Tested by the Past, Erik Spoelstra Takes on Challenge of LeBron-Less Future
MIAMI — Erik Spoelstra always appreciated the unique nature of the opportunity, not just for someone with his unconventional beginnings, but for anyone. That was apparent from the official opening of the Big Three era and even several weeks later, just before Christmas 2010, when he was chatting casually on the court of the U.S. Airways Center after a comfortable victory against the Phoenix Suns.
By then, the Heat had recovered from a surprisingly rocky beginning and had begun to roll, with 13 victories in 14 outings, on their way to 21 of 22. By then, Spoelstra had already survived two flashpoints when, if he'd been in some other organization, he might have been relieved of his responsibilities for some perceived greater good: The first came as the Heat were recruiting LeBron James and Chris Bosh over the summer, the second after "Bumpgate" and reports of a player insurrection accompanied a 9-8 start.
And there would be plenty of controversies and supposed calamities to come, with failures in two NBA Finals sandwiching two championships. Still, through it all Spoelstra rarely appeared shaken, let alone stirred. That self-security seemed to stem from a simple, soothing realization that the former video coordinator shared that night in Phoenix: "The way I look at it, I'll be able to look back in 25 years and know that I coached this team."
When no one, anywhere, ever expected him to.
On the whole, over the course of four seasons and postseasons, he would coach that team quite well.
Of course, now he no longer coaches that team, not the one that polarized this country and countries beyond like few others in modern sports history. Yes, he still coaches the Heat; he's now in his seventh season in Miami, longer than all but one of his peers, Gregg Popovich, has been in a current coaching spot. But this is merely a basketball squad now, not a societal statement. It won't be leading SportsCenter anymore; the question is whether, at the end of this season, it can lead an improved Southeast Division, one that includes the playoff-tested Washington Wizards, who visit Miami on Wednesday night.
The stakes for Spoelstra are still high, even if the spotlight has dimmed, the outsized expectations have shrunk and the rows of reporters have receded after more than half the roster departed. Eight members of the 2014 Eastern Conference champions aren't around anymore. Two, LeBron James and James Jones, are in Cleveland. The other six aren't in the NBA anywhere, with two in China (Toney Douglas, Michael Beasley), one in legal trouble (Greg Oden), one working for ESPN (Shane Battier), one hoping to pass a future physical somewhere (Rashard Lewis) and one (Ray Allen) expected to leave his Miami house to return to the NBA somewhere at some point—maybe to the Cavaliers, but not to the Heat, at least not according to what he's long been telling his teammates of the past two seasons.
Spoelstra's still in South Florida, seemingly on even more solid ground, with his two closest confidantes (David Fizdale and Dan Craig) elevated to stronger positions on the coaching staff and Pat Riley involving him even more in the team's personnel process. Yet some of the skeptics also remain, those who missed his first two seasons, when he took underwhelming rosters to the playoffs, or dismissed his role in the past four NBA Finals trips, when he evolved as a strategist and psychologist in order to better accommodate his top-tier talent. Those who will always believe, contrary to all common sense, that coaches of talented teams need to do little but roll out the balls.
No one, anywhere, is saying he can do just that now.
And even his admirers, such as former NBA coach Doug Collins, are wondering how he will confront his current circumstances.
"The big thing for Erik now is he's got to find the best way for this particular team without LeBron to win basketball games," Collins said Monday, on an ESPN conference call. "It's going to be a different offense. It's going to be a different defense, and you've got a lot of different dynamics."
Spoelstra still doesn't like to make much about himself, which is why his begrudging participation in a recent front-page Sports Illustrated profile—penned by Lee Jenkins, the same writer to whom James dictated the "Coming Home" essay—was such a surprise. Instead, he habitually characterizes himself as just a cog in Miami's machine, an embodiment of the Heat's greater organizational philosophy. The tenets of continuity and stability are not only prized above all but are now vigorously promoted as the franchise tries not to slip into the same sort of abyss as Cleveland, and other sports franchises, after losing a megastar. The leftovers are calling themselves "Heat Lifers" now, as the standard-bearers for the "Heat Nation," with Riley stepping out of character to tout the current roster on website videos and Alonzo Mourning providing voiceovers for television commercials, telling fans of a team that "hangs banners" that it's "time to plant our flag."
"Well, the thing about it is you know with Miami, the blueprint is in place," Collins said. "You know, Pat Riley has been there, Erik Spoelstra has been there 20 years. They call it the Miami way. This is the way we do things."
It's a way meant to stand out even more in light of what Spoelstra has come to call the "microwave society." The coach has used that "Spo-ism" since the start of camp to explain how the NBA is beginning to resemble other enterprises, from the NFL or major corporations, with the constant turnover making it more difficult to create and sustain a culture.
"You put something together," Spoelstra lamented, "and you're not sure how long it will last."
By contrast, his own career was on a slow cooker, at least until Riley anointed the understudy as the replacement in 2008. Spoelstra has worked for the Heat since the summer of 1995 and Pat Riley for all but a month of that, and he has seen many remain in the organization for a similar length of time. He has acknowledged that in NBA team-building, such stability "doesn't guarantee you anything, but at least it gives you a head start."
With eight new players, including three rookies, two reclamation projects (Shawne Williams, Danny Granger) and a key piece who missed the entire preseason (Josh McRoberts), he'll now try to turn the league on its tail.
Is he excited by the prospect of surprising so many?
"It's really reinvigorated a lot of us, but it's not like going for three straight (championships) wasn't invigorating," Spoelstra said. "Come on. Let's not take it too far. It sounds good as a storyline and everything, but let's face it, that was electric. But yeah, you see potential with this team. I just don't know how long it's going to take to come together."
Even with Riley trying to preserve cap space for the blockbuster summer of 2016, when the market will be flush with free agents as well as television-related cash, it appears that he's given Spoelstra a few more tools than in his two seasons prior to the formation of the Big Three.
Then, the newbie head coach managed a 90-74 record.
In 2008-09, the Heat went 43-39 while trading their second-best player, Shawn Marion, at midseason for Jermaine O'Neal; relying heavily on rookies Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasley; and granting 21 starts apiece to Yakhouba Diawara and Jamario Moon. Even so, Spoelstra said it didn't take long to determine what that team could do, because Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem, both in their primes, provided a steady pulse.
"Dwyane was phenomenal, coming off of the Olympics," Spoelstra recalled. "Our main focus was to try to build a top-five defense, and offensively we would just figure it out, and if it was close enough in the fourth quarter, Dwyane would just take over and will us to a win. It was that simplified a process. And we really did have a defense that got stronger and stronger and stronger as the season went on. But he was sensational. Particularly in the fourth quarter, in those big moments."
Then came 2009-10, the bridge season to Riley's courtship of James and Bosh. Virtually everyone on the team, including Wade and Haslem, was on an expiring contract, which raised reasonable concerns about whether so many potential short-timers would commit to each other.
"In transition," Spoelstra recalled. "[We had] a lot of free agents, but a lot of competitive Type A personalities that didn't want to just mail in the season. So they also understood that we would have to do it together and not just play for your contract. It helped the type of guys that we had."
It is fairly remarkable in retrospect, especially considering that the immature Michael Beasley, benched in the final game of the first round, had been Miami's second-most reliable scorer throughout the season.
Wade, however, tired of carrying so much. That summer, he sacrificed so the Heat could welcome two new stars. You know the rest. And, certainly, Spoelstra knows more about coaching than he did then. Few coaches in history have ever been fed to hotter flames.
How much better prepared is he now, to put pieces together?
"Just being six years in that seat," Spoelstra said. "Because of the nature of our team the last four years, you're playing over 100 games, so many more experiences. You know, it's a long season, you have two months extra each year. That experience is invaluable."
To some, that would seem to put in him in an enviable position: greater experience, less pressure. He has appeared a bit more relaxed, along with the organization as a whole, and not just when he was taking smiling selfies with Riley and Fizdale on Corcovado Mountain during the preseason trip to Brazil. The burden of perfection has been lifted, at least from the outside.
"Nah, there's always pressure," Spoelstra said. "Every single one of us in this business. It's self-induced for everybody. It really is. Regardless of whether it's perceived that we're under the radar or not, no coach ever feels like you're getting a free pass. Not when you're in this seat."
Never fun?
"No," he said, smiling.
With a career record of 314-162, he still sees room for personal growth. You will get a concurring opinion from some of those who have played for him, even those who like him personally; when there's been grumbling about him professionally, it's generally been about communication breakdowns and has come from those with unsettled roles in the rotation. Spoelstra says he still wants to learn how to better manage teams and personalities, how to better build a culture, how to get everyone to buy into the same goal.
As the season starts, he appears to have some allies, starting with Wade, who may not be what he was but looks like he can be more, at least in terms of availability, than he was last season. They have had their spats, some private, some—such as in Indianapolis during the 2012 playoffs—quite public. Now, Spoelstra says they are "probably" closer than they've ever been, dating back to their initial collaboration in 2003, when Spoelstra was Wade's dedicated skills trainer.
"It literally is like a family," Spoelstra said. "We've been around each other for 12 years. I mean, you're gonna have everything. Exhilarating times, times where you are not on the same page, times where it's tough. But also, there's no textbook on it, because 99 percent of the coaches and players have never been together that long. That cycle usually changes every two or three years. It's different for us."
Even though they're in the same place. Still standing, while trying to move forward.
"Right, right," Spoelstra said. "We're the Heat Lifers. When you say that, it's like, 'Yeah, you are, too.'"
Wade is not only still at his side, but pulling more teammates aside. The 10-time All-Star hasn't typically embraced a vocal leadership role over the course of his previous 11 seasons, largely balking at babysitting the "Goof Troop" of Michael Beasley, Daequan Cook and a less mature Mario Chalmers during Spoelstra's first two seasons as head coach, then stepping even further back to allow the louder James to lead as the latter became increasingly comfortable in the Heat culture.
But several times this preseason, Wade's been spotted instructing between plays and on the bench, often with an arm around a player's shoulders.
"He's known that this team really needs it," Spoelstra said. "He's embraced it. And I think he's at a point in his career where he sees the impact of it, more than he ever has. It's really been powerful, how he's been leading so far."
Where they're going?
Nobody, from reporter to player to coach, really knows.
Which means, in 25 years, this too might be quite the tale to tell.
Ethan Skolnick covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @EthanJSkolnick.
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