Coach ‘Spo’–his feet on the ground, his eyes on the stars
SACRAMENTO, California—After lead-ing his team to the mountaintop, Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra promptly scaled down to his Filipino roots.
In a mirthful moment a week ago after his Heat vanquished the Oklahoma City Thunder to win their second NBA title in six years, Spoelstra could not help but revel in his Filipino lineage as the world watched and listened.
Soaked in Gatorade after the traditional championship “bath” from his players, Erik—whose mom Eliza Celino hails from San Pablo City—publicly enjoyed his tryst with triumph and invoked his kinship with Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao.
Earlier, Coach “Spo” had said some family members have flown in from the Philippines to give him moral support during the biggest games of his life.
“We got knocked down to the canvas two or three times this playoff run, but the thing that matters, we got up and we kept on working,” Erik told ESPN’s Stuart Scott while the rest of the sporting universe tuned in.
“You used a lot of boxing analogies with your team. Why?” Scott wondered.
“Well, everybody knows I’m a (Manny) Pacquiao fan,” said Spoelstra, the first Filipino-American and Asian-American coach ever to win the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy. “There are quite a few competitors that our guys can relate to in that sport.”
Erik harkened back to the previous rounds of the NBA playoffs when pundits were just about ready to count Miami out. The Heat fought back from the brink of defeat at the hands of the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference to seal a stirring NBA Finals matchup with the OKC Thunder.
Spoelstra then shouted into Scott’s microphone: “We love you, Miami. Thank you for your patience.” The crowd at American Airlines Arena roared with applause.
The tumultuous response from the stands was Erik’s biggest reward from a tough South Beach crowd whose love-hate relationship with a young, untested coach was fodder for critics and nonbelievers.
At the end of the day, Spoeltra’s level demeanor and gutsy moves to find the right mix of players on the fly to back up his Big Three during the Finals with OKC, changed minds and earned kudos even from detractors.
Erik’s number one fan and supporter turned out to be Miami Heat president Pat Riley. Having handed Miami its first NBA championship in 2006, Riley never bothered to mount a search for a blue-ribbon mentor when the time came to turn over the coaching reins to someone. Riley looked no farther than his own backyard and plucked Spoelstra from obscurity and asked him to take over.
On the night the Heat won the 2012 NBA Finals, Riley again mouthed his oft-repeated line about his protege. That Erik was the right man for the job.
That Erik, after 17 years in the Heat organization, has his feet on the ground and his eyes on the stars.
Spoelstra rose from video coordinator in 1995, to coach of an NBA champion today. He has come a long way from the Heat arena “dungeon” where he prepared videos of Heat games for the analysis of the coaching staff.
From the bowels of a stadium, Erik has reached hallowed ground reserved for NBA championship coaches, where the company is exclusive and the air is rarified.
Perhaps the greatest tribute to Spoelstra the tactician comes from LeBron James, the main cog of Miami’s Terrific Trio. LeBron said it was hard enough coaching him and Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Balancing these guys with the role players was the pits.
But James said Erik, whose habit is to size up the situation on the court first, came through with aplomb.
“Erik and I are still growing each and every day, but our trust factor is great,” LeBron told sportswriters. The top basketball player in the world said Erik trusted him on the floor to make changes when needed. “As a player you feel confident when your coach gives you the green light to innovate in a flash.”
