MIAMI —For years, ask Bam Adebayo about goals and he was likely to spell it out. As in DPOY.  As in NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

But as Adebayo has grown as player, person and personality, and particularly as he has opened up about  life beyond the court, at 28 there is less introversion about goals beyond the game.

As in shared goals. As in what girlfriend A’ja Wilson, the WNBA superstar, mentioned in her recent interview when she was named Time Magazine’s 2025 Athlete of the Year.

So, yes, DPOY is still a goal for the Miami Heat center. But, so, too, is d-a-d, a subject that now brings warmth and a smile to the Heat captain.

In that Time interview, Wilson spoke about eventual marriage and starting a family..

“That is always a dream,” Wilson said. “This is my life partner.”

Over the four years of the relationship that bloomed during the 2021 Paris Olympics, Adebayo largely had advocated for privacy.

But the more the two were seen in public together, the more they shared in each others’ successes, the less there was a need to shy.

“Nah, I mean we were never shy,” Adebayo said as he leaned against a door frame by the Heat’s practice court at Kaseya Center. “It was just with privacy you can actually build your foundation, work on making it solid and working towards when it gets public.

“We weren’t actually being secretive about it. We  just know how to shut up.”

Adebayo paused. Smiled. As if taking in a moment of pride in a world of gossip.

“That’s real, if you really want to work on something, you don’t tell people about it right away,” he continued, as he and his teammates prepared for Monday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors at Kaseya Center.  “But if something goes bad, everybody’s going to be expecting, like, ‘Well, what went wrong?’ You’ve got to answer so many questions rather than building it and having a solid foundation.”

His career built through the peak, and amid the pitfalls, of social media, there practically is a pride in having gone as long as he did with keeping the private private.

Now the comfort is such that Wilson, 29, is courtside at some Heat games, waiting outside the locker room at others.

“Because,” Adebayo said, “we all know, you get on social media and ‘Clown#987’ is going to be on there like, ‘I don’t like you’all being together.’

“It’s like any little thing in the beginning can fracture that. So take my advice, just be positive before you want to run your mouth.”

Now there not only is positivity, but the comfort of addressing the completeness of his life, one that lacks the NBA Defensive Player of the Year that Wilson has secured three times in the WNBA.

In that Time piece, Wilson mused positively of the relationship, “I hope I’m not wasting my time. I hope he’s not wasting his time.”

Replied Adebayo, “Y’all will know, because people are nosy and they’ll look at her hands. There you go.”

As for what would follow eventually ringing in such a moment? Since Wilson put it out there, sure, Adebayo said, no need to remain reserved.

“I mean, you look forward to having children,” he said with the type of lightness that seemingly would transcend any DPOY. “I’ve been blessed to be around a lot of guys that have kids, that are amazing dads. So having thought of having kids, I want to raise ’em in a certain way. I turned out to be a great child, so that makes me have a high belief that I can also raise great children.”