As the Miami Heat face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, they will be led by head coach Erik Spoelstra, who, besides achieving greatness at the NBA level, has also made his mark on the Olympics stage with Team USA. Spoelstra spoke about Heat stars Bam Adebayo and Nikola Jovic and their incredible experiences earlier but now speaks about his very own memories this past summer.
Team USA won the gold medal this past summer in Paris, France, not only marking the fifth straight Olympics the group won the ultimate prize, but Spoelstra became the first Miami coach to be a part of the staff leading them there. With Team USA beating France in the gold medal game, Spoelstra said the whole stint was a “gratifying core memory,” according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“A couple days ago, I was looking through some of the pictures from the trip,” Spoelstra, 54, said recently. “It was such an intense, gratifying core memory. It was so much fun.”
Heat’s Erik Spoelstra on working with a stacked Team USA
It was also a special moment for Spoelstra and Heat star Adebayo as they worked with each other during the Olympics, but the rest of Team USA was stacked with stars such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, and many more. Spoelstra said he had cherished every moment of the run this past Wednesday when Miami faced the Phoenix Suns.
“It was an iconic team,” Spoelstra said. “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.”
“So it was a blast,” Spoelstra continued. “We had a great time and it was one of those things, it’s like lightning in a bottle, you just want to capture it forever.”
Spoelstra was also a part of Team USA in July 2021, where he was head coach for the select team which prepares the main group for the Olympics contest. That 2020 Olympics group, which included Adebayo, would end up winning the gold medal in Tokyo, Japan.
Heat’s Erik Spoelstra could be head coach of Team USA
He would then be promoted to assistant coach to head coach Steve Kerr for the 2023 FIBA World Cup, where Team USA just missed the cut of the bronze medal, losing to Canada. Still, being a part of the Olympics coaching staff has always been a “dream” for Spoelstra, which he finally got to achieve.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to be part of USA Basketball and to be able to coach the Select Team in 2021 and to be an assistant coach,” Spoelstra said. “They can ask me to do anything, I’m in, forget about it. If I was asked to help out in the equipment room, I’m in.”
Looking to the future, there have been rumors of Spoelstra being the Team USA head coach for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, California. However, Spoelstra was asked about it and denied any conversations relating to that, instead expressing his gratitude for being on Team USA to begin with.
“That was just an absolute core memory that I’ll take with me for the rest of my life,” Spoelstra said. “It was a dream of mine to be part of USA Basketball in any fashion. I would have taken any position, and I’m just so grateful for that experience this summer.”
Heat’s Bam Adebayo on being with Erik Spoelstra on Team USA
Being with Adebayo made the journey that much more special as they worked closely with each other because of their familiarity with the Heat. Spoelstra would be with Adebayo and his mother last Monday, where they held up a banner celebrating the gold medal win as the center said to ClutchPoints how great it was to have a “moment” with his head coach.
“It’s great that we had a moment that wasn’t in a Heat jersey,” Adebayo said after the Heat lost to the Sacramento Kings. “Being able to fight for your country is something special, and to do that with my coach is something that we’ll never forget. Every time I see him, we’ll be able to share that moment.”
Before Spoelstra and Adebayo can even think of the 2028 Olympics, they will be focusing on the current season, where Miami is 3-5 on a three-game losing streak, hoping to snap it as they face the Timberwolves Sunday night. They are still in the midst of a rough six-game road trip.
