NextSharkNextShark.com
Latest Newsletter🍵 New alcohol/cancer study in AsiansRead

Article

News
Sports

Filipino American coach Erik Spoelstra voted best head coach in the NBA

Ryan General

Ryan General

October 6, 2022

  • A survey of NBA general managers has chosen the Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra as the basketball league's best coach this year. 

  • Spoelstra acquired 52 percent of the managers’ total votes.

  • Golden State’s Steve Kerr came in second with 22 percent of the vote, while San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich and Phoenix’s Monty Williams were tied for third with 7 percent each.

  • Highlights of Spoelstra’s stellar career include the consecutive NBA championships he led his team to win in 2012 and 2013.

  • The Filipino American coach is reportedly the first Asian American head coach in the history of the four major North American sports leagues and the first Asian American head coach to win an NBA title.

Asian America Daily - in under 5 minutes

Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories, to your inbox daily, for free!

Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive

The Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra was recently recognized by NBA general managers as the basketball league’s best head coach. 

The Filipino American coach, who guided his team to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference last year with a win record of 53-29, acquired 52% of the managers’ total votes. Golden State’s Steve Kerr came in second with 22% of the vote, while San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich and Phoenix’s Monty Williams were tied for third with 7% each.

Spoelstra, 51, was honored with the same recognition the previous season. Highlights of his stellar career include the consecutive NBA championships he led his team to win in 2012 and 2013. At the time, the Heat had talents such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

He is reportedly the first Asian American head coach in the history of the four major sports leagues in North America and also the first Asian American head coach to win an NBA championship.

Spoelstra was elevated to his current position in 2008 and is now in his 12th season as head coach of the Heat. With Spoelstra leading the team, they have maintained the fifth-highest regular season winning percentage in the NBA and claimed the fourth-best postseason winning percentage. Spoelstra has an overall head coaching win record of 660-453.

 

Featured Image via Jump View

Support our Journalism with a Contribution

Many people might not know this, but despite our large and loyal following which we are immensely grateful for, NextShark is still a small bootstrapped startup that runs on no outside funding or loans.

Everything you see today is built on the backs of warriors who have sacrificed opportunities to help give Asians all over the world a bigger voice.

However, we still face many trials and tribulations in our industry, from figuring out the most sustainable business model for independent media companies to facing the current COVID-19 pandemic decimating advertising revenues across the board.

We hope you consider making a contribution so we can continue to provide you with quality content that informs, educates and inspires the Asian community. Even a $1 contribution goes a long way.  Thank you for everyone's support. We love you all and can't appreciate you guys enough.

Support NextShark

Mastercard, Visa, Amex, Discover, Paypal