Erik Spoelstra Quotes

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Erik Spoelstra

Profession : Coach

Birth : November 1, 1970

Basketball is a beautiful game and it's afforded all of us in this profession so many things. To give back any time we can is gratifying.

Erik Spoelstra

I'm a stay-in-the-present momentist.

Erik Spoelstra

It doesn't matter whether you're a former player or you come up through the video room, whether you come from college. You have to earn that trust from NBA players every day.

Erik Spoelstra

The more that we've tried to think conventionally in terms of guys playing just a specific position, it restricted us a little bit.

Erik Spoelstra

When players come in and we talk to them about what it means to be a Miami Heat player, we point them at Udonis Haslem.

Erik Spoelstra

It's really a shame for the coaching profession that it's so volatile.

Erik Spoelstra

A coach-player relationship in this league often will be confrontational at times. And other times, it's smooth sailing. But just the dynamic of the competitive nature of everybody, expectations, results - all these things combine, yeah, sometimes it will get testy. And that's good.

Erik Spoelstra

I'm going to demand. I'm going to push and prod. And a lot of times, players don't know what is needed for a team to break through.

Erik Spoelstra

Come on, if you lose, no one's going to be happy and nor should they be.

Erik Spoelstra

You're all over the place usually with young players. You're trying to manage their emotions and teach them NBA situations. It usually takes months, even years, to learn and recognize NBA situations and then to develop a level of competitiveness that's necessary at this level.

Erik Spoelstra

You obviously have to build a culture, a foundation. You must build the right talent however you do it. Then you have to build the systems and the habits.

Erik Spoelstra

The reality is that luck does play a part of it. It does. Ultimately it's a make or miss league.

Erik Spoelstra

I really find comfort in watching film and obtaining knowledge and I use statistics and computer generated stuff to help me get those stats. That was probably a result of my father's influence on me at a young age.

Erik Spoelstra

We're always trying to evolve and find more efficient ways, more fluent ways to evaluate our players, evaluate our opponent and evaluate our prospects.

Erik Spoelstra

I've never really been a barbecue guy.

Erik Spoelstra

You can't stay who you are... Things change and you have to be able to adapt.

Erik Spoelstra

I hate this quality, but I can go to dark levels when we lose. It's not a panic attack, but there's anxiety. I'm inconsolable. I'm a train wreck. I'm being myself. Then I get this crazy, intense focus, where I get desperate not to be embarrassed again. That dark spot is what I tap into. Creativity comes from there.

Erik Spoelstra

It's always easier to sacrifice when you're not the one who has to do it.

Erik Spoelstra

When I was a player I'd black out and shoot for hours.

Erik Spoelstra

South Floridians, we can relate to storms where you just brace and hold your breath and even when you're holding your breath you know the worst is coming.

Erik Spoelstra