MIAMI — For Erik Spoelstra, it almost always has been about living in the moment, be it a mundane game against a shorthanded opponent on the eve of Thanksgiving or a devastating loss to end a playoff series that triggered an offseason of introspection.
So when doused by water bottles in the Heat locker room immediately after Wednesday night’s 106-103 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat coach considered the moment, with the victory lifting his team to 3-1 in the NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I was like very confused,” Spoelstra admitted afterward. “I was calculating that maybe we’ve qualified for the Cup. Then I’m looking around, like nobody else is getting water dumped on them, and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, what’s going on here?’ ”
No, whether the Heat advance to the knockout stage of the NBA Cup for the first time won’t be determined until other results play out around the league on Friday night.
This was about a milestone realized by only 16 other NBA coaches, a pantheon that includes names such as Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson and current Heat boss Pat Riley — Spoelstra’s 800th career regular-season coaching victory.
Now on the job for 18 seasons, all with the Heat, it is a number large enough that it needed to be digested ahead of Thursday’s holiday spread.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It hasn’t sunk in yet, because I wasn’t aware of it,” Spoelstra said in the moment, a moment his team extended its winning streak to six and settled in for two days off with a 13-6 record, before returning to action Saturday against the Detroit Pistons, the third game of this four-game homestand. “But yeah, I guess it’s fitting that it comes on the eve of Thanksgiving.
“Like, I just feel incredible gratitude for this organization and all of these years, where the years are going by so fast. I’m having a hell of a time. I love what I do, I love coaching, I love this profession, I love working for this organization, I love working for, and with, amazing players and staff, like we have — too many to count over the years.”
To appreciate that bond is to appreciate the resolve of making it work to these heights in the wake of ending last season with the most lopsided playoff-series loss in NBA history, one punctuated by a 138-83 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 28.
“We have an incredible bond, our coaching staff, right now,” Spoelstra said. “It’s just so much fun. After that loss, the playoff-series loss against Cleveland, we all took a bunch of time off, and then we got to work. And it was one of the more gratifying summers, just really buckling down and trying to figure out how we can be better.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“But it really is like a brotherhood, our coaching staff. And then the players, it’s just a fun locker room, a very ambitious locker room. Our coaching staff, we want to be our best to be able to meet that ambition and hopefully exceed their ambitions. But I’m grateful.”
As are his players.
“It’s huge,” guard Tyler Herro said of Spoelstra’s milestone, after powering the Heat past the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Bucks. “I’m trying to think of how old I was when Spo probably got his first one. And then to be where he is now — he’s got 800 of them — is insane.
“So it’s great to be a part of a great organization who’s historically been at the top.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHerro was 8 when Spoelstra’s won his first game as an NBA coach, on Oct. 31, 2008, a 103-77 decision over the Sacramento Kings, a game that included the eclectic Heat likes of Marcus Banks, Mark Blount and Yakhouba Diawara.
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From there, Spoelstra set his way to Wednesday’s 800th win and eventually, soon enough, the Hall of Fame.
That had Herro thankful for the opportunity to work first for John Calipari at Kentucky and now, these past seven seasons, under Spoelstra.
“For me, as a player, to be coached by one of the best coaches ever, at the college level and then obviously now at the NBA level, I soak it all in,” Herro said. “It’s just a great opportunity and experience for myself to be coached by Spo and then obviously Coach Cal before that.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo, no, not a finish line for Spoelstra, 55, in fact, already prepared for the chase to No. 900.
“I’ve said it a few times,” Spoelstra said, “but when Pat told me that I was going to be the head coach, he said I was going to blink and it would be 10 years that would go by, and now there’s quite a few more years that have gone by. But, yeah, that’s what I’m feeling. I’m feeling great gratitude heading into Thanksgiving.”
NBA coaching wins1. Gregg Popovich, 1390
2. Don Nelson, 1335
3. Lenny Wilkens, 1332
4. Jerry Sloan, 1221
5. Pat Riley, 1210
6. George Karl, 1175
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement7. Doc Rivers*, 1170
8. Phil Jackson, 1155
9. Larry Brown, 1098
10. Rick Adelman, 1042
11. Rick Carlisle*, 995
12. Bill Fitch, 944
13. Red Auerbach, 938
14. Dick Motta, 935
15. Jack Ramsay, 864
16. Cotton Fitzsimmons, 832
17. Erik Spoelstra*, 800
* – active.
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