Erik Spoelstra explains how he’s getting through COVID-19 crisis. One way? Helping others
With many in need around the community, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, many within the Miami Heat organization have stepped up to help.
The latest? Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and wife, Nikki, donated more than 140 burrito bags from Lime Fresh Mexican Grill to firefighters, police, and military at three COVID-19 testing sites around Miami-Dade County.
According to an Instagram post from Lime Fresh, the meals were delivered to those working at Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the COVID-19 testing site at Marlins Park and the COVID-19 testing site at Charles Hadley Park.
In its Instagram post, Lime Fresh used an old quote from Spoelstra, “A team is a family, and we’re in this together.”
Lime Fresh went on to write: “Coach Spo may have said this about our [Miami Heat] team originally, but he proved it off the court today when he and wife, [Nikki] helped #LIMEthefrontline with their donations of over 140 Lime burrito bags to the firefighters, police, and military at three COVID-19 testing sites.”
In a conference call with local media last week, Spoelstra spoke about how he has tried to remain positive during such a difficult time.
“I’m wearing a shirt right now that I got from my friend Jon Gordon, who wrote ‘The Energy Bus,’ and it says, ‘Stay positive,’” Spoelstra said. “And so I wear this every other day pretty much. I wash it and then wear it every other day, and it helps me stay focused on that. Because this is such an unusual, unsure time for so many of us, that you really want to focus on controlling what you can control — that’s your positive outlook, that’s spending time with people you love, and then also, for us, what we’ve talked a lot about is trying to take care of people that aren’t as fortunate as us.
“As you know, Micky and Madeleine, the Arison family, started it off by donating to Feeding South Florida, and we really encouraged our staff and players to get involved with that, as well, to be able to help people who are really getting affected by this, in a different way than we are. Yes, we are getting impacted with it by being taken away from work and what we love to do and our livelihood at work and having to stay disciplined to stay at home, but we still have opportunities.”
For Spoelstra, he has spent the coronavirus quarantine in his Miami home with Nikki and their two sons — 2-year-old Santiago and four-month-old Dante.
“Look, my kids are young kids under the age of two. They have no idea what’s going on,” Spoelstra said. “They just think this it’s a big party in the backyard every single day. So, it is unique and we do want our team to be thinking of others and to feel the real empathy and giving nature during this time. That also can help deal with some potential anxiety or stress that somebody may be going through with this, to focus on helping other people.”
