MIAMI – As Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra looks to turn around what's been an inconsistent season thus far, the 55-year-old has recently achieved an honor that happened due to news in the NFL. With the Heat's Spoelstra reaching 800 wins this season as he continues to climb, he is now the longest tenured head coach in all four major professional sports leagues in the country. (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL).
This comes after Mike Tomlin stepped down from the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday.
This season marks Spoelstra's 18th with the franchise, with Tomlin's shocking announcement to step down marking the end of his tenure with the Steelers, having been head coach for the organization since 2007. Another head coach whose long tenure has ended was John Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens, as he was fired after having been there since 2008.
While some could say that it's a badge of honor, Spoelstra was “bummed” to hear about both Tomlin and Harbaugh.
“That really bummed me out,” Spoelstra said before Tuesday's game against the Phoenix Suns. “And I was really bummed about the news about John Harbaugh as well, because I've been fans of both of theirs for a long time. My video room has sent me interview clips of Coach Tomlin for years. I just love everything he's about. He's a coach's coach, super motivational, and how he articulates his thoughts…So I've been fans of both of them.”
“That does make me sad, because they're titans of the game, and I just always thought that they would be there forever,” Spoelstra continued. “There's obviously major turnover in sports, but you want to have good leadership…We'll see if they can find leaders with somebody else that can be as consistent as they've been for multiple decades.”
Erik Spoelstra speaks about the news regarding Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh not being head coaches for Steelers and Ravens and how he’s the longest tenured head coach in all five US sports.
Instead of the pride that can give, he’s “bummed” out about it, here’s why: #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/mGDEPGL1xs
— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) January 13, 2026
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Heat's Erik Spoelstra says he wishes he wasn't longest tenured head coach
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra watches from the sideline as they take on the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.
David Butler II-Imagn Images
While the Heat are in the process of hopefully turning the season around in a positive way, there's no denying how impactful Spoelstra has been for the past 18 seasons. It doesn't come as a shock to most in the sports world that Spoelstra is the longest tenured head coach, but it's a label that he doesn't wish he had, explaining how quick turnover happens in the modern day.
“But that's a bummer, and I wish I wasn't the longest tenured,” Spoelstra said. “Some people could look at that as a badge of honor. I look at that as truly a disappointment to this profession, that there's not more coaches that are given an opportunity to work through things, some of my greatest opportunities of growth have been from disappointing seasons where we really went to work during the off-season to find ways to get better.”
“But you have to have ownership and management that you know are willing to go through the trials and not just succumb to stale or time for a change, things of that nature,” Spoelstra continued. “I think if you took a case study on all the leagues when it's a time for a change, when they make the changes, and over and over and over, if it actually benefited the organization or not, I would guess not.”
At any rate, Spoelstra looks to improve with Miami entering Tuesday's game at 20-19, eighth in the Eastern Conference, ahead of the three-game home stand this week.