Erik Spoelstra, head coach of the Miami Heat, agreed to a long-term contract extension with the team, reported ESPN on Saturday. According to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, it's a four-year deal.
Before Saturday, Spoelstra still has one year left of his contract with the Heat. He has been their coach for 11 years, the second-longest in today's NBA, only after Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs.
48-year-old Spoelstra has been with the Heat the whole of his NBA career. He started from the video room and worked as an advance scout, an assistant coaching staff before taking over from Pat Riley who is now the team's president.
Erik Spoelstra, head coach of the Miami Heat and the 2013 NBA Championship trophy he and his team win. /VCG Photo
Spoelstra has taken Miami to the NBA Finals four times (2011-2014) and helped them win two of their three championships. However, he was rarely given the credit he deserved, because many wrongfully thought that he did not contribute enough to the success of a team that had Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
Many might have forgotten that it was Spoelstra who managed to help the Heat make the playoffs twice in the 2015-16 and the 2017-18 seasons with the abnormal franchise resulted by James' departure. He also kept a winning rate of 59 percent in the regular season and 60.2 percent in the playoffs.
The Heat will launch their training camp next Tuesday. As the team acquired Jimmy Butler this summer, there is hope for Spoelstra to lead his team back to the playoffs again in the Eastern Conference.