Heat’s Spoelstra formally named to U.S. Olympic coaching staff
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s time with USA Basketball began earlier this year and it’s not ending any time soon.
USA Basketball announced Monday that Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr will take over for Gregg Popovich as the national team’s head coach.
Spoelstra was named as one of the three assistants on Kerr’s USA Basketball coaching staff along with Gonzaga coach Mark Few and Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams.
This coaching staff will lead USA Basketball — if it qualifies — into the 2023 FIBA World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“I’m also beyond excited to work with three coaches I have enormous respect for in Erik Spoelstra, Monty Williams and Mark Few,” Kerr said in a statement. “Coaching the USA Men’s National Team comes with great responsibility — one that calls for a group effort with a team of coaches committed to the team, to the goal and to each other — and I couldn’t ask for a finer group of high character individuals to help me lead our national team. Our goal, of course, is to win and make our country proud. We will work hard to do so.”
Kerr has expressed his respect for Spoelstra in the past.
“I like how hard Miami plays every year regardless of the circumstances,” Kerr said previously. “Erik’s teams always play hard, gets better as the season goes on, as they figure out roles. He’s a great coach and somebody I’ve always admired.”
Kerr siad Monday that Spoelstra, Williams and Few are all qualified to coach the team, calling Few “one of the great coaches at any level.”
This opportunity could lead to Spoelstra coaching in the Philippines, which is one of three countries scheduled to host the 2023 FIBA World Cup along with Japan and Indonesia. Spoelstra, who is the NBA’s first Asian-American coach, is of Filipino descent on his mother’s side of the family.
Spoelstra, 51, helped the national team prepare for the Tokyo Olympics this past summer as the head coach of the select team. He’s in his 14th season as the Heat’s head coach and is the second-longest active tenured NBA head coach with one team, trailing only Popovich.
