School shooting brings back more anguish for Heat coach

MIAMI – Just a little more than four years ago, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and players visited the Parkland, Florida, community after 17 students were killed in a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

On Wednesday, Spoelstra opened his Game 5 pregame press conference by addressing Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed.

“Obviously, it was just tragic news yesterday. I left shootaround the other day, and it was before Game 1, I went straight to school to pick up my boys. My wife used to be a junior high teacher. We’re just devastated by the news.

“I can’t even imagine what that community and the families are feeling in that kind of scenario, going to school and seeing all the police cars and everything.

“I think there’s certainly, after continued events, there’s a call to action. I think everybody is trying to figure out a way to be heard, to force some kind of change from the people that can make change. I just really feel for all the families.”

Tuesday’s shooting brought back more anguish. The rest of that 2017-18 season, the Heat wore “MSD” patches on the jerseys and created a scholarship in the names of students who were Heat fans. Jury selection in the penalty phase is underway for Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, who is facing the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

“My wife and I had kind of a tough afternoon reflecting on it last night for those very reasons, and it does feel like just yesterday that we were going up there and spending time in that community, and just the shock that it was happening, so real in our neighborhood really, in our community,” Spoelstra said. “But it just continues to happen.”

“I think there’s certainly, after continued events, there’s a call to action.” Erik Spoelstra Miami Heat head coach