With the Miami Heat’s victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, head coach Erik Spoelstra joins an elite group of coaches to win 600 games with one franchise. The coaches part of this exclusive club are all-time greats such as San Antonio Spurs current coach Greg Popovich (1,308), Jerry Sloan with the Utah Jazz (1,127), Red Auerbach with the Boston Celtics (795), Red Holzman with the New York Knicks (619) and Phil Jackson with the Los Angeles Lakers (610).
Spoelstra joining this group is a testament to his excellence in coaching and commitment to stay with one organization. He started as a video coordinator with the Heat and turned himself into one of the best coaching minds in the NBA. Aside from such an impressive winning record, Spoelstra does his magic best in the playoffs, especially with his ability to make adjustments on the fly and maximize his team’s potential.
Spoelstra led last season’s Heat team to the finals despite being considered as massive underdogs throughout their playoff push. They got past a Milwaukee Bucks team, who had a dominant regular season and a well coached Boston Celtics team.
However, this season has been up and down for Spoelstra’s team. The Heat have fallen to the seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, just in position to compete in the play-in tournament. There’s still a chance that they avoid the play-in, but they'd need some help from the Celtics and Hornets.
The defending Eastern Conference champions have the ability to make a strong playoff run once again this season especially with the magic of Spoelstra—they just need to get healthy as soon as possible.