Spontaneity with the ‘SPO’

In the Philippines, everyone knows Erik Spoelstra because he is a Filipino. Or should know. Not because he is the coach of the current NBA Champion Miami Heat. Not because he coaches the Big 3 composed of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. Really, it is because of the brown skin and mestizo features he brings around from arena to arena.

Fresh from a banner year wherein he capped off a lockout-shortened NBA season with a championship, Spoelstra visited the Philippines for a week, holding camps and making public appearances, even paying a visit to President Noynoy Aquino and presenting him with his very own Miami Heat Jersey. But last August 3, in front of an audience in the Mercalco Theatre, he gave a talk that centered on something that according to him, led to his success: Leadership.

Starting out as a video coordinator for the Miami Heat, he worked his way up until he became the head coach of the Miami Heat, under the guidance of his predecessor, the legendary Pat Riley. Of course, this didn’t come without criticism. Some called him “Riley’s Puppet” while others cite his lack of experience. But then, he proved his critics wrong by bringing his team to consecutive playoff appearances, even with a not-so-one-hundred-percent Dwayne Wade, and even before the Big 3 joined forces.

“Leadership Sucks!”

Coming from a leader fresh of a banner year, this comes off as surprising. Yet the crowd in Meralco Theatre finds this amusing. This was how Spoelstra wanted to entitle his book, one that would detail the championship season with LeBron James and Co.; ups and downs included. But what stayed with him and kept him going throughout the season were two things: Leadership, and Family.

When people think of sports, leadership is usually at the bottom of the list while family wouldn’t even be part of it. Dunks, goals, and home runs are the first things that come to the mind of your average sports junkie. They usually go for the beautiful aspects of sports, the ones you usually see on ESPN and on repeat in YouTube. Yet in reality, leadership and family make LeBron sky for a dunk and Lionel Messi score an insane amount of goals.

“We’re Family”

This was how Spoelstra described the relationship with his players. To him, coaching wasn’t a job. It was a chance to get to know the players personally, from the stars up to the bench players. Aside from talking to his players about the X’s and O’s, he asks about their families and the other things that occur in their lives. He also mentioned that one time, during a practice session, he was blaring out 2pac songs from the speakers and his players told him, “Hey Coach! You’re playing some old school tunes!”

To him, family made his team more cohesive, one that seemed to have matured after that painful loss to last year’s champion, the Dallas Mavericks. The people on the team may not have the same interests, motives, and other commonalities, but come game time, they’re all on the same page.

“We may not like each other, but we love each other.”

Since the Big 3 was formed, there have been two controversial clashes wherein Spoelstra’s authority was questioned by the media. One was during the first few games of the Big 3’s first season, when they not only experienced defeat at the hands of the eventual champion Dallas Mavericks, but LeBron James also seemed to have gone shoulder to shoulder with Spoelstra. Another incident was next year, during the second round of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, wherein Dwayne Wade and Spoelstra seemingly got into a shouting match. But, according to Spoelstra, these issues were settled immediately.

“In practice, he apologized and we worked things out afterwards,” he said. “After that, it was back to work.”

When the session ended, the usual question and answer portion was done, with the highlight of the day coming from a man asking (okay, maybe pleading) Spoelstra to help Philippine basketball, specifically the coaches. He adds, “They all seem to copy off each other, so there’s no originality!”

“There’s nothing else I’d rather do…”

Despite all the flak he’s received as the coach of the team America loves to hate, he loves what he does. No, he does not like breaking the hearts of the anti-Heat fans but he loves the one thing he’s known for: coaching. He doesn’t treat it like a job he has to do; he looks at it as an opportunity, one he wouldn’t trade anything else for. You can call him crazy for coaching Miami of all teams but he says it best:

“I’m definitely a Psycho.”