Erik Spoelstra

Erik Spoelstra ( born November 1, 1970 in Evanston ) is an American basketball coach. Since 2008 he has been head coach of the Miami Heat.

Spoelstra, son of a Dutch- Irish father and a Filipino mother, grew up in Portland ( Oregon). His father Jon Poelstra worked as General Manager for the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets, Buffalo Braves and New Jersey Nets.

After graduating from high school in 1988, Spoelstra studied at the University of Portland and played basketball for the University team, the Portland Pirates. For the Pirates, he was for three years as a point guard in the starting lineup. In the eternal leaderboards University he won in several statistical categories a top spot: He is third in the assists ( 488 ), on the shared third place at the three-point throws (156) and sixth in the union rates for three-point throws ( 38.4 %) and free throws ( 82.4 %).

After college, Spoelstra went to Germany and spent two years playing for TuS Herten / Herten Ruhr Devils (predecessor organization of the Herten Lions ) in the 2nd Bundesliga Nord.

His active career ended Spoelstra 1995. The Miami Heat obliged him in 1995 as video coordinator, he evaluated the records of the games out and cut together for the head coach video. Two years later he was accepted as an assistant coach in the coaching staff and in 1999 was promoted by the video Supervisor on the Scout. Again, two years later he was promoted to chief scout of the team.

For head coach of the only 37 -year-old Spoelstra was then in April 2008: After a disastrous season with a record of 15 wins, 67 defeats Pat Riley stepped down as head coach back, retreated to the post of General Manager and certain assistant coach Spoelstra as his successor. In his first season as head coach Spoelstra led the Miami Heat with a season record of 43:39 in the playoffs, where the team was defeated in the first round of the Atlanta Hawks with 3:4. In the 2009/10 season once again succeeded in gaining the playoffs, this time with a season record of 47:35. Towards the later vice-champion Boston Celtics, the team retired in the first playoff round with 1:4. The following season, the first with Chris Bosh and Lebron James, which together with Dwyane Wade Miami's "Big Three" (similar to Boston's "Big Three" Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce), could Spoelstras team in the NBA Finals 2011 move. There the Heat the Dallas Mavericks were subject to 4-2. 2012 succeeded his team again the way into the NBA Finals. The Miami Heat won the series 4-1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder and bestowed Spoelstra thus his first NBA championship as head coach. The following year, Spoelstra led his team to a winning streak of 27 games in a row. This represents the second-longest winning streak of NBA history, with the NBA Championship was successfully defended by a 4-3 win in the NBA Finals in 2013 on the San Antonio Spurs.

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