Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra looking to make a strong comeback next season: NBA Update
The head coach of the Miami Heat, Erik Spoelstra, who took his team to the NBA Finals last season in his very first year in charge, has finally broken his silence after being outdone by the Dallas Mavericks.
“Our journey is not done”, said the first ever Filipino-American basketball coach, who is currently touring his mother land (Philippines) for the NBA Fit program.
He admitted that last year’s journey was a tough task for him, both mentally and physically. It was great learning experience though for the 40 year old coach, who believes that his workload is similar to his previous job (assistant
coaching), but the expectations and stress are more than double.
“It was a transformational experience for all of us the entire season because we set a very lofty goal,” Spoelstra said. “And to try to do that in one season, those are incredible experience to go through the ups and downs, the
adversities and the learning opportunities that we had.”
He added, “Now we have to learn how to deal with the final result that we didn’t expect.”
As an assistant, Spoelstra led the Heat to three playoffs appearances and achieved 148 victories. In the preceding season, when he got promoted as a head coach and South Beach saw the arrival of LeBron James and Chris Bosh to accompany
Dwyane Wade, the Heat ended up with a 58-24 record in the regular season.
However, Miami blossomed into a whole new team in the playoffs. Prior to reaching the NBA Finals, Miami defeated Philadelphia 76ers and the big boys of the East, the Boston Celtics 4-1 in the first and second round respectively.
Then, the Heat crushed Derrick Rose and his Chicago Bulls in the conference finals with the similar margin.
They entered the Finals as the favourites against the Dallas Mavericks. However, the epic performances of Dirk Nowitzki and some below par effort from the Miami’s triple ripple let Spoelstra and the Heat down. However, Spoelstra
believes that the Finals heartbreak will help them grow as a team.
The coach has already started working on the future plans in spite of the lockout, as he wants his team to raise the bar and try to comeback even stronger than before, whenever the next season takes place.
Spoelstra, who worked for more than 12 hours a day when the Heat’s season was on, believes that to work that long one needs to stay fully fit. During a NBA fit program press meeting, Erik revealed his big secret to handle the pressure
that is “noise”.
With this program the NBA and Spoelstra are looking to educate more and more Filipino kids through sports and other healthy activities. Spoelstra along with his team will visit numerous camps during this week. They will also visit
Torres High School in Gagalingin St., Tondo Manila on Thursday and very next day go for NBA Fit Celebrity Challenge on Friday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Tags: