.jpg) Spoelstra at a2022 NBA All-Star Game before the game | |||||||||||||||
| Miami Heat | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Head coach | ||||||||||||||
| League | NBA | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1970-11-01)November 1, 1970 (age 54) Evanston, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 180 lb (82 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Jesuit (Beaverton, Oregon) | ||||||||||||||
| College | Portland (1988–1992) | ||||||||||||||
| NBA draft | 1992:undrafted | ||||||||||||||
| Playing career | 1993–1995 | ||||||||||||||
| Position | Point guard | ||||||||||||||
| Coaching career | 1993–present | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
| As player: | |||||||||||||||
| 1993–1995 | TuS Herten | ||||||||||||||
| As coach: | |||||||||||||||
| 1993–1995 | TuS Herten (assistant) | ||||||||||||||
| 1997–2008 | Miami Heat (assistant) | ||||||||||||||
| 2008–present | Miami Heat | ||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||
As player:
As head coach:
As assistant coach: | |||||||||||||||
Medals
| |||||||||||||||
Erik Jon Spoelstra (/ˈspoʊlstrə/SPOHL-strə; born November 1, 1970),[1][2] nicknamed "Coach Spo", is an American professionalbasketball coach who is thehead coach for theMiami Heat of theNational Basketball Association (NBA), and an assistant coach for theUnited States men's national basketball team. He is widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the league and one of the greatest of all time.[3][4] Spoelstra won twoNBA championships as the head coach of the Heat. AFilipino American, he is the firstAsian American head coach in the history of thefour major North American sports leagues[5][6] and the first Asian American head coach to win an NBA title.[6]
Spoelstra playedcollege basketball with thePortland Pilots before playing professionally and coaching in Germany. He served as assistant coach and director of scouting for the Heat from 2001 to 2008, during which time the team won the 2006NBA Finals.[7] Spoelstra was promoted to head coach in the2008–09 season. The Heat have made six NBA Finals appearances during his tenure, winning consecutive championships in2012 and2013.
Spoelstra was born inEvanston which is directly north ofChicago, toJon Spoelstra and Elisa Celino.[8][9] Jon, an American ofDutch andIrish descent,[10] is a former NBA executive of theBuffalo Braves,Portland Trail Blazers,Denver Nuggets, andNew Jersey Nets.[7][11] Elisa is a native ofSan Pablo north ofRosario, Philippines.[10] Erik is also the grandson ofWatson Spoelstra, a longtime sportswriter forThe Detroit News.[12]
As a child Erik Spoelstra lived inBuffalo, New York and moved toPortland, Oregon by the late 1970s.[13][14] He went to Raleigh Hills Elementary and Whitford Jr. High School in Portland before attendingJesuit High School inBeaverton, Oregon, where he excelled atpoint guard on the basketball team.[13] Spoelstra wore number 30 during high school and college in honor of then-Trail BlazerTerry Porter, one of his favorite NBA players.[8] Prior to his senior year, Spoelstra participated inSonny Vaccaro'sNike All-Star camp inPrinceton, New Jersey, alongside future NBA playersAlonzo Mourning,Shawn Kemp,Billy Owens, andBobby Hurley.[13]
Spoelstra received basketball scholarship offers, and eventually accepted one from theUniversity of Portland in Portland.[13] In 1989, he was namedWest Coast Conference (WCC) freshman of the year.[15] He was thePilots' startingpoint guard for four years, averaging 9.2 points, 4.4 assists, and 2.4 rebounds per game.[15] He is a member of the school's 1,000-point club, and is among the Pilots' career leaders in several statistical categories.[15] During a 1990WCC basketball tournament game againstLoyola Marymount, he was on the court standing nearHank Gathers when Gathers collapsed and died of a heart condition.[13] Spoelstra majored in communications and graduated from the University of Portland in 1992.[16]
After college, Spoelstra initially boxed shoes at aNike warehouse.[17] He had originally planned to playbasketball in the Philippines as he had watched their games onVHS tape for years. However, the paperwork to play in the country got delayed.[18] Instead he went to Germany, spending two years (1993–1995) inBasketball Bundesliga's second division as a player–assistant coach for TuS Herten, a professional club based inWestphalia[17][19][20] and here he got his first coaching job, as coach of the club's local youth team.[13] Spoelstra began having back problems after the end of his second year with the team, and contemplated having surgery.[12] In 1995, Spoelstra was offered another two-year contract with the club, but the NBA'sMiami Heat also offered him a position. Although both offers held appeal, Spoelstra chose to take the Heat position.[8]
Chris Wallace, then the director of player personnel for the Heat, convinced then general managerDave Wohl to offer Spoelstra a position with the team.[21] Spoelstra was hired as the Heat's video coordinator in 1995, although at first he was not promised the position past the summer of that year.[8]Pat Riley was named the Heat's head coach not long after Spoelstra's hiring. Erik's father,Jon Spoelstra, said, "Contractually, Riley wasn't allowed to bring in his video guy, otherwise, Erik would have been out of a job right then."[12]
After two years as video coordinator, Spoelstra was an assistant coach/video coordinator for two years. He was promoted to assistant coach/advance scout in 1999, and later became the Heat's assistant coach/director of scouting in 2001.[7] Many of his colleagues attribute his ascent in the Heat coaching ranks to his strong work ethic.[13][21] As an assistant coach, he was credited for improving Heat starshooting guardDwyane Wade's balance andjump shot after Wade's return from the2004 Summer Olympics.[6] Spoelstra won his first NBA championship as an assistant coach when the Miami Heat defeated theDallas Mavericks in the2006 NBA Finals.
In April 2008, Spoelstra became the head coach of the Miami Heat after Pat Riley's decision to step down. Spoelstra was Riley's hand-picked successor.[23] In naming Spoelstra as head coach, Riley said: "This game is now about younger coaches who are technologically skilled, innovative, and bring fresh new ideas. That's what we feel we are getting with Erik Spoelstra. He's a man that was born to coach."[7] Spoelstra became the firstAsian American head coach in the NBA, and the first Asian American head coach in the history of thefour major North American sports leagues.[6] He led the Heat to theNBA Playoffs in his first year as head coach, despite the team's league-worst record of 15-67 the previous season.[24] The Heat, however, were defeated in seven games by theAtlanta Hawks in the first round. Spoelstra's team returned to the postseason a year later, but lost again in the first round to theBoston Celtics in five games.[24]
Expectations of the team's success were raised significantly for the next season and beyond, after the free agent acquisitions ofLeBron James andChris Bosh in the summer of 2010. After the team started off the2010–11 season with a 9–8 record, some Heat players reportedly were "frustrated" with Spoelstra, and questioned if he should remain their head coach.[25] Chris Bosh intimated that the team was being worked too hard and that the players would rather "chill".[26] LeBron James famously bumped into Spoelstra on his way to the bench during a timeout in a game.[27] These two issues, coupled with the relatively poor start to the season, put Spoelstra on the coaching hot seat. The team bounced back, however, and made the playoffs while posting the second-best record in theEastern Conference. Spoelstra led the Heat to an appearance in the2011 NBA Finals, but lost to theDallas Mavericks in six games. After Spoelstra failed to win a championship during his first season as head coach of the "big three" (James, Wade, and Bosh), Heat executive Pat Riley was asked if he would consider returning to coach the team.[28] Riley, however, turned down the idea and supported Spoelstra as the head coach going forward.[28] Spoelstra received a $6 million contract extension in December 2011 which lasted through the 2013–14 NBA season.[29]
The next season, Spoelstra again guided the team to the postseason as the two seed. The Heat overcame a 2–1 game deficit against theIndiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semi-finals, and a 3–2 game deficit against theBoston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals to reach the2012 NBA Finals despite an injury to starter Chris Bosh that forced him to miss nine straight games.[30] Spoelstra's Heat defeated theOklahoma City Thunder in five games to win the NBA championship. He became the first Asian American head coach to win an NBA championship,[6] and the second Heat head coach to win the title. He also became the only Miami Heat head coach to take the team to the NBA Finals multiple times.
During the2012–13 season, Spoelstra was selected as head coach of the 2013 Eastern Conference All-Stars in the2013 NBA All-Star Game, with the Heat holding the best record in the Eastern Conference at the time of selection. He later coached the Heat to a 27-game winning streak (thethird longest in NBA history). It started with a 100–85 win over theToronto Raptors on February 3, 2013, and ended with a 97–101 loss to theChicago Bulls on March 27, 2013. The team made the playoffs as the one seed while posting the best overall NBA regular season record. After sweeping theMilwaukee Bucks in the first round, the Heat won a seven-game series with the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, and advanced to face theSan Antonio Spurs in the2013 NBA Finals. The Heat defeated the Spurs in seven games.
On September 29, 2013, the Heat extended Spoelstra's contract to an undisclosed multi-year deal. Details were not released, but Spoelstra was expected to receive a pay raise and a bigger role in the front office. Spoelstra led the Heat to the2014 NBA Finals, becoming the third coach to lead his team to four straight Finals. The Heat faced the San Antonio Spurs once again, only this time losing the series in five games.[31][32] On December 16, 2017, Spoelstra got his 455th win as the head coach of the Heat and passed Riley for most wins in franchise history, when they defeated theLos Angeles Clippers 90–85.[33] Topping off the 2016–17 season, Spoelstra was named the NBCA Co-Coach of the Year after leading the Heat to a 30 win record in the final 41 games of the season.
During the 2019–20 season, Spoelstra coached the Heat to the2020 NBA Finals before falling 4–2 to the Los Angeles Lakers. On April 28, 2021, Spoelstra earned his 600th win as the Heat's head coach, and also became the sixth head coach in NBA history to win 600 games with one team.[34] On February 6, 2022, Spoelstra was named as the Eastern Conference head coach for the2022 NBA All-Star Game.[35]
On March 13, 2023, Spoelstra won his 697th game, which ranks him 20th on the all-time wins list among NBA head coaches. He surpassedRed Holzman and is behindJohn MacLeod on the list.[36] During the2022–23 season, Spoelstra coached the 8-seed Heat to the2023 NBA Finals, his sixth appearance as head coach,[37] but lost the series to theDenver Nuggets in five games.[38]
After a brief engagement with Analia Romero, Spoelstra announced his engagement to former Miami Heat dancer, Nikki Sapp.[39] They were married in July 2016 and have three children.[40] In November 2023, the couple divorced.[40]
| Regular season | G | Games coached | W | Games won | L | Games lost | W–L % | Win–loss % |
| Playoffs | PG | Playoff games | PW | Playoff wins | PL | Playoff losses | PW–L % | Playoff win–loss % |
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | 2008–09 | 82 | 43 | 39 | .524 | 3rd inSoutheast | 7 | 3 | 4 | .429 | Lost infirst round |
| Miami | 2009–10 | 82 | 47 | 35 | .573 | 3rd in Southeast | 5 | 1 | 4 | .200 | Lost infirst round |
| Miami | 2010–11 | 82 | 58 | 24 | .707 | 1st in Southeast | 21 | 14 | 7 | .667 | Lost inNBA Finals |
| Miami | 2011–12 | 66 | 46 | 20 | .697 | 1st in Southeast | 23 | 16 | 7 | .696 | WonNBA championship |
| Miami | 2012–13 | 82 | 66 | 16 | .805 | 1st in Southeast | 23 | 16 | 7 | .696 | WonNBA championship |
| Miami | 2013–14 | 82 | 54 | 28 | .659 | 1st in Southeast | 20 | 13 | 7 | .650 | Lost inNBA Finals |
| Miami | 2014–15 | 82 | 37 | 45 | .451 | 3rd in Southeast | — | — | — | — | Missed playoffs |
| Miami | 2015–16 | 82 | 48 | 34 | .585 | 1st in Southeast | 14 | 7 | 7 | .500 | Lost inconference semifinals |
| Miami | 2016–17 | 82 | 41 | 41 | .500 | 3rd in Southeast | — | — | — | — | Missed playoffs |
| Miami | 2017–18 | 82 | 44 | 38 | .537 | 1st in Southeast | 5 | 1 | 4 | .200 | Lost infirst round |
| Miami | 2018–19 | 82 | 39 | 43 | .476 | 3rd in Southeast | — | — | — | — | Missed playoffs |
| Miami | 2019–20 | 73 | 44 | 29 | .603 | 1st in Southeast | 21 | 14 | 7 | .667 | Lost inNBA Finals |
| Miami | 2020–21 | 72 | 40 | 32 | .556 | 2nd in Southeast | 4 | 0 | 4 | .000 | Lost infirst round |
| Miami | 2021–22 | 82 | 53 | 29 | .646 | 1st in Southeast | 18 | 11 | 7 | .611 | Lost inconference finals |
| Miami | 2022–23 | 82 | 44 | 38 | .537 | 1st in Southeast | 23 | 13 | 10 | .565 | Lost inNBA Finals |
| Miami | 2023–24 | 82 | 46 | 36 | .561 | 2nd in Southeast | 5 | 1 | 4 | .200 | Lost infirst round |
| Career | 1,277 | 750 | 527 | .587 | 189 | 110 | 79 | .582 | |||
Spoelstra joined a very small group with the milestone win. The only other coaches to win 600 games with one franchise: Popovich with the Spurs (1,308), Jerry Sloan with Utah (1,127), Red Auerbach with Boston (795), Red Holzman with New York (613) and Phil Jackson with the Los Angeles Lakers (610).
