Erik Spoelstra is a professional basketball coach. He played college basketball in Portland and afterwards coached in Germany, before coming back to the U.S. to work for the Heat.
Spoelstra is well known for being the head coach for the NBA's Miami Heat. Of Filipino descent from his mother's side, Spoelstra is the first Asian-American head coach in the history of the four major North American sports leagues and the first Asian-American head coach to win an NBA championship. Spoelstra served as assistant coach and director of scouting for the Heat from 2001 to 2008, during which time the team won the 2006 NBA Finals. He was promoted to head coach in the 2008-09 season. Following the addition of free agents LeBron James and Chris Bosh in 2010, the Heat made four consecutive NBA Finals appearances (2011–2014) under Spoelstra, winning the championship in 2012 and 2013. Spoelstra made his fifth appearance in the NBA Finals as head coach in 2020.
Spoelstra comes from a quite prominent family, as his father was an NBA executive and his grandfather was a fanous sportswriter for the Detroit News. On April 28, 2021, Spoelstra earned his 600th win as the Heat's head coach, and also became the sixth head coach in NBA history to win 600 games with one team.