Miami Heat’s Filipino-American head coach Erik Spoelstra has been named among the top 15 greatest coaches in National Basketball Association (NBA) history.
Spoelstra, whose mother hails from San Pablo City, Laguna, made it to the NBA’s unranked list of 15 all-time top coaches that was unveiled as part of the league’s 75th anniversary season.
Spoelstra, who won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013, is the first Asian American head coach to ever win an NBA championship.
The Fil-Am tactician coached the Miami Heat team to five NBA Finals appearances and 10 playoff berths in the previous 13 seasons.
In his 14th season as Miami’s head coach and his 27th season as a member of the Heat organization, Spoelstra was also named the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for games played in December, marking the ninth time he has won Coach of the Month honors.
Joining Spoelstra in the NBA all-time list are some of the best coaches in the league’s history including Red Auerbach, Larry Brown, Chuck Daly, Red Holzman, Phil Jackson, KC Jones, Steve Kerr, Don Nelson, Gregg Popovich, Jack Ramsay, Pat Riley, Doc Rivers, Jerry Sloan, and Lenny Wilkens.
The NBA 15 Greatest Coaches’ all-time list of honorees released on February 9, 2022, was selected by a panel composed of all 30 current NBA head coaches and 13 former NBA head coaches in collaboration with the NBA.
Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat and his staff are set to coach Team Durant in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game this February.
Spoelstra was earlier voted the Best Head Coach in the 2020-2021 NBA season and joined the Gold House’s annual A100 List celebrating Asians, Asian-Americans, and Pacific Islanders (APIs) and their impactful contributions to society last year.
Another Filipino coach, Mike Magpayo, also made waves by winning the Joe B. Hall award as the best first-year head coach in Division I college basketball of the United States National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
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