Erik Spoelstra presscon, notes & thoughts

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Erik Spoelstra is a busy man. Despite the busy schedule – NBA events, preparations for the upcoming NBA season, family stuff – Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra still finds time to visit the Philippines. This is 4th visit.

Coach Spoelstra is the youngest and the only Filipino-blooded head coach in the NBA World. Being in the NBA and a champion coach, it’s a big achievement and gives honor to the Philippines.

The night before, coach Spo watched PBA Game 5 at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum and he had one word to describe the match “physicality”. “I watched the PBA Finals last night and it’s really physical, I love it!”, Spoelstra told the press and bloggers in attendance.

He admitted that the one and only regret in life was not being able to play in PBA. He was asked if he could turn back the time, he said, he would love to play in the PBA. “I regret not playing in the PBA. If I could turn back the clock, I will play there,” he said. He sees great things in the PBA and later said that “PBA is a great league, full of excitement. It was great to see, great to see the passion of the players.”

He wants this Philippine visit to be an annual thing and thinking of watching more PBA games and maybe college basketball game too.

Winning the NBA championship hasn’t changed his life that much. “I’m still doing similar things I do… It hasn’t changed my whole life.” Being a young coach is one of the challenges he faced when he started to coach the star-studded Miami Heat. He talks about showing guys the meaning of competition, reliability and trust. Coming from the school of Pat Riley management, he talked about the structured and disciplined system.

The conference ended on a light mood. With question like how his mother reacted when he won the title, he said, “She cried. She came after finals in Miami. She said that we lost last season since she was there to watch the game. But during this season’s finals, she stayed home in 4 games and we won.”

Erik Spoelstra is looking forward to start his program with the Miami Heat for the new season of the NBA. He’ll go back and be the coach, leader and motivator that he is. He’ll go back, defend the title, do battle with his core guys, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and new recruits.

See you next year coach, and let’s see if in your next trip, along came new trophy.

Photo from NBA.com.