Filipino American coach beat the odds by bringing the Miami Heat to the NBA finals

WIKI COMMONS

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is trying to win his third NBA championship.

Erik Spoelstra's Miami Heat lost Game 1 last night to the Denver Nuggets for the National Basketball League championship.

Being the underdog is not a new role for the the Filipino American coach. He guided the Heat to the NBA finals as underdogs against  the Western Conference Champion Denver Nuggets in a best of seven series. 

Once again, the oddsmakers have the Heat as underdogs. The Nuggets vs. Heat money line: Heat +310, Nuggets -400. Spoelstra and the Heat are used to beating the odds during the playoffs.

To say the Heat's road to the finals has been a rough one would be an understatement. Coming into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Heat were expected to lose in every contest. They upset the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, followed by stunning victories over the New York Knicks and No. 2 seed Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference championships

Spoelstra, 52, is no stranger to the limelight. It will be the third time he's reached the pinnacle of the NBA. He is reportedly the first Asian American head coach in the history of the four major sports leagues in North America and also the first Asian American head coach to win an NBA championship, not once, but twice: in 2012 and 2013.

Those championship teams in the last decade had elite Hall of Fame-bound players Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch.

In 2020, the last time Spoelsra took a team to the finals, the Heat lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, who were led by James and Anthony Davis, 4-2.

Players' coach

As the No. 8 seed, you have to give Spoelstra some credit for the Heat's success during the playoffs. He was able to utilize the players that he had.

Despite not having significant players like Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo in the lineup, Spoelstra's intelligence as a coach was on full display against the Bucks. It also helps to have Jimmy Butler on his team. Spoelstra maximized Butler's efforts when he gave his trust to his All-Star to take charge and play his own brand of basketball in Game 4 against the heavily favored Bucks.

Butler responded with 56 points, 21 in the fourth quarter alone.

Spoelstra praised his star player, Butler is"highly intelligent. He's one of the most intelligent basketball players in this association. You can't do what he does on both ends of the court just by running around and trying to figure things out. He understands what we're trying to do and he understands what they're trying to do."

With Spoelstra guiding the Heat, the team has maintained the fifth-highest regular season winning percentage in the NBA and claimed the fourth-best postseason winning percentage.

According to his profile on the official NBA website, he graduated from the University of Portland with a degree in communications in 1992 where he was the starting point guard for four years. During his stay in the university, he was also named West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year in 1989.

He then became a player-coach for Tus Herten, a professional sports team in Germany for two years.

In 1995, he joined the Miami Heat as a video coordinator and climbed the ranks for 13 years working as an advance scout, director of scouting and assistant coach until he was appointed as head coach in 2008.

Filipino pride

Spoelstra, said to be the "Heart of the Heat," was born and raised in the US. He is the son of Elisa Celino, a Filipina from San Pablo, Laguna and Jon Spoelstra, a Dutch-Irish-American who worked as an NBA executive for different teams.

He has visited the Philippines several times to conduct basketball clinics and visit family which were emotional reunions.

"Both trips were transformational — truly life changing. I was born and raised in the US, and even though I visited the Philippines when I was a kid, I’ve always wanted a stronger connection with the culture and my family living there,” he said.

“The trips have given me an opportunity to combine the three great passions of my life, which are family, basketball, and heritage,” he added.

Spoelstra will have his hands full searching for an adjustment to slow down Denver's potent offense led by center Nikola Jokic and guard Jamal Murray.

“You don’t expect it to be easy when you get to this final round,” Spoelstra said. “This is a great challenge. It’s going to require more. We will get to work and see what we can do better, what we can do harder, what we can do with more effort, what we can do with more focus.”

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