Erik Spoelstra: incompetent, lucky ... One of the Best Coaches in NBA History 

Imagine your boss helping you get double your annual pay. Pat is the GOAT team president.

​@@raceit502imagined losing the passion to upgrade the team , hiring waived and undrafted talents and twice succumbed to more superior teams Imagined losing the passion to capture the crown and had only their eyes for one particular whale which is not a player but their annointed one who loves to death a smallball which sometimes backfired on him and made him EXPOSEDTRA!

@@christopherterrell2016 There were two sides of the story ( Pre Bubble and present Miami Heat) Choice is yours of course bro

Worst take I've ever read. Why? Cause it's terrible English, structure, and babble. Add to that, whatever you're trying to communicate is wrong and not the reality of spolestra as a coach. I think there are 4th grade writing classes for free on RU-vid. Also, there's videos on RU-vid to prove your flawed take is wrong. Good luck in 5th grade.

@@Dizzelsoul3542Please stop schizo posting 😭😭. Do you really think if it was up to Spo he wouldn’t have gotten a whale like Dame? He doesn’t have final say in how much money the Heat can take on over the tax or what assets to give up in a trade…

that was maybe my favorite Heat team. Too bad they didn't get into the playoffs. If there was a play in tournament at that time I bet they get in

Well said.

@@davidriedy5977I hate the play-in man. Really cheapens the season.

@@TeezyfolKKz I get both sides of it tbh. On one hand if my team was the 9th or 10th seed and had a chance to get in due to the play in, I would be happy. Although granted you were probably the 9th or 10th seed for a reason and will probably get blown out in the first round by one of the better teams in the league. Upsets don't tend to happen much in the NBA, especially in a 7 game series. Not like the NFL or March Madness where all it takes is 1 game

@@TeezyfolKKzyes and no. It makes getting those first six seeds that much more important, and allows a spontaneity amongst the 7-10 spots

So many NBA fans thought no one could or would ever touch Popovich’s legacy or longevity. We were wrong. And it’s good for the game that we were wrong!

​@@withalittlehelpfrom3 1. Pop isn't even the most successful coach of his era. 2. Spo is 3 rings and like a decade from getting near Pop.

@@holstorrsceadus1990but by coaching standards, that’s not insanely far (the rings are a lot but you get what I’m saying), I think he meant that it’s seemed like no front office was going to give the long leash that was provided to legendary coaches, like Pop, at the beginning of their tenures anymore. But thanks to Pat, Spo was given the time to learn as a coach and develop a real culture to his teams that have overachieved immensely in the playoffs

This is what AP is about to do to the Raiders.

I would say that the only more successful coach is Phil Jackson and I personally like Popovich's coaching style better

There's a lot of ego to deal with. Spo has proven he can deal with that. Especially coach killer Lebron.

The only big 3 super team I can think of that failed is the nets with kd kyrie and harden and that's only because of injuries and distractions off the court that broke the team up what other super teams have failed catastrophically

@@greekfreak8473 Everyone forgets about the Kobe, Dwight, Nash lakers team. That was the first one formed after the Heatles and was super hyped up until it failed miserably.

@@kabinyo_creations dwight and nash weren't super stars anymore when they joined the Lakers they were good players but not in their primes like lebron wade and Bosh that team failing was a surprise but it wasn't a huge surprise like it would have been if the heatles have failed

@@greekfreak8473 Boston with Kyrie, Sixers, Lakers with Russ. I may have exaggerated by saying "failed catastrophically", the bigger point was that winning a title isn't as simple as just amassing the most superstar players, and trading a bunch of quality depth players for one (usually aging) superstar has been proven to be detrimental more often than not in recent years. And I think that most people now understand that the idea of "Anyone could coach that Heat team to a Title" was stupid and naive.

As I stated in my own comment, I believe that a big part of the reason he was overlooked and/or underrated up until a couple years ago was because he's part of LeBron's story and how the people that tell it tend not to give others proper credit but are not shy to give them unjust blame. The narrative "LeBron has never played for a quality head coach" was pervasive for over a decade, and that's including the 4 years in Miami. Every time you would tell a hardcore LeBron fan that Spo is a great coach, the most frequent rebuttal they'd have is "Where are his rings without LeBron?" as if rings are the only thing that makes a great head coach great. Funny that rings are a perfectly fine measure for coaches who don't step foot on the court but not for the players that actually do.

​@@davidmartinez52420 but can I say he's just decent in Miami and he just improved as they were rebuilding. Nobody gave Kerr credit either, people were memeing that "he has to coach now" when Durant left, curry and Klay got injured but he stepped up without them. Having great players will overshadow a coach unless your Phil jackson

@@mico5536 Spo has been more than decent for a long time, people are just too hung up on regular season record and rings. The Heat have consistently outperformed expectations and he has a lot to do with that. Kerr has had detractors from the very beginning and still does now, but the majority opinion is that he's a great coach. The opinions about Phil tend to vary depending on who you ask. Some have said for years that he got by off the back of Jordan & Pippen then Shaq & Kobe, but now others(LeBron fans mostly) try to give him most of the credit for the Bulls' success just to spite Jordan. Going back to Spo and LeBron, I get what you're saying about coaches being overshadowed by great players but the way Spo gets disrespected by the vast majority of LeBron fans is beyond just being overshadowed. Many will literally tell you Spo was and is not that good of a coach who just got carried by LeBron. The need to stick to the "never had a good head coach" narrative is way too strong for them to ever give Spo any credit.

Eh i totally agree but in terms of narrative construction for a short form video it makes sense she skipped over it given how it doesn't jive with the greater arcs

sure but then you're just not telling the full story. I'd rather things be actually accurate rather than filling into some sentimental storytelling box. These prism videos should be more interesting than just peak -- valley -- peak again @@bumshka21

It feels so secure as a Miami fan to have such a great coach like Spo. Pat Reilly being in management is also super dope. GO HEAT! 🔥

It feels so secure as a Miami fan to have such a great coach like Spo. Pat Reilly being in management is also super dope. GO HEAT! 🔥

Your team? Oh wow the owner of the Heat watches SB

​@@whatwelearnedweird thing to get pedantic over

@@whatwelearned cry more

Spurs culture was Timmy not Pop. You can look at the spurs before and after Timmy and see that the difference maker wasn't pop.

@@rambhaskar6728 HA HA HA HA

spoelstra and pat riley

@@user-nv1gm2zj7yhe’s right

​@@rambhaskar6728and David Robinson before him. If it's all Pop, Wemby should have them make the playoffs at least 10 years in a row.

the overrated coach who keeps getting hired somehow.

Spoelstra never became famous for blowing 3-1 or 3-2 leads

This is what you get when LeBron is on your team. His fans will do anything to rise LBJ and if everyone else needs to be thrown under the bus in order to elevated they’ll do it.

How is he still getting coaching positions? This man is not a good coach

Agreed

yep

I still think it's great that Michael Malone has gotten as long of a leash as he did with Denver after his short stint with the Kings, even with the losing seasons early on.

Erik Spoelstra is an overrated bum he brings down talented teams repeatedly I'm starting to think he's Pat Riley's secret lover can't stand the guy

Yea, but we fans are suckers believing every single thing in the media every damn day. Haha.

Erik Spoelstra is an overrated bum he brings down talented teams repeatedly I'm starting to think he's Pat Riley's secret lover can't stand the guy

Pop better

How about that bam block on Tatum

​@@AKidCalledPedro A highlight, or a lowlight, of a long and storied history between two great teams 😉

This is how I feel about Brad Stevens lol - a heat fan

disagree heavily about popovich. he has a great legacy thanks to tim duncan but since tim retired and kawhi left he has shown the game has passed him by. he's using wemby wrong and the spurs are one of the worst teams in the league, but if he was running a pick and roll system and stopped having wemby take jumpshots the spurs would be battling for a playoff spot right now. wemby is shooting 74% within 5 feet of the basket. for reference 3peat Lakers Shaq was shooting 76%. however, wembanyama has the worst shooting efficiency *in the league* from 15 feet or further from the basket, and pop has him taking 5 threes a game. also, he's trying really hard to get wemby to run the offense too and wembanyama's turnover numbers are outrageous. just treat him like amare on the suns and let him pick and roll forever and the spurs would have won a lot more games than 11 by the all star break. they can't possibly be tanking... they already won the tank. they got their guy. pop is just trying to force him to be joel embiid and nikola jokic, but that's not wemby's game. after 50 games he should know what he was with wemby but he's still using him so badly wrong. pop needs to retire and let the spurs move on or the spurs will never win with wemby

@@AKidCalledPedro my favorite moment of that 2020 ECF

I thought the exact same thing. Then I looked up the numbers. He's 8th all time in wins with 1100. He's nipping at the heels of Phil Jackson. If he coaches a couple more years he might pass Jackson, Sloan,Riley, and Karl. You kinda have to put him on the list.

​@@mjwbulich I understand that. IDK if this is a unpopular opinion necessarily, but a majority of Doc Rivers career feels like a coach chasing stats. He inherits superstars rather than develops them. I don't remember a time where Doc actually developed a superstar of his own ( Deandre Jordan is good but no superstar). Aside from that 2008 Celtics team, he doesn't take teams to the next level. It explains why his regular season wins record is so great, hes so good at networking, that he inherits superstars to stat pad his resume. But true coaching great show what they're made of in the playoffs or when developing players, which Doc has failed to do. It explains why Doc is so famous for not using young guys on his rosters...he just doesn't know how to develop players. And his regular season wins stat becomes less impressive when you realize he should have those numbers considering the rosters he's had. Pop mentored Tony Parker, Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard to stardom Phil Jackson mentored Kobe Bryant to stardom Steve Kerr took Curry and the young Warriors to the next level It feels like every coach is known for doing something noetworthy, but for Doc, idk what that is aside from choking.

​​@@ZentrixXentrix Doc makes mediocre teams overachieve (3-1 lead vs Pistons as the 8th seed; the in-between of Lob City and the Kawhi Clippers), but he also makes good teams underachieve (pretty much everything else on his resume, and yes that includes 2008 where they're pushed to 7 games in the first two rounds as overwhelming favorites). The knocks on Spo, Kerr, and Doc are that they wouldn't win without a superteam. Spo overcame it since 2016, Kerr did it in 2022. Doc didn't have anything close to it.

he's a generational brown noser and used car salesman. actually disgusting to have him even be mentioned on that list. he's milked his run with the magic his entire life

@@mjwbulich inheriting super teams for 90% of your career will get you some wins. but apparently not titles

ya hes the kind of superstart that actually saves his best for the playoffs unlike some

Exactly. He put up Magic Johnson type numbers in the finals while guarding Lebron, broke record after record in 2022, and then averaged 38 ppg against the best defense in the league a year later. SB was offbase here

In 2020 he wasnt a superstar "yet". Thats why Spo gets some credit from that run. Of course since then, Butler is their new face, but even when they made in as the 8th seed, Butler wasn't exactly playing great the whole playoffs. Yes, he did carry them in the 1st round, and he did amazing job from time to time when trash talking Grant Williams, but he wasn't all that superior outside of those big performances... so the team and Spo included, have to get some respect.

@@aitlinyeah I would say 2022 and 2023 he might have been a super star but in 2020 he wasn’t a super star he wasn’t even getting 20 points in some of the playoff He did go insane when Miami got hurt but every all star can do that

@@aitlinokay not every but half of them can atleast but him winning games was what made it better still I would say it was 2022 and 2023

They got to the playoffs in 2016 where they were 1 win shy of facing LeBron in the ECF. I think you meant 2015

@@ChrisChanSajelan No that team had Wade, Johnson, and Deng. Next year was definitely more impressive.

Spo was never in Bron’s shadow. The film clearly shows Spo never blinked, while Bron was carried in 2013 & clearly quit in 2014. Spo rallied the troops in spite of Bron’s diva behavior. Bron wanted Spo gone, the fact that it didn’t happens means Spo was the tree, LeBron was the shadow. Spo’s success destroys the notion that Bron has never had an all-time coach. He has…he didn’t want him.

@@TeezyfolKKz I should've said narrative shadow. Spo's coaching ability has been getting disrespected for years by most of LeBron's fans and members of the media that shill for him because of the "LeBron has never had a quality head coach" narrative. Any and every time myself and others would defend Spo as a coach, the hordes of LeBron fans would be quick to fight against that by totally disparaging his coaching ability and pointing to his "lack of success" without LeBron. That last part you said, "Spo's success destroys the notion that LeBron has never had an all time head coach", has only finally started to be recognized just the last couple years. From the time LeBron left Miami until 2020(maybe even after that), Spo wasn't getting anywhere near the credit and respect he deserved.

@@TeezyfolKKz Tbf coaches can get better. Ty lue with Bron was a Bron merchant but now he actually coaches. Mike Brown was always known as an ass coach, but now he's one of the better coaches for the Kings. I don't think Spo was as good of a coach as he is now, but he was still definitely a good coach back then. And saying Bron was carried in 2013 is horrendous cope and just wrong. And he didn't quit in 2014, it's just his running mate was playing on one knee basically. And it wasn't only LeBron, the story goes that Bron, Wade, and Bosh all went to Pat Riley and asked if he ever wanted to coach again, but then Pat told them that they're sticking with Spo through and through. It's obvious you hate Bron but at least TRY and be objective.

@@joeasuncion2891 when i say quit in 2014, I mean the finals. He never once’s attempted to attack Kawhi. He laid down and got his numbers when the game ended way beyond reach. I don’t think not liking or hating someone means you can’t be objective about them.

@@joeasuncion2891 To be fair, Ty Lue being a Bron merchant and an excellent play-offs tactitian is true at the same time ever since. Nonetheless, recognizing a coach's positive impact is way harder when he's coaching superstars, especially GOAT candidates like LeBron.

This used to be a more common narrative in the US: start in the mail room and end up in the executive suite. Nowadays the C-suite is occupied almost exclusively by people who started out wealthy.

Oh c'mon... during the Big 3 era, Filipinoes are doing that Pinoy Pride stuff. I know because I hated it.

@@narumifujishima7504 It also kind of annoyed me as a Jazz fan seeing so much of that stuff for Jordan Clarkson, but I guess there's nothing wrong with supporting one's own. They just go a bit overboard, IMO, lol

Be fair: ESPN would have had some hysterical commentary and amped up the conflicts to 11. There are plenty of Xs and Os sites, and this isn't one of them. It's a narrative arc, not shifts in tactics.

I might be wrong, but the whole "The Prism" series is about how the player/coach/exec was viewed by the media.

​@181cameron Yeah the prism series is essentially a look at how the featured individual is 'viewed'. So by it's very nature it's going to mostly feature media quotes and hyperbole from sports writers, or in this case, an angry fan site.

I like Clara a whole lot but melodious is not she hahaha that's kinda what I like about her voice though. It works perfectly for her dry humor.

@@TheBINIBALLyeah maybe he’s into the whole dry humor tone

@@TeezyfolKKz fair enough for some people dry = melody I guess lol

INTRODUCING DOC RIVERS!

The image with Clara's commentary was/is/will forever be art.

Be quiet trolll

It's an eternal debate: is the coach great because of his players or great in spite of his players? Few escape it. Larry Brown is an exception by getting the Pistons to the title without a true star. But now Spo has done it as well. So, regarding Pop, he only did it with the best payer of his generation, Tim Duncan. And that's BS. As in so many things, Shaq is dead wrong, usually because he is trying to make his gigantic insecure ass feel better about himself. Coaches matter. A lot.

@@David-iv6je so much this! I recently saw someone hold up the 2004 Pistons as the reason Pop actually isn’t that great because Larry Brown was able to win without a top 5 player. Turns out Ben Wallace made the 2nd All NBA Team that season! So even that team had a top 10 player that season, and then said team got beaten by Pop himself. Coaching matters, always.

The Heat definitely showed up in 2020, but the Lakers sweep the Heat that year if Bron doesn’t go hunting for the FMVP. The Heat lost too much to injury.

He is still young and plenty of coaching years left so he is on the pace to become the greatest of all time. If he manage to get 5 more rings and become the most coaching wins of all time. Right now he is almost top 10 in wins below the age of 60.