Spoelstra opens up on podcast
Coach can see himself in future executive role
MIAMI — Days after it was revealed that Miami Heat President Pat Riley had agreed last year on a five-year extension with the team, coach Erik Spoelstra on a podcast released Friday said he one day, well down the road, could envision moving into a Riley-type role.
Speaking on a Yahoo! podcast, Spoelstra was asked by long-time NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski about a potential future in leading a franchise.
“Short answer would be, I’m a Pat Riley disciple, and, like I’ve said, he’s always pushed me and nurtured me for the next steps,” Spoelstra said during the interview recorded in Southern California. “So, yes, that I’d love to have that opportunity years down the line from the Arison family, because I believe in them so much as human beings. They’re such good people and family oriented.”
But Spoelstra, 46, also said that he is comfortable in his current role under owner Micky Arison and Heat CEO Nick Arison, confirming that he already has a seat in all organizational meetings with Riley and General Manager Andy Elisburg.
“Pat, he’s going to go on, hopefully for a while,” Spoelstra said. “I think he’s younger now than he was when he was coaching. And he’s such a visionary. The way things are set up right now, look, Iwant this to be the set-up that it is right now.
“I feel involved. Every meeting that’s important, that deals with the organization and personnel, it’s usually just four of us that get in a room, Pat, Nick, Andy and myself. And if it really gets to a level, then Micky will. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I don’t feel like I need more right now.”
In an interview with ESPN theMagazine, Riley, 72, said he signed a fiveyear extension with the team a year ago that includes the option of overseeing the team from elsewhere than South Florida, with a home in the Los Angeles area, aswell.
Spoelstra stressed he is comfortable in his current role. He confirmed this past season that he, too, had received a contract extension.
“The value I want to bring right now is the culture of coaching and developing men and a team,” he said. “I want to bring value to the organization from this chair. And I have enough on my hands right now, that that’s all I’m thinking about. And I think it’s important to enjoy just this present moment of that, and not think about what’s ahead.
“My sister always says, ‘Focus on your own math,’ that I don’t have to be sped up because of other people are doing that. I can feel fine with this right now and be OK with it, because I do love it. I love the whole dynamic right now. I really do, truly hope this goes on like this, this dynamic for a long, long time.”
Spoelstra said the coaching staff continues to encourage players to visit with Riley, noting, “He always backs our voice and what the culture is.”
He quipped of players being nervous about such moments in Riley’s imposing executive suite alongside Biscayne Bay, “Maybe lighten up the shades so it doesn’t look like they’re going in there to see the Godfather.”
Spoelstra touched on several career-related topics during the podcast.
He said he felt it was important to get away from South Florida in the wake of missing the NBA playoffs by a tiebreaker, after pushing back from an 11-30 midseason record to a 41-41 finish. “You just have to be able to get out of town,” he said. “I think when you stay in town it’s tough to decompress.”
He said the Heat’s “culture” is more flexible than some appreciate, “We’ve tried to make it more contemporary to today’s athlete . . . we know it’s a constant evolution, because everybody is establishing theirs, aswell.”
He said he took pride in the job accomplished by former assistantDavid Fizdale as coach this season of theMemphis Grizzlies and said that he not only ordered a “Take That for Data” T-shirt after Fizdale’s postgame rant during the Grizzlies-San Antonio Spurs playoff series, but sent a photo to Fizdale of he and assistant coach Octavio De La Grana wearing the shirts.
He said he could envision current assistants Dan Craig, Juwan Howard and Chris Quinn eventually moving on as head coaches.
He termed one of his most prized possessions a letter he received from then-Heat coach Stan Van Gundy telling him that he could coach in the NBA.
He said Riley had hinted that Spoelstra would take over as coach prior to Spoelstra getting the job in 2008, admitting, “That would always make me feel like leaving the room and throwup.”
He said he relished the Heat’s first training camp with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in 2010 at an Air Force base in the Florida Panhandle, “I wish you could do a training camp that brutalizing every year. There’ll never be another training camp like that again.”
He said he recognized that he likely would not be an NBA player when he sized up a prospect he would overwhelm at the ABCD camp for high school prospects and then was overwhelmed by Bobby Hurley.