Erik Spoelstra is the head coach of the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association. He is the first Asian-American head coach in the history of the four major North American sports leagues. He wore number 30 during high school and college in honor of then-Trail Blazer Terry Porter, one of his favorite NBA players.
About Erik Spoelstra in brief
Erik Spoelstra is the head coach of the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association. He is the first Asian-American head coach in the history of the four major North American sports leagues. He was born in Evanston, Illinois, to Dutch-Irish-American parents. He attended Jesuit High School in Beaverton, Oregon, where he excelled at point guard on the basketball team. He wore number 30 during high school and college in honor of then-Trail Blazer Terry Porter, one of his favorite NBA players. After graduating from the University of Portland, he was hired and spent two years in Basketball Bundesliga’s second division as a player–assistant coach for TuS Herten, a German professional basketball club based in Westphalia, Germany. He began having back problems after the end of his second year with the team, and contemplated having surgery. As an assistant coach he was credited for improving Heat star Dwyane Wade’s balance and jump shot after Wade’s return from the 2004 Summer Olympics.
In April 2008, Spoel stra was hand-picked by Pat Riley to step down as Riley’s successor as Miami Heat head coach. He won his first NBA championship as assistant coach when the Heat defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals in Dallas. The Heat made four consecutive NBA Finals appearances under Spoerstra, winning the championship in 2012 and 2013. He will make his fifth appearance in the NBA Finals as head coach for the Heat in 2020. He has a son, Jon, and a daughter, Elisa, who are of Filipino descent from his mother’s side. He also has a grandson, Watson, who is a long-time sportswriter for The Detroit News. He spent his childhood in Buffalo, New York, before moving to Portland, Oregon by the late 1970s. In 1989 he was named West Coast Conference freshman of the year. He is a member of the school’s 1,000-point club, and is among the Pilots’ career leaders in several statistical categories.
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This page is based on the article Erik Spoelstra published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 19, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
