Spoelstra talks favorites, Tiger King

No, not LeBron James. Not Dwyane Wade. Not Chris Bosh.

Erik Spoelstra has guided a significant amount of Hall of Fame talent during his 12-year tenure as coach of the Miami Heat, but asked to name the favorite player he has coached, Spoelstra kept it current, albeit with a player no longer in his rotation.

Appearing amid this NBA shutdown on ESPN’s #oneteam Speaker Series, Spoelstra was asked, “Who was your favorite Miami Heat player that you coached?”

“You guys are going to put me on the spot like that?” Spoelstra quipped to host Adrian Wojnarowski. “Obviously, I’ve been very fortunate to be able to work for a Hall of Famer, to be able to coach a lot of Hall of Famers.”

The initial reference was to Heat president Pat Riley, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, with Ray

Allen among those Spoelstra has worked with who also are in the Hall.

“But my favorite Miami Heat player is not a Hall of Famer, but he’s a Miami Heat hall of famer, and his numbers will go up in the rafters as soon as he’s done. And he was the player when we won our championship against Oklahoma City [in 2012], he was the one that dumped the Gatorade bucket on me. And that was Udonis Haslem. And he is Mr. Miami,” Spoelstra said about the power forward.

Haslem joined the Heat in 2003-04, when Spoelstra was an assistant to Stan Van

Gundy. Spoelstra then took over as Heat coach in 2008-09, when Haslem was a primary rotation player.

“We’ve been through everything together,” Spoelstra said. “So my first year as an assistant coach was his rookie year. We kind of grew up in this business together. But I love his story. He’s from Liberty City, right here in Miami’s backyard. And he was able to find a different path.

“He was not drafted and played four years at Florida, All-American, but had to go

overseas to play and had to earn a nonguaranteed contract with us.

“And 17 short years later, he is our all-time leading rebounder. He’s as tough as they come.”

Haslem has appeared in only three games, for a total of 21 minutes, this season, primarily in a mentorship role in recent years.

Haslem has been particularly active in the community amid the COVID-19 breakout.

“He’s got such a giving heart,” Spoelstra said. “His purpose really is to give back to the Miami communities where he’s from. I love him.”

Spoelstra spoke on the video chat from his Miami home, with the NBA shuttered since March 11 because of the new coronavirus pandemic.

The question-and-answer session included a discussion of how the 49-year-old father of two is spending his time, including arriving late to the game for what has emerged as Netflix’s ultimate shelter-at-home offering.

“It took me literally a month, no, three weeks into the quarantine, and I had to ask our coaching staff, in one of our Zoom sessions, I was like, ‘What is this Tiger King thing?’ ” Spoelstra said with a smile. “I didn’t know what this was. Seen about it, hearing about it, and I didn’t know what it was.

“So finally I told, Nikki, my wife, that we had to watch it.”

Spoelstra