Erik Spoelstra was born and groomed to coach basketball. He has been an avid learner of the game, a player of the game, and most importantly, a true and legitimate teacher of the game. Coach Spoelstra has had more than the normal amount of obstacles to overcome throughout his coaching career, but it’s evident that he was taught how to handle the pressure and thrive in tough situations.

Life Before the NBA:

I don’t want to bore you with Spolestra’s life story, so I will just provide a brief background. He was born in Evanston, Illinois, but spent most of his childhood in Portland, Oregon. He attended Jesuit High School in Beaverton, Oregon, where he played point guard on his school’s basketball team. Spoelstra received numerous scholarship offers, and ultimately decided to take his talents to the University of Portland.

He was named West Coast Conference Freshman of the year in 1989, while starting at point guard during all four seasons. He is a member of the 1,000-point club, and is among the career leaders in numerous other categories. After the conclusion of his collegiate career, he spent two years as a player/assistant coach for Tus Herten, a professional club in Germany. Spoelstra started having back issues during his second year there, and decided it was time to come back to the United States and give up his dream of playing professional ball.

Start of his NBA Journey:

Spoelstra was originally hired by the Heat as a Video Coordinator in 1995. He spent two years working tirelessly in this position, and then was promoted to Assistant Coach/Video Coordinator. Two years after obtaining this job, he was once again boosted up to Assistant Coach/Advanced Scout. Most NBA employees don’t rise up the ranks as quickly as Spoelstra had, but he was praised for his incredible work ethic, determination and preparation for the game, and attention to detail.

In 2001, he was again promoted to Assistant Coach/Director of Scouting. Throughout his time in this position, he was given the responsibility of developing game plans against upcoming opponents and coordinating the scouting department in overseeing the development of major NBA prospects.

Being one of the main assistant coaches, he formed a great bond with Heat legend, Dwyane Wade. They worked endlessly on numerous aspects of Wade’s game, including better overall balance and a perfect jump shot.

It Doesn’t Matter What You Think, Spo’s Work is Irreplaceable:

Whether you like it or not, Spoelstra is arguably the most important member of Miami’s three championships in the past 10 years. Without the likes of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Shaquille O’Neal, and most notably, Pat Riley, none of these championships would have ever ended up in Miami. However, the same can be said about Spoelstra, whose love and dedication for basketball can easily be seen by the recent success of the Heat.

Spoelstra’s Work Behind the Scenes:

Spoelstra has done just about everything during his 21-year tenure with the organization. Along with all of the jobs listed previously in the article, he was also the leader of Miami’s Individual Player Development Program and designed a statistical database for the team. This may be a little confusing, so I will briefly elaborate about each.

Miami focuses a lot on developing their younger players, which is key to maintaining long-term success. This is what being the leader of the Individual Player Development Program is all about. During his time as an assistant coach, Spoelstra focused on assisting younger players in numerous areas including fundamentals, skill development, and shooting.

His constant focus on improving fundamentals was a major factor in the Heat’s 2008-2009 season, when they broke the franchise record for fewest turnovers in a season. This also happened to be Spoelstra’s first season as head coach, which I will expand on more later in the article.

Spoelstra also designed and integrated a statistical database/scouting software for the Heat. Miami has used this technology to evaluate team productivity, individual productivity, and trends for the entire NBA. Spoelstra was also able to put the entire team’s video playbook on iPads for all of his players. This may seem easy, but it’s a lot tougher than you would think to design and incorporate this type of software, which ultimately gives his team a clear advantage.

Putting the Franchise in New Hands:

On April 28, 2008, Pat Riley decided to step down as head coach and gave the position to Erik Spoelstra. Spoelstra was put in a very difficult position right off the bat. During the 2007-2008 season, the Heat finished 15-67, the worst record in the league by five games. Many coaches know just how difficult it is to bring a team out of the NBA cellar in a single year, but that is exactly what Spoelstra did.

The Heat went 43-39 the following year, a massive and unexpected 28-game improvement. This is the greatest single-season improvement by a rookie coach in NBA history. This success deserves even more praise considering the fact that four of the top seven players on the team had less than two years of experience. The Miami Heat did lose in the first round of the playoffs against a quality Atlanta Hawks team, but pushed them to their limits by taking them to seven games.

The next season seemed like a mirror-image of the previous season. They went 47-35, but lost again in the first round of the playoffs to the Boston Celtics, who went on to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. Even though they lost in the first round of the playoffs for two straight years, Riley knew Spoelstra was the right man to run the team.

The Real Challenge:

Before the start of the 2010-2011 season, Spoelstra found out that he was going to have a few new additions to the team. LeBron James and Chris Bosh decided to leave their respective cities and join Dwyane Wade in South Beach. It may seem like an easy task coaching three of the top 15 players in the league, but let me make it clear that it’s a true challenge. If you don’t believe me, just go ask former Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt, who lost his job after going 83-40 (.675) in one and a half seasons coaching LeBron and Co.

Miami went 58-24 during that season, and would have pulled out a championship in year one of the Big Three Era if it weren’t for Dirk Nowitzki and his resilient Mavericks, who won three straight games after being down 2-1 to start the series.

The Pressure’s on:

Unfortunately for Spoelstra, the spotlight and criticism was directed toward him because of LeBron’s special promise. I’m sure you all remember, “Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven…” Not only was this extremely unfair to Spoelstra, but it also put his job in serious jeopardy. I’m not saying that Pat Riley was going to fire his coaching prodigy, but I’m sure Riley was thinking about what to do to make LeBron happy.

The next year was hectic to say the least. It all started before the season, when the dreaded NBA lockout occurred. Teams were forced to have a very short training camp and the NBA could only fit 66 games into its schedule, which started on Christmas Day. This was considered by some as Spoelstra’s make or break season. Who knows if there was actually some truth to this rumor or if the media was just running its mouth like usual, but this was not fair to Spoelstra at all.

In his first three seasons as head coach, he went 148-98 (.602), and was tasked with coaching two teams on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. What I mean by this is that he had to coach a team that went 15-67 the year before, and then he had to coach a team with three global superstars and arguably the best player of all time. Not many coaches could succeed in both of these scenarios, but as you’ll find out in my next paragraph, it’s clear that Spoelstra did.

Even with the shortened training camp and 66 games, the Heat made the most of it by going 46-20 and acquiring the 2nd seed in the East. The Heat cruised through the playoffs, winning 16 of their total 23 games. The only real challenge they faced was in the Eastern Conference Finals when they defeated the Boston Celtics in seven games.

Since Miami convincingly won the NBA Finals for their first time since 2006, the criticism was finally taken away from Spoelstra and directed elsewhere in the NBA. Unfortunately for Coach Spo, this criticism was bound to come back because of the championship-or-bust expectations for this roster.

With a championship ring officially in LeBron’s trophy case, there was more pressure than ever to repeat their championship quest. Fortunately, the Heat won a franchise record 66 games and went on to beat the San Antonio Spurs in seven games in the NBA Finals. They wouldn’t have obtained this second straight championship if it weren’t for Ray Allen’s insanely clutch shot in game six.

Even though this championship seemed to be a product of a dynasty in the making, it skyrocketed expectations. Everyone thought that LeBron James’ “special promise” could actually come true. Unfortunately for Heat Nation, this was not the case.

During the fourth and final year of the LeBron era, the Heat made it to their fourth consecutive finals appearance. In a rematch of the NBA Finals, the Spurs got their revenge after losing in heartbreaking fashion the previous year. Just like that, all of the criticism came back to Spoelstra. Yes, LeBron did receive his fair share of criticism, but Spoelstra was tasked with handling most of it.

I’m about to go on a mini-rant just to voice my opinion about a particular subject, so don’t mind me. This is exactly what I despise about the media. There always has to be blame thrown around at someone or at a certain team. There was absolutely no criticism being directed toward Spoelstra after Miami won its second straight title, but the instant they lose to an incredible San Antonio Spurs team in the NBA Finals, everyone somehow thinks that Spoelstra deserves to be fired. This is the same guy who helped win two championships in the past three years, so it baffles my mind as to why people think that a coach of this caliber should be fired. It doesn’t make any sense in my opinion, but I guess that’s just mainstream media for you.

When LeBron ditched Miami and went back to Cleveland, expectations were justifiably lowered. This was no longer a championship-or-bust team, but rather just a team that should be happy with making the playoffs. Chris Bosh’s health scare didn’t make matters better, and Miami missed out on the playoffs last season for the first time in Spoelstra’s head coaching career.

Moving onto this year, the Heat seem to be back where they should be. Right now, they are currently the 4th seed in the East, but have a chance to make some serious noise in the playoffs.

The Skinny:

Regardless of what ends up happening this season and in the future, Spoelstra has proved that he can carry this team through thick and thin.

He has an overall record of 391-236 (.624), which ranks as the 20th best win percentage in NBA history. He is 63-36 in the postseason and has four division titles, four Eastern Conference titles, and two NBA Championships. It’s evident that he firmly holds a major place in the Miami Heat record book.

Spoelstra has attempted and succeeded at being Mr. Know-It-All for this franchise. The Heat genuinely owe Spoelstra a spot in their Hall-of-Fame for the dedication and expertise he has given this organization. I expect Spoelstra to be in this league for a long time, and rightfully so.