As Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has been on the Team USA staff under Steve Kerr, his time has come to lead the country to future success. While it has been expected for Spoelstra to take on a bigger role with Team USA, NBA insider Shams Charania has reported that the program is “expected to name” the Heat head coach to succeed Kerr.
“Just in: USA Basketball is expected to name Erik Spoelstra as the new head coach of the men's national team, sources tell ESPN,” Charania wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Spoelstra succeeds Steve Kerr for the next World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics after serving as a lead assistant on Team USA's 2024 gold medal squad.”
As Charania noted, Spoelstra's first task as head coach of Team USA will be for the next World Cup and eventually the 2028 Summer Olympics, looking to defend the gold medal that was won in 2024 in France. Spoelstra was a lead assistant coach under Kerr, coaching a plethora of superstar players, which the team also included Heat star Bam Adebayo.
Before any of that, though, there is no denying that Spoelstra is still focused on turning this Miami team around after a 37-45 record and 10th-place finish in the Eastern Conference. Despite getting through the play-in tournament, the Heat were swept frustratingly by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.
Erik Spoelstra on his last experience with Team USA
Spoelstra has spoken about how gratifying it is for other players and himself to compete for their countries or specifically Team USA, and it no doubt is amplified now as he will be the new head coach. For last year's Olympics, Spoelstra spoke about how much of a “great basketball experience” it was for him to be a part of it.
“It was such an intense, gratifying core memory. It was so much fun…It was an iconic team,” Spoelstra said last November, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “Those are life core memories. It was an incredible life experience. It was just a great basketball experience. You know, and the coaching staff, we got along really well. We’re on a text chain that we’re still texting today.”
Spoelstra will focus now on the Heat as they have yet to win a game in the preseason thus far, with the next opportunity on Sunday against the Orlando Magic.
