Erik Spoelstra Biography

Erik Spoelstra graduated from the University of Portland and went over to Germany to be a play/coach in a German basketball league. When Spoelstra’s back injury no longer allowed him to play, he began coaching full time and was offered a position with the Miami Heat coaching staff. He joined the Heat in 1995 as a video coordinator and worked his way up the ranks of the coaching until he was named head coach in 2008 upon Pat Riley'’s departure. Spoelstra became the first Asian American to be named head coach in any of the four major professional sports leagues in North America. Spoelstra helped turn around an ailing Heat franchise that had just won the NBA Finals in 2006, by taking them to back to back playoffs in ’09 and ’10. In 2011, with the acquisition of free agents LeBron James and Chris Bosh, Spoelstra and the heat had enormous pressures on them as the “Big Three” were expected to be unstoppable. After a 9-8 start to the season, Spoelstra helped bring them together to take them to their first of 4 consecutive NBA Finals. The Heat lost the first Finals with the Big Three but went on to win them back to back in 2012 and 2013. Spoelstra became just the 3rd coach in NBA history to lead his team to 4 straight NBA Finals in a losing effort to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2014 NBA Finals. 

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