Adem Bona primed to begin his second season as the Sixers begin summer league play
After a strong finish to his rookie season, Bona will be one of the headliners for the Sixers in the Salt Lake City league, which begins on Saturday.
Adem Bona described his offseason as “great.”
Not playing the last two months has enabled the 76ers center to take a step back and evaluate his rookie season. Bona is focused on finding ways to get better and stronger and apply everything he learned for this past season.
“I’m going into my sophomore year,” Bona said. “You can only go up from here, like learning from mistakes and stuff like that. Yeah, I’m really excited to see what this upcoming year has to hold for the team and also being a part of it.”
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Beginning Saturday night, Sixers fans will get a look at what the undersize but energetic post player has been working on.
The 6-foot-8, 235-pounder is a headliner of the Sixers’ summer league squad that will compete in the Salt Lake City league (Saturday through Tuesday) and the NBA 2K26 league (Thursday through July 20).
They’ll open SLC play at 9 p.m. against the Utah Jazz, featuring a matchup of first-rounders VJ Edgecombe and Ace Bailey.
The Sixers selected Edgecombe over Bailey with the third pick in the NBA draft on June 25. That came after Bailey, who didn’t want to play for the Sixers, canceled his pre-draft meeting and workout with them. Bailey hoped to fall to sixth to the Washington Wizards. In a surprising move, the Jazz selected him one pick ahead.
Now, fans will get an opportunity to compare the player the Sixers selected with the one they passed on.
Bona and Justin Edwards, another rookie from last season’s team, and second-round pick Johni Broome are the other headliners of the summer league team.
“I feel like our skill sets complement each other,” Bona said of Broome, a 6-9, 249-pound power forward/center. “Me and Johni, we cannot wait to be able to share the floor together, to be about to operate on the low block together, high low, sometimes pace the floor.
“So I think that’s the goal, to work together, to be able to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and try to complement each other while we’re on the floor, and my goal is always to be able to help the team, even if I share the floor with Joel [Embiid]. I’m going to do my part.”
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That might not be a problem based on the success he had toward the end of last season.
Bona averaged 5.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, and 15.6 minutes and shot 70.3% in 58 games last season. But those numbers don’t come close to describing his level of play after the Sixers rested most of their core players in late March and April.
Bona averaged 13.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks in 29.1 minutes while shooting 72.7% in the final 11 games of the season. His most memorable game came against the Milwaukee Bucks on April 3.
Bona had a career-high 28 points on 13-for-15 shooting against two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez in the Sixers’ 126-113 loss.
Bona said he is not focused on individual dominant performances this summer.
“I’m always all about the team,” Bona said. “My biggest goal is for us to bring the team together; me and Justin, [Jalen] Hood-Schifino actually and Alex Reese [are the teammates] from last year to bring down the culture from the main team to the summer league team. I expect to win every game.”