Spo is the man.
Posted: Sat May 6, 2017 9:46 am
It's nice to see everyone finally acknowledging just what a good coach Spo is.
That Spoelstra should be considered an incentive to play in Miami was made clear during conversations with multiple players in the final two months of the season.
When I asked James Johnson why he said this has been the most enjoyable experience of his career, he said: “Just the consistency you see from the coach. I've never had that before ever. When you have consistency like that, it makes it easier to play for him, it makes it easier to want to win for him and makes it easier to build trust level.
“When I say consistency, I [mean] it's doing the same thing, not giving you the same minutes every game, but consistently getting on you enough, praising you a little bit, holding me to my word. When you get a consistent coach you look up to like coach Spo, it makes things easier.”
Forward Okaro White offered this, unsolicited: “Coach Spo, he wants to give you confidence. If he sees you lagging a little bit of confidence, the thing with him is ‘take a deep breath, be you. It's fine when you be you.’ He has the trust in me that I will always give my best, always play hard. One of the games, I think it was Toronto, I was a little down on myself. He's like: 'Relax.' I said, 'I'm not helping the team.' He said 'every time you step on the court, you play your hardest. That's all we can ask for.’
“He brought me down and gave me a confidence boost. He's a great coach for so many things and I didn't understand until I was here and was able to see it.”
And Ellington, late in the season, offered this response to a question in which Spoelstra wasn’t even mentioned: “Coach Spo -- that's what keeps my engine going. He's been great since the beginning. From when I first stepped on the court, he looked at me and said, 'I want you to get up as many threes as you can.' You hear that and you're like, ‘Oh. All right.’ Let me find my spots where I can get them at, some good looks.’ I'm not going to go out and fire a bunch of bad shots….
“Teams emphasize winning but it's a little different here. It's the standard. It's the culture. It's the lifestyle. You've got winning organizations and you have losing organizations. This is a winning organization that breeds champions and competitors.”
