Whenever an NBA head coach is fired, the news serves as a reminder of Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s unique longevity. Spoelstra doesn’t take that title for granted, often crediting Heat president Pat Riley and owner Micky Arison for keeping him around so long.
Another reminder that Spoelstra is currently the NBA’s longest active-tenured head coach with one team came when the New York Knicks announced the firing of head coach Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday. Thibodeau’s dismissal comes after he helped lead the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference finals appearance since 2000 before being eliminated by the Indiana Pacers one round short of the NBA Finals.
“You have to have great ownership and stability from the front office,” Spoelstra said in November when asked about his long tenure as the Heat’s head coach. “We certainly have that with Pat and the Arison family. It is unique. I’m truly grateful for that, because we’ve been able to work through some tough losses and tough seasons and I think we’ve gotten better from that.
“It’s a tough reality of where the coaching profession is, how many changes there are every single year. Basically half the league, in just the last two years alone. It’s just tough. It’s tough to operate, build any kind of culture when there’s that much turnover.”
There hasn’t been much head coaching turnover for the Heat, with just five different head coaches (Ron Rothstein, Kevin Loughery, Riley, Stan Van Gundy and Spoelstra) during the franchise’s 37 seasons.
Spoelstra, 54, just finished his 17th season as the Heat’s head coach after initially being hired by the Heat as its video coordinator in 1995. With Gregg Popovich stepping down as the San Antonio Spurs’ coach in May, Spoelstra became the NBA’s longest active-tenured head coach with one team.
The Heat has qualified for the playoffs 14 times in Spoelstra’s 17 seasons at the helm, including in each of the last six seasons. The Heat has also won two NBA championships in 2012 and 2013 with Spoelstra as head coach.
In addition, Spoelstra is already the winningest head coach in franchise history in both the regular season (787 wins) and playoffs (110 wins). Spoelstra also holds the third-most wins by a head coach with one team in NBA history behind only Jerry Sloan with the Utah Jazz and Popovich with the Spurs.
Spoelstra is just the second head coach in NBA history to coach 1,300-plus games with one team, joining only Popovich.
“The Arison family and Pat Riley created a culture that is unique to any pro sports team,” Spoelstra said in November. “There’s a handful around that have the kind of stability and the continuity. But if you don’t have that, it would have been two or three years in that position and I would have been out moving around and bouncing around, which is typical for this coaching profession.”
Spoelstra, who is widely regarded as one of the NBA’s top coaches, has nearly swept the coaching categories in the NBA’s preseason survey of general managers for each of the last three seasons. Spoelstra was voted the best head coach in the NBA (69 percent of vote), best manager/motivator of people (37 percent) and the head coach with the best defensive schemes (23 percent) in the last survey of general managers ahead of the 2024-25 season.
The Heat remains committed to Spoelstra, too, signing him to a lucrative eight-year contract extension in January 2024. The deal runs through the 2031-32 season when Spoelstra will be 61, and the 2031-32 season would also be his 24th season as the Heat’s head coach.
“The coaching profession is an explosive profession and it’s a shame because we’ve shown that you can do it and have tough years, but gain a lot of lessons from tough years and then become better from it,” Spoelstra said. “But that’s not really the case too often, particularly around this league. So I’m really grateful to have that opportunity to work for [Riley] and to continue to have his mentorship.”
JAQUEZ TO NBA FINALS
Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. is one of four NBA players who will serve as media correspondents for this year’s NBA Finals series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers.
The NBA Player Correspondent Program gives players the opportunity to serve as media correspondents at events such as the NBA Draft, All-Star Weekend and NBA Finals. Jaquez will take on that role on the NBA’s social platforms for Sunday’s Game 2 in Oklahoma City.
The other three players who will be media correspondents for this year’s NBA Finals are Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain (Game 1), Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels (Game 3) and Chicago Bulls forward Matas Buzelis (Game 4).