Spoelstra gets record-setting coach extension
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s talents are staying in South Beach.
Spoelstra has agreed to an eight-year contract extension worth more than $120 million, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Tuesday night. Per Wojnarowski, Spoelstra’s new deal represents “the most committed money in North American coaching history.”
Spoelstra, the second longest-tenured coach in the NBA behind only San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich (28 seasons), is in his 16th season with the Heat. Spoelstra first joined the franchise in 1995 as a video coordinator, before ascending to assistant coach in 1997 and head coach in 2008. Pat Riley hand-picked Spoelstra to be his successor as head coach, saying “he’s a man that was born to coach.”
“I believe Erik Spoelstra is one of the most talented young coaches to come around in a long time,” Riley said in 2008, when Spoelstra was 37. “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.”
Spoelstra, now 53, led the Heat to back-to-back NBA titles in 2012 and 2013 and has racked up a 725-506 regular-season record as head coach. He has the most wins in Heat franchise history (Riley is second with 354 regularseason wins).
“Worth Every Single Cent of that contract!!! Congrats Spo!” tweeted Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who played under Spoelstra on the Heat from 2010 to 2014 and was the driving force of both championship teams.
Spoelstra has a 109-75 playoff record. Last season, he coached the Heat to the 2023 NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed, marking Spoelstra’s sixth Finals appearance as a head coach. Miami lost to the Denver Nuggets in five games.
In 2022 in honor of the NBA’s 75th anniversary, Spoelstra was named one of the league’s 15 greatest coaches of all time, alongside the likes of Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Popovich.