“For what? For what?” — Erik Spoelstra gets showered with water in the locker room and didn’t realize the team was celebrating him winning his 800th game
Miami stayed loyal to Spo
So glad he didn’t get fired after he lost the finals against the Mavericks.
Not one of his highlights. That season was rough. But he did well the following season and beyond that. My favorite year demonstrating his ability is when we were beating up on people with Dion Waiters and Wayne Ellington.
spo’s real works of art were the post-lebron teams. a trip to the finals in 2023 with that roster, I still have no idea how he pulled that out of the hat.
Jimmy Buckets
Only for one series. The rest, he was carried by the other guys. He was done after that Josh Hart incident.
2023 Eastern Conference MVP Caleb Martin
Jimmy’s ankle was fucked after g1 against the Knicks
Caleb Martin should have gotten ECF mvp
That 30-11 run after an 11-30 start to the 16-17 season was magical. Would’ve loved to have seen them get in the playoffs. Could’ve messed around and pulled an upset vs Boston lol
You just made me wish the play in existed back then
I like to imagine that the Heat that season were a heavy inspiration for the NBA to finally implement that lol
The Heat that season and various Western conference teams over the years as well. The 13-14 Suns were a 9 seed and missed the playoffs by 1 game for example as a 48 win team.
Bubble Suns though.
The Heat Dion Waiters era was a very interesting ride. I still remember him destroying us in Chase Center in a game where D Wade hit the game winning 3 in a wild ending sequence to the game.
That year was not on him. He put his players in every position to win that series but they didnt execute. Thats all you can ask of a coach.
Pat Riley was never gonna let that happen, even with Big Bron in the building. That man firmly stands his ground.
Riley allegedly told a player “I’ll trade you before I fire him!”
Not gonna lie, you could never convince me Riley and/or Spo ever get involved in any shady stuff.
He told prime LeBron that. To his face lol, idk what Spo and Riley got going on but Spo has a job secured till the day Pat breathes his last breath.
And even beyond. Man is the team at this point
“Spo Must Go” was the ESPN motto for like six fucking months
Not hard. SPO might be the best coach of the past decade. It’s the same thing every year. Just like this year. You expect the heat to be terrible, and somehow they are really good. The heat must be a top 5 team of the past decade despite everyone thinking they’ll be at best a playin team every year
Edit: maybe a top 10 team of the past decade is more reasonable.
8th in regular season wins for last 10 years - https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/nba-most-wins-last-10-years
6th in playoff wins - https://www.statmuse.com/ask?query=nba+most+playoff+wins+last+10+years&preferred_domain=nba&direct=true&l=&t=1764225558610
Kind of wild how much higher the Warriors and Celtics are than the rest of the league on that second list.
I am pretty sure the those teams had way more talent than the Heat.
Spo does more with much less talent.
He took a 5th and 8th seed to the finals.
2 finals runs.
He took a 2016–17 Heat team, led by Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters, from a garbage 11–30 half of the season (last place) to a 41–41 finish. That is coaching.
A more of an accurate is to look at the yearly GM survey for the past 10 years.
Especially the Celtics with only two finals runs in that stretch
We underchieved. You’d expect a team to have won multiple titles with our playoff record. That’s why our title run was such a “FINALLY!” feeling.
Imagine if Riley went with what lebron wanted
What was that?
For spo to get fired
The divorce deal was good lookin out
Crazy a guy from the video room did all that!
Miami isn’t going to do better than Spo. Miami doesn’t like to pay big contracts and Spo gets the most out of his talent. It’s a win win for both.
I’m pretty sure Spo is the highest paid coach rn or close to it. He sighed a $120M contract for 10 year or something like that.
I feel the obligatory hate for him but he’s hard not to like
Spo is the coolest man. Still hate that his house got burned down.
So does he just not age or…
My buddy who is also Asian American swears they don’t age after 30 then it hits them like a truck in their 60s
I’m Filipino and my parents are both in their 50s and have somewhat looked the same since they were 30
As a hapa with a Filipino mother, this checks out
It’s funny you say that, because I have a Filipino friend who’s 22 and he looks like a worn leather boot
Manny Crackiao
Probably doesn’t use sunscreen
too much smoking and alcohol
If he works a trade that requires being under Philippine heat all day that checks out.
Are you sure he’s not pulling a Benjamin Button?
Not enough balut
We always talk about how my Korean mom has looked the same since I was a kid, but any year now her hair is gonna transform into a perm overnight and she’ll shrink a foot lol.
It’s insane how much Asians shrink in old age lol. My great grandma kept commenting on how big I was getting long after I stopped growing bc she was losing an inch a year
Yup Filipino here: I’m about to turn 30 in January and people still think I’m 18 lol
Anime making more sense now, ty
There’s an old meme about this someone should link
There was a study that we’re aging dramatically in waves. 44 then 60. The study is limited after 75 since that’s the oldest age of the participant.
Speaking as a guy about to hit his mid-forties: thanks for the heads-up.
EDIT: wait, so what you’re saying is that science predicts that this fuckery really won’t go on for much longer?
Yea somewhere 60-70 is where the aging happens. I see it in so many of my relatives.
Came from r/all. Only clicked wondering who the fuck was that hot man.
Coach Spo, apologies. I did not know your game.
As someone whos part Filipino, my grandfather looks 50 at 70. Aging is optional.
He drinks the souls of babies
black don’t crack, asian don’t raisin, white flights
Half-Filipino genetics are the real ‘Heat Culture’ secret weapon. It’s the closest thing to Benjamin Button we have in the league.
Asian don’t raisin
1 time he aged.
Here’s 55 and looks it, not sure what you mean lol. It’s not like he’s 70
Give him the COTY. Enough is enough.
Travesty that he’s never won it
He’s like Martin Scorsese. When he wins, it’ll be akin to a career achievement award as it did for Scorsese at the Oscars.
He win 30 games one year and they will give him Coty as a career achievement 🤣
aka the Kobe MVP
Up there with Timmy not winning a DPOY, maybe even worse. He’s in the convo for top 5 coach of all time.
That’s kind of a good thing. Coach of the year winners usually get fired
You mean the Unexpectedly High Win Total Award?
His house burned down earlier this month, and the Heat went out and won a back-to-back right after that with Bam and Herro out. What else does this man need to do?
So you want him to get fired?
petition to change the name to SPOTY
the COTY is basically “who outperformed expectations” anyway. and spo is the epitome of it
The funny thing is if he got fired and hired by a new team he’d probably win it as that award is always a narrative award about a new coach elevating a team. But since spo has been in Miami for so long the media just forgets about him
Ffs Monty Williams was COTY
If Presti finally won EOTY, Spo should win COTY too
Long time coming
I think Spoelstra has a legit shot at breaking the all-time coaching wins record set by Pop. It’s hard to believe, but Doc Rivers is the active head coach that’s closest to Pop’s record.
I feel like the only ways he wouldn’t are new ownership or he retires young. Couldn’t see them ever firing him or him leaving.
pat riley would write spoelstra into the team’s charter before letting another ownership fire him
Yeah I think Riley would have to be in the dirt and Zo would have to be fired for this to even be up for consideration.
In Miami we run our basketball team like a mafia
Spo could possibly take over control of basketball operations for the Heat before he gets there but that is too far away to think about now.
Yea and give the reigns to Chris Quinn who I’m shocked hasn’t gotten a head coaching job yet.
I actually wonder if they’ve already promised Quinn the spot for whenever Spo moves up to the front office, even if its a long time from now. This organization values the hell out of continuity.
Yea guess so because he’s been considered the best assistant coach or associate head coach in the league for a long time even when Jordan Ott, Mike Brown, Kenny Atkinson, Ime, etc were still assistants. He turned down Cleveland, turned down Charlotte, turned down Houston, turned down Toronto, idk if he was considered for the Lakers job, but the list goes on. There was definitely a hand shake deal between him, Zo, Pat, and Spo that he’ll be next in line.
Spurs could have followed that same path but they essentially messed that up with Pop. They had a young Will, Ime, Becky, and Taylor Jenkins; and Pop couldn’t decide who would be the next in line so they all just left.
i truly think this is what’s gonna happen
when pat moves on, spo is going upstairs and quinn is gonna take over. there’s absolutely a handshake deal behind the scenes for this
Eh idk if that’s the only way. Hes got a legit shot but he’s already 55. If he retires at 65 I wouldn’t say that’s exactly early and that’d mean he have to average 54 wins.
Don Nelson was 80 when he retired from coaching
Phil Jackson was 65
Lenny wilkens was 68
Jerry Sloan was 68
Greg popovich was 76
Larry brown was 82
Rick Adelman was 67
Pat Riley was 63
George Karl was 62
That’s 9 of the 10 most winningest coaches in history and their average age of retirement is 70 years old
He also has the 9th highest win percentage of any coach who’s at least coached 1000 games
And has only coached for 18 seasons, out of the top 10 coaches with the most wins they average 27 seasons coaching with the top 5 averaging 29 seasons
The only 2 active coaches with more wins are Rick Carlisle and doc Rivers who are 66 and 64 respectively
Eric Spoelstra is 55 if he coaches until he’s 70 like the other top 10 coaches he only has to win 39 games a season of course if he only plays 12 more seasons to get to the average of the top 5 coaches he needs 48 wins a season.
So it isn’t out of the realm of possibility and by the time he’s doc Rivers age he should have about 100 more wins than rivers currently has
Or he ends up like Brad Stevens
He will certainly ascend into the GM role whenever he wants. He is the next Pat Riley.
it’s pretty far from guaranteed as spo’s still got 612 wins to go and he’s 55. if he averages 41 wins a year, as NBA coaches tend to do, he’d need 15 more seasons coaching and would have to retire in his 70s, an age only two other head coaches have ever reached.
If he keeps his current pace of 46/year, he would only have to coach until he’s 69 and be one of the five oldest coaches ever.
Spo could probably do it, but idk if he’ll want to, and it’s really not a matter of him just not retiring early—Pop actually won a lot. and I think only stayed so long cause the spurs sort of became his family after his wife died. being a head coach is a lot of stress for an old man.
Tbh he lost his house and just got divorced. Dude seems absolutely fine doing this for a decade+
There would be an actual riot if a new ownership ever DREAMS of it. He’s also too basketball addicted
He’s a good enough coach to do it, might come down to weighing up if he wants to spend more time with family as he gets older
Like Pop, he’s also a coach willing to change systems to keep up with the times and changing personnel.
Yup, good coaches know how to adapt. An underrated one in the league is Rick Carlisle. A huge reason why the Pacers were as good as they were last year is because that is a team that is well coached in their system.
But Vin Diesel infamously said family is nothing.
spo is also only 55
he could realistically coach another two decades.
Doc Rivers been coaching since I was in diapers so I’m not surprised. And was also the coach of the Celtics Big 3 and Lob City Clippers
Just needs a decade at this current pace
“Only” 536 behind popovich. Given spo is only 55 I think he’s got a real shot at it if he wants to coach till like 65-70
I think he moves into the front office role before that happens unfortunately
He just doesn’t like a front office type to me, atleast not right now. He just said he loves what he does in the post game presser
Seems like a real basketball addict kind of guy to me, I think he might just stay as a coach
Don’t worry, Pat Riley got that taken care of. He’s going to live to 120.
Nah I think he has absolutely zero desire for that. He’s also so young. Think he coaches then retires happily into the sunset while holding little kid camps
For some reason I’m surprised he’s already 55 despite him having been a head coach for 17 years already. Dude looks great for 55.
F, Pop won a lot of games.
Honestly he looks pretty good for 40, unreal for 55.
He’s 55? He look like he’s barely 40.
36 wins a season over 15 years and he’s got it. He’s got a legit shot as long as he wants to keep coaching. Also, that number just shows how great and consistent Pop was.
11 years if he keeps the current pace.
He’d get it within a decade atm
I would be very interested to see what kind of contract Spo could get if he was in the open market. Hands down the best coach in the league.
I bet $25 million/year.
so, what do you want? kind of contract
Thats basically the deal Riley got when he came to Miami
Butera met with Arison in Long Beach, Calif., on one of Arison’s cruise ships. “What does he want?” Arison asked. “He wants $50 million for 10 years,” Butera said. Arison laughed. No N.B.A. coach, not even Riley, was making $3 million a year, let alone $5 million. “What does he really want?” Arison asked. Butera reiterated his stance. Riley, already the highest-paid coach in the sport at $1.5 million a season, wanted $50 million over 10 years to run the show for Arison in Miami. Arison sat still for a moment. The asking price was a small fortune. But paying it — and getting perhaps the best coach in basketball to take over a listless organization — could prove worthwhile if Riley turned the Heat into a winner. “OK,” Arison said. “What else does he want to get this done?” Butera and Riley soon compiled a list of asks in a four-page, 14-point memo. Riley wanted an immediate 10 percent ownership of the team and another 10 percent share over the course of his deal. He also wanted Arison to loan him money to pay taxes on the initial 10 percent stake. He also wanted complete control over Miami’s basketball operations, and to be named the team president. Riley wanted Arison to purchase his sprawling homes near Los Angeles and New York City. He wanted a limo service to and from games in Miami. He wanted credit cards and a $300 per diem. Butera took a copy of the memo to Arison at a bar at Los Angeles International Airport on June 5. Arison’s eyes narrowed when he saw the per diem. “He couldn’t understand how someone getting a deal worth tens of millions would ask for such a nickel-and-dime sort of thing,” Butera recalled. “But that’s just how Pat is.”
Spoelstra is the best nba coach of all time. That’s just my opinion, but I believe it to my core lol
If he had beaten San Antonio for the threepeat in 2014 I would agree. But that Spurs team just happened to be the best coached team of all time…
Username checks out (I also agree, that 2014 Spurs team was fucking magical).
No love for Carlisle?
Hes an easy number 2, but Spo wins out.
What about Diagonal-t ?
Probably needs to be tested more. Spo and Carlisle have been gone thru the trenches and back
What is your reason for him over Spo
The guy went 12 seasons without winning a playoff series and people want to put him back into best coach discussion after 2 good seasons? He’s a great coach but lets be real.
Shit is so stupid
Brother what?? 🤣🤣🤣 they are not in the same realm.
best coach in the league.
as a saint louis lebron fan, i wanted him to stay with spo. there were dark times with coaching over his career. i think that redick has the spo mentaility in a lot of ways tho.
I remember when he got hired and people said he was just a Yes Man for the Big 3. Turns out Spo is a great coach, good on him
A yes man to the big 3 in 08?
Because Spo replaced Pat Riley in 08 🤔
I mean relative to Pat Riley he probably was low key because he did, at times, say yes to player requests.
pat famously told an unnamed star player during the big-3 era that they’d be traded before spo got fired.
He was slaving in those janitor closets they call video coordinators offices. He was going to turn out fine
I remember some of the talking heads at ESPN pushing the narrative that Pat Riley was going to return to coach the Heat.
SPO is the GOAT and i don’t wanna hear otherwise.
nobody has done more with less.
he ushered in the small ball era
he’s dragged so many fucking mediocre teams to deep playoff runs.
I think thats thw big thing. Ppl still feel LeBron made Spo but Spo has taken teams who had no business in the finals to the finals and, unlike Thibs, he doesnt have a rep for running down players or not keeping them healthy.
Idk ppl fail to recognize him…dude needs that COTY trophy already. Its absolute BS he doesnt have it and Im not even a miami fan.
That last part is the thing. I’ve seen great coaches get teams into playoffs in all sports even if they don’t belong.
Ive seen great coaches have great seasons even win championships with teams that don’t belong.
I’ve never seen someone do it so many times with players that do not look the same after leaving the Miami heat. No coach brings out the best out of his players like spo does
Spo could take a rec league to the play in after figuring out your cousin AJ can turn into a 46 percent three point shooter if he just laid off the weed and did some cardio
I think Dantoni ushered in the small ball era.
I love spo
Miami, sans a major injury to their stars will end up with a strong season and will give the East hell.
currently the 4th highest scoring offense in league history. (it won’t stick, i know)
sustainable? maybe not. but spo is cooking. also, a top-3 defense
Seasons just starting too. The system will be refined and adjusted. It will probably look different after all star break.
Top 3 coach of my lifetime and might be the best if we throw pure accomplishments out the window realistically. The leagues never seen a guy do more with less at such a high level.
Just another day on the job for Spo. COTY that man already!
“Ok Kimi we now have 5 second time penalty that we will serve after the race”
“FOR WHAT?!?”
[deleted]
For F1 fans, every time we hear “for what”, we get flashbacks to Kimi’s radio.
“For what” Man knew exactly why. He just wanted to hear it
He actually didnt know imo. Dude’s so locked in caused the team didnt play the best game.
Why is the Miami locker room like the backroom of a jewellery store when they hide the good stuff for private auctions and host illegal poker games
It’s honestly really cool when you get the full panaromanic. And it’s been like that for decades. Plus players keep their lockers and they got the Lakers thing where you get to see what players of the past had yours.
Like they gave Powell Wade’s for example
I’m a Knicks fan but I have to admit I like the vibes in Miami
Super fuckin cool Miami!!!!!!
Miami championship event contracts are like .02 and I bought a lot at .01 and .02. Their value will go up a lot long before the finals.
Rivalry aside, I’m genuinely happy for Spoelstra. Fantastic coach with an amazing story & tenure.
Spo definitely a HOF caliber coach for what he was able to accomplish with lesser talent give this man the COTY award
Oh. He is definitely going into the HOF.
as a west coast guy learning more about spoelstra has been pretty great.
For eating a succulent Chinese meal?
Spo is a helluva coach
Is that you Floyd?
Salute 🫡
When you win so much you don’t even know you won 800 games 😂👍🏼
Spo will easily go down as one of the best NBA coaches to ever coach the game.
Considering he just lost his entire home a week ago, I could imagine that he wasn’t paying attention to his career win-loss record.
Good on the players to make a moment of this. Sometimes you need to be reminded you’re pretty fucking good at something.
r/AccidentalShawshank
I took the bait
Not the point but that is a great looking locker room.
Wholesome
Damn I love Spo. I wish we had him so we could break his spirit and fire him after 2 years
The thumbnail looks like a corny 90s sports movie poster.
I love my coach. We are so lucky to have him coaching the Heat
The janitor: 😐
That’s my fucking Spoach. God we’re blessed. (Team sure looks like they’re having a great time huh?) 🥲
Why is he running in like the Ultimate Warrior.
The man is a living legend who deserves every bit of that celebration and finally getting that COTY trophy.
Spo is a legend.
The SPOTY
Love this for him
My coach would know.
Him: ‘yay we are happy, haha’ .. “for what??”
I’d run through a wall for Spo. So happy for him
For what???
Herro really lookin like Eleven out there
this man is my next Popovich
Put this video at the beginning of a leadership training camp.
“Be this guy”
We have our joy back
What is the charge!?
Love to see it
What a wholesome moment