First Fil-Am Head Coach of an NBA Basketball Team

For new Heat coach, it's full speed ahead

Erik Spoelstra has approached each NBA job along his path to becoming the Heat's head coach with devotion and focus.

BY SARAH ROTHSCHILD and MICHAEL WALLACE
Miami Herald

Forgive new Heat coach Erik Spoelstra for being naive enough to dismiss his first week on the job as just another typical few days of hard work. He doesn't know any different.

His phone didn't stop ringing. His inbox kept filling. Interview requests and media demands never ceased. Meetings with his assistants or boss Pat Riley and the Heat brass that started over breakfast often didn't end until just before dinnertime. He had a cross-country flight and got next to no sleep.

But that schedule is typical. Whether it was taking 30,000 shots in a summer to improve as a player for the Jesuit High team in Portland, Ore., or splicing together film vignettes for Riley until the wee hours, Spoelstra, 37, has devoted himself to that task.

It is just his nature -- and what many believe will make up for his lack of head coaching experience.

''He will be the lowest-paid coach per hour in the NBA. He will put in a ton of hours,'' said former Portland Trail Blazers guard Larry Steele, Spoelstra's coach at the University of Portland. ``I'm pretty safe in saying that.''

RELENTLESS

In many ways, plenty has changed about Spoelstra's life since this basketball lifer took over for Riley on Monday to become the youngest head coach in the NBA. But in many other ways, nothing has changed. He knows only one pace. Relentless.

Riley stepped aside Monday, choosing to focus on his duties as club president, and handed Spoelstra a team coming off a 15-67 season -- last-place in the NBA and tied for the worst record in franchise history. Spoelstra, who is of Filipino, Irish and Dutch descent, moves to the head coach's suite after 13 years of doing everything from video coordinator to assistant coach and scouting director.

Spoelstra began playing organized basketball in the fifth grade, but he was practically born into the NBA life. His father was an NBA executive for the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets and New Jersey Nets, and Spoelstra was groomed by a Hall of Famer in Riley. But those who know ''Spo'' insist he's his own man.

''You hear about these Hollywood agents who worked their way up from the mail room in the William-Morris Agency to become agent to the stars,'' said Chris Wallace, who hired Spoelstra in 1995 while serving as the Heat's director of player development.

``Well, Erik came from the film rooms in the bowels of the arena, cutting tape until 3 or 4 in the morning. He'd stay up all night and then rush the film over to the airport to get them on flights to where the team was. He paid his dues. He has created a reputation for himself.''

SLEEP OPTIONAL

Spoelstra downplays his work habits, saying he is not always the first person in the office. But pressed further, he conceded that Starbucks usually is not open when he arrives for work at AmericanAirlines Arena.

He's a self-described ''early morning guy.'' But he's really an around-the-clock guy.

''That's my comfort level for better or worse,'' Spoelstra said Thursday in a phone interview from Portland, where he has been since Wednesday night visiting friends and family.

Heat guard Chris Quinn described Spoelstra as a ''workaholic,'' adding, ``I don't know how much sleep he gets during the season.''

Spoelstra, a bachelor, has been known to sleep on a cot at the office a few nights a week, a routine formed during countless hours in ''The Cave'' as the Heat's video coordinator. ''There was no promise that where he started in the film room was going to lead to anything,'' said Wallace, who is now the Memphis Grizzlies' general manager.

Only a few months after being hired in 1995, Spoelstra worried he would be out of a job. Riley had arrived from the New York Knicks and wanted to bring his own staff. Riley couldn't, so he went into '' The Cave'' and asked Spoelstra whether he could handle the job. Spoelstra said yes.

It didn't take long for Spoelstra to rise from caveman to coaching confidant to assistant coach to Riley's heir.

''I didn't know his name for three years,'' Riley said.

But Spoelstra made it impossible for Riley to ignore him.

''You could feel him, his presence and his contributions,'' Riley said. ``We put him through the test -- you do that with people who work for you. You keep giving them tasks and find out how they do it. Most importantly, you find out if they want to do it and what's their attitude like. He always got it done. Those are the guys you gravitate toward.''

FILM WIZARD

Heat owner Micky Arison did not know Spoelstra well until meeting with him last week, during a job interview of sorts. He had known Spoelstra as the guy who had ``done a lot of great Christmas videos.''

One of Spoelstra's jobs was to make 10-minute videos to liven up the team's annual holiday party. Riley described them as humorous sketches that could be seen on MADtv. They poked fun at players and staff.

''He's as qualified to be a television producer as a head coach,'' Riley said.

The more serious side of Spoelstra's job allowed him to work individually with players. Four-time All-Star guard Dwyane Wade credits Spoelstra for helping him develop a complete game, which Wade said he lacked a few years ago.

Spoelstra will push anyone. A few weeks ago before a game, he ran drills on the court with Alonzo Mourning's son, Trey, a Heat ball boy.

''He was always willing to help me,'' said Quinn, a second-year guard, who went undrafted out of Notre Dame. ``He would come early to practice, stay after and when I wasn't playing as much in games he would give me a good workout on game day.''

DIFFICULT CHOICE

Working tirelessly always has been Spoelstra's style. It's how he ended up with a Division I scholarship, even though he was hardly a prized recruit. Spoelstra started four years at point guard for Portland, was named freshman of the year in the West Coast Conference and earned all-conference awards thereafter.

Spoelstra said he realized he didn't have a long-term future playing, so after graduating from college in 1992, he went to Germany as a player and coach for a professional team. Two years later, he interviewed with the Heat and got a job offer. Spoelstra decided he needed a few days to think -- go back to Germany or work in the NBA and take a pay cut?

Jon Spoelstra told his son that whatever decision he made would be ``the right decision -- but once you make that decision, never look back.''

Spoelstra told his father he would go back to Germany. But when Spoelstra told his older sister, Monica, she set him straight.

'She said, `What, are you crazy?' '' Jon Spoelstra recalled. ' `This is an NBA job, and just because Dad works in the NBA doesn't mean it's an easy job to get.' ''

PRACTICE PAYS

Spoelstra had just wanted to continue being involved with basketball, the game his father exposed him to when he was growing up in Portland. Spoelstra attended all of the Trail Blazers' home games and went to practices and summer camps.

He was the kind of guy who would read books and watch instructional videos in the basement of his parents' home, hitting rewind over and over to study the proper technique. Said Jon Spoelstra, ``He probably wore out a couple VCRs.''

As long as the kid improved, he was happy.

Through Chris Wallace, who got his first NBA job from Jon Spoelstra with the Trail Blazers, Erik Spoelstra received an invitation to play at the Nike All-American camp when he was at Jesuit High.

The hitch?

'I remember telling Erik, `You're out in Oregon and I don't know how much you know about Alonzo Mourning, but he's supposed to be the next big thing in basketball,' '' said Wallace, who put together the teams. ``A lot of people are going to come and watch those games to see him play, so they'll see you. Don't get carried away with yourself. Just take one or two shots a game and throw the ball into Alonzo.''

Spoelstra is nine months younger than Mourning and could end up coaching Mourning again next season if he elects not to retire.

NO SURPRISES

No one predicted that reunion. But Spoelstra's hiring this week elicited little surprise in NBA circles.

''I have spent my entire life around coaches,'' said former Heat coach Stan Van Gundy, now the coach of the Orlando Magic. ``I knew Erik Spoelstra probably less than three months and I was telling my wife, my father and my brother -- this guy is going to be one [heck] of a coach. I have as much respect for him as I do for anyone in the business. He is unbelievable, and I am really happy all of his hard work got rewarded.''

Now that it has, Spoelstra believes the real work is only beginning. After his introductory news conference, Spoelstra said he planned to pick Van Gundy's brain as much as his close friend would allow this offseason. Spoelstra also isn't afraid to lean on Riley or his assistants, an experienced group that includes Ron Rothstein -- the head coach of the expansion Heat in 1988-89 who has 28 years of NBA experience -- and former NBA players Bob McAdoo, a Hall of Famer who has been an assistant for 13 years, and Keith Askins, who has eight years of coaching experience.

''He's willing to listen and see what will help him be good,'' Askins said. ``With this organization, we need some excitement and a different energy.''

Wallace said he sees Spoelstra becoming a fixture on the Heat's bench.

''I hope to wake up one day 10 years from now and see he's still the coach of the Miami Heat,'' Wallace said.

Perhaps the ironic part is that Spoelstra didn't walk around sharing his dream. Not even to his father.

''I've known people in the business world that plot their careers,'' Jon Spoelstra said. ``Erik never discussed his career that way. He's always been focused on the moment of what was necessary to get done.''

That is exactly the attitude Spoelstra has carried into his first days on the job. Has it sunk in that he landed the job he coveted?

''It hasn't been like that at all,'' Spoelstra said. ``Everyone has seen me grow. When we had a meeting, it's just all the people I work with, nothing strange or awkward. The job responsibilities have changed. but I didn't go in there acting different.''