiid	104.1	70	18	5	1	1	1	Jan 22, 2024
8	Hakeem Olajuwon	104.0	49	25	2	2	6	2	May 14, 1987
9	Joel Embiid	103.2	59	11	8	1	7	5	Nov 13, 2022
10	Chris Webber	100.7	51	26	5	3	2	4	Jan 5, 2001
11	Kobe Bryant	100.2	81	6	2	3	1	3	Jan 22, 2006
12	Hakeem Olajuwon	100.0	38	10	4	5	10	1	Apr 21, 1988
13	David Robinson	99.9	43	12	3	4	10	4	Jan 10, 1991
14	Joe Barry Carroll	99.8	43	24	6	3	4	2	Feb 1, 1987
15	Anthony Davis	99.5	50	15	5	5	4	3	Oct 26, 2016
16	Hakeem Olajuwon	99.0	32	25	2	3	10	5	Dec 17, 1989
17	Nikola Jokic	98.7	56	16	15	0	2	5	Dec 25, 2025
18	James Harden	98.5	60	10	11	4	1	5	Jan 30, 2018
19	Patrick Ewing	98.4	44	22	4	2	7	5	Jan 7, 1990
20	Giannis Antetokounmpo	98.3	59	14	7	2	3	3	Nov 13, 2024

And Then There’s Wilt

All of the above starts in 1977-78. Go back further and the box scores are missing stats: no steals or blocks before 1973-74, no turnovers before 1977-78. If you score those old games with only what was recorded, one name takes over.

Wilt Chamberlain

Mar 2, 1962 · Philadelphia Warriors vs New York Knicks · W

100 PTS · 25 REB · 2 AST

FanDuel: 133.0 · steals, blocks and turnovers not tracked yet

Regular Season · 48 MIN

• FG 36/63
• FT 28/32

133 fantasy points from just points, rebounds and assists. That beats Hakeem’s #1 by almost 13 without a single steal or block counted. Wilt’s 78-point, 43-rebound game in 1961 comes in at 131.1.

Counting those incomplete games, Bam drops to #20, and 14 of the 19 games ahead of him belong to Wilt. Wilt being Wilt.

See you next time.

Data: Kaggle NBA box scores (Eoin Moore), snapshot July 6, 2026. Regular season and playoffs. The main ranking starts in 1977-78, when every stat in the formula was tracked; older games are scored on the stats that were recorded.