The Miami Heat are the most unlikely team in NBA Finals history. They are to the point that their way to the playoff for the title seems even scripted, after having crossed the barrier of the heroic and entering a terrain where absolutely everything, divine or human, seems possible.
Miami is the second franchise that will play the final after starting as eighth seed in its Conference, something that only knew a precedent: that of the New York Knicks in 1999. Only the case of the Heat is even more arduous, for three reasons.
First, in that course (1999) the first round was still played in the best of five games (currently, the best of seven), which facilitated the option of surprise; second, the campaign was limited to fifty regular phase matches (under normal conditions there are eighty-two), due to the previous lockout, which shortened qualifying distances; and third, Miami has eliminated this 2023 the two teams with the best balance of the season.
As if that were not enough, what the experience of the Heat is even more amazing considering the circumstances. In the seventh and final game of their series against the Celtics, played in Boston, Erik Spoelstra's team used a rotation of only eight men, five of whom were not even chosen in the draft. That is, he put into action a block full of profiles under the radar that have managed, based on collective sense and mastery in the execution of their roles, to overcome any adverse context.
In the Miami epic, the leadership of Jimmy Butler, one of the greatest competitors of his generation, stands out on the track. A self-made player, decisive on both sides of the court and with a special instinct to agitate in the critical moments of the duels, when the pulsations rise and fear grips. This year the Heat have achieved, so far, 38 wins in even game finals, the so-called clutch, the best mark of the last quarter century in the NBA.
However, in Miami, a rock in sports and mental, the influence of Erik Spoelstra, his head coach, stands out. A man without whom the character and journey of his team is not understood. A teacher and survivor of the benches. Spoelstra's story actually reveals the American dream of which, starting from the bottom and without great expectations, ends at the top of the skyscraper.
Spoelstra, one of many college players – he completed his cycle in Portland – who have no place in the NBA, emigrated to Germany to try to make a living with basketball, something he would do in the modest TuS Herten serving, simultaneously, as a base of the team and assistant coach of Hubert Beck. In his spare time, he coached a team of kids under the age of twelve. Since none of them spoke English, it helped him improve his learning of German.
So comfortable would he be in Germany that, after two years (1995), he almost did not attend an interview for a position, albeit modest (video coordinator), in the Miami Heat. In the NBA. His father, once an executive in the American league, would get it for him. That same day Erik had tickets to attend a concert of the Grateful Dead and seemed willing to give up that interview, until his older sister, Monica, reminded him of the prospect of the opportunity. "But what are you thinking about? It's the NBA," he came to tell her.
Spoelstra ended up going to the interview and getting the job. One in which, basically, he alternated being the errand boy with the endless work of video editing, which continued after the workdays, at night, in his small apartment. Spoelstra's reports became so exhaustive and brilliant that they reached the ears of the boss in the Heat, the legendary Pat Riley, who would end up promoting him to the role of scout and giving him influence in the department not long after.
Basically, as former Heat assistant Tony Fiorentino would clinically define it, Spoelstra "wasn't a guy who knew about computers trying to learn about basketball, but just the opposite." His overwhelming work ethic and eagerness to learn would make him come to the bench, as an assistant, until Riley himself entrusted him with the main position of the coaching staff in 2008. The definitive sign of their recognition.
Spoelstra suffered the sharp ink and voice of the press when, formed the megaproject with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh at the helm (2010), he – a technician without great experience or poster – seemed the weakest piece and to sacrifice. But Riley, his teacher, always defended and advised him. "When you sense locker room problems, talk to the players. Make sure you don't lose touch, they are your allies," he confessed on one occasion, at the beginning of the hectic cycle with James in Miami. Those Heat would win two rings, and play in two more Finals, in four years.
However, it would not be until the end of that luxurious stage when public opinion would really begin to value Spoelstra's talent, management skills and tactical creativity. With fewer unbalancing resources but the full confidence of his mentor in the heights, the coach became a key figure for the construction and development of the 'culture' of Miami, something not only material – each start of the course, new players, are offered a guide with the codes and values that govern the franchise – but, above all, spiritual. A particular conception of sport, competition and the strength of the group.
The arrival of Jimmy Butler (2019), ideal for that identity that always made Riley so proud, shot the roof of a Heat that will play these days against Denver, and again under the radar, their second Finals in four years. It will be Spoelstra's sixth as head coach, equaling the fourth-highest figure in history, behind only Jackson, Auerbach and Riley himself.
Outstanding in match management, brave with any zonal defensive alternative and believer when it comes to empowering and advancing pieces, Spoelstra's slate shines achieving the ultimate goal of every technician: that when the key stretch arrives his team approaches its ideal version.
The Heat are no favorites again. They will therefore be doubly dangerous.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Twitter, or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Read more
I'm already a subscriber
