Erik Spoelstra: The heart of Miami Heat

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra

By Jaimes R. C. Sumbilon

When the Miami Heat defeated the Oklahoma Thunder in the National Basketball Association (NBA) Championship last June, the Miami fans were the happiest people on the planet, but wait, the Filipinos had their own reason to celebrate: the man behind the team’s success has Filipino blood.
Fil-Am coach Erik Spoelstra, fondly called Coach Spo by many, has made history twice in the NBA — by becoming the first Asian-American to be a head coach of an NBA team and by winning a championship title.
Born in Evanston, Illinois on Nov. 1, 1970, Coach Spo is the son of Dutch-Irish-American Jon Spoelstra and Filipina Elisa Celino from San Pablo, Laguna. He grew up in Portland, Oregon where he graduated from a Jesuit high school in 1988 and went to college at the University of Portland in 1992.
Basketball is in his blood, for his father was an NBA executive for the Portland Trail Blazers, the Denver Nuggets, the Buffalo Braves and the New Jersey Nets and he is the grandson of the late Watson Spoelstra, a sportswriter in Detroit. 
During his college days, Erik was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year excelling in assists, three-points and free throws. 
Coach Spo’s NBA career began when he joined the Miami Heat staff as a video coordinator in 1995, and slowly rose from the ranks to become the head coach of the Miami Heat when he was officially named the successor to basketball coach Hall of Famer Pat Riley in April 2008.
In the continuation of celebration for clinching the NBA Championship title, this Filipino-American came to the Philippines for a series of events, which included a dinner reunion for his relatives in San Pablo, Laguna.
“My heritage is very important to me. I’m proud to be Filipino. It’s one of the main reasons why I came back,” Spoelstra said.
To share his ideas and experience in management not only in the world of basketball, he was tapped as the guest speaker for the “Executive Talks: The Champ’s Playbook,” the first in a series of lecture-forums at the Meralco Theater in Ortigas organized by First Pacific Leadership Academy, the leadership training center and the Corporate College of First Pacific Group. 

Coach Spo at the "Executive Talks"

In front of his Filipino basketball fans, fellow coaches, athletes, supporters and business executives, led by one of the most successful businessmen here in our country, Manny V. Pangilinan, he shared his insights about leadership and a short story of his life.
Going to the top of his career was not a cakewalk for Coach Spo, like to many others, he passed through the proverbial “needle’s eye” before he achieved his current stature.  
Upon being named the next head coach of the Miami Heat, he had to deal with discrimination for looking young and having Asian blood. Coach Spo’s fellow coaches and critics referred to him as “that young kid” when he was already 37 and they said he “was not ready for the job.”
“You can imagine what the speculation was by the media. They called me a young kid who got an overnight opportunity. I was 37 years old but I looked 22. It’s the Filipino genes, isn’t it?” this 47-year-old coach stated.
Furthermore, the Miami Heat at that time was allegedly the “most hated” team in the NBA after the heart-breaking loss from Dallas Mavericks last year, falling short of expectations of fans and supporters despite its having three of the best players in the league — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, collectively known as the “Big Three.”
But Dwyane Wade trusted and respected Coach Spo very much and he ignored the accusations hurled at his coach and he even, according to Spoelstra, told his teammates: “Let’s trust him, let’s follow him.”
Spoelstra said he always maintain his ethic in coaching and telling his players where they were, proving to them even more that he was a man of integrity and to his critics that he was competent and very much “ready for the job.”
Clashing of egos among players is one of the difficult challenges that Coach Spo has encountered. Different players have different behavior. 

Coach Spo with Manny V. Pangilinan

“Managing one’s personality is a tough job,” Spoelstra said, adding “I think the No. 1 key to it is to try to be honest. The first thing the players want to see is honesty. They want to be coached, pushed and disciplined. But they do not want to be told something that’s not the truth.”
Sometimes, Coach Spo and his team have to deal with one another’s idiosyncrasies. For instance, James and his teammates teased Spoelstra with being an “old-school stuff” when he played the music of the late Tupac Shaku. But this helps in building respect between both sides and strengthened their obligations and roles that they represented to each other — players-to-coach and coach-to-players relationship.
One more secret weapon he revealed in that summit is the “power of touch.” To connect with his players, Spoelstra literally did the “power of touch” by tapping his players on the shoulder or chest during practice, a gesture common among most Filipinos, and making small talk about their cars and dogs.
“I truly believe in the physical touch every single day. I don’t allow a single day without giving a physical touch to each of my players. I ask my assistants to do the same. One touch every single day. It’s more than just a simple hello. And it’s not just with the players. I make sure I pass by the office of my boss to say hello and give a physical touch,” Spoelstra quipped.
According to him, experience is still the best teacher and learning from own mistakes — instead of blaming one another — will help one personality to know much better in determining he’s strength and limitations.
“I learned from my failures, pointed the first finger of blame at myself and apologized for my mistakes with the promise to get better,” the champion team’s coach averred.
He defined what leadership was all about in just two words and in jest: “Leadership sucks!” But it will no jest anymore as he plans to write a book with the same title.
Even though he is busy in many obligations, especially now that his team has the pressure of winning again, Spoelstra’s big heart for the Filipinos still prevail.

Coach Spo with Mon Segismundo and Al Panlilio of Meralco, Noel Lorenzana and Coach Chot Reyes of Smart

“I hope to visit here every year and try to be involved in the grassroots development of basketball here. I want to teach as many kids as I can. This will be my small contribution to Philippine basketball,” Coach Spo promised. Spoelstra, who considered as the “Heart of the Miami Heat,” has captured the hearts of his fans not only in Miami, but also, of course, ours as well. -- Jaimes R. C. Sumbilon