Coaching multiple basketball superstars and perennial All-Stars may not be so new with Filipino-American and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra who was picked to be the one coaching the NBA East All-Stars at the NBA All-Star game at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Spoelstra was chosen to coach the East All-Stars, headlined by their own Miami Big Three, consisting of All-Star starters Lebron James and Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh joining the starting lineup after being picked by Spoelstra to replace the injured Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics. He was chosen after clinching the best record in the Eastern Conference during the first half of the season. He went against Coach Greg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs who manned the sidelines with West All-Stars led by Kobe Bryant of the Lakers and Chris Paul of the Clippers.
Spoelstra coaching the best ballers in the Eastern Conference is not really a new kind of experience for him. After all, he’s coaching the reigning MVP and the best basketball player in the world, Lebron James, alongside still-top 10 talent and one of the best two-guards (not the best, because the Black Mamba will surely disagree – yes, Kobe, we’re looking at you) Dwayne Wade. He also has the talented and does-it-all (but still needs to pound the glass more) Chris Bosh. And during the off-season, the NBA’s all-time leader in three-points and 10-time All-Star Ray Allen decided to jump ship from rival Boston Celtics to South Beach Miami.
For Spoelstra, coaching multiple All-Stars is just another day at the office.
And during the just concluded NBA 2013 All-Star game at the Toyota Center, Spoelstra stood at the sidelines, shuffling players from his own Big Three to perennial All-Star Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks, and Kevin Garnett, returning All-Star Luol Deng, and a string of All-Star newbies with Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls, Jrue Holiday of the 76ers, Brook Lopez of the Brooklyn Nets, Paul George of the Indiana Pacers, and Kyrie “Uncle Drew” Irving.
He even got a message from Boston’s Coach Doc Rivers not to play Kevin Garnett so much; he kindly obliged after Garnett logged just six minutes of playing time, happily watching the game on the bench while letting the young ones play.
Both the teams played exceptionally well, throwing dunks and executing highlights after highlights throughout the game. But things were turned up a notch during the second half, when the East ran with organized plays from Coach Spo – a rare occurrence during an All-Star game – prompting the West “to play” defense, making the game a tad serious from both sides.
And after the series of highlights finally concluded, and the final buzzer sounded, the West got the better of the East, with the All-Star MVP Chris Paul leading the charge with his 20 points and 15 assists.
For Coach Spo, it’ll be back to watching game tapes in which he’s so familiar with since this is how he started being with Miami, from just being a video coordinator to an advance scout, and now the main man on the sidelines. The man calling the shots for the basketball stars. And with a still-new NBA championship ring, we guess no one would complain about.
