MIAMI — Even though he was not able to experience most of the moment live, there was ample respect from Heat coach Erik Spoelstra last Sunday when the United States men’s hockey team delivered Olympic gold.
Amid the drama of that overtime victory against Canada in Italy, Spoelstra was tethered to his day job, first running his annual basketball clinic for those with special needs at Kaseya Center, then litigating with the NBA league office over what turned into a $35,000 fine for Heat guard Myron Gardner for the dust-up a night earlier against the Memphis Grizzlies.
But Spoelstra was well aware of the Olympic stakes at those same hours, the same stakes he is now charged to face as the next Olympic coach for Team USA at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Having dealt with similar pressure as an assistant to Steve Kerr during USA Basketball’s run to gold at the 2024 Paris Games, there was deep appreciation for last Sunday’s victory on ice.
“It really was inspiring and incredibly moving,” Spoelstra said, after his time delay in watching the drama unfold and then the ensuing celebration.
As he got caught up, Spoelstra reflected back to the movie “Miracle,” which celebrated what stands etched as the miracle-on-ice victory of the United States over the then-USSR and eventual gold at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.
While basketball gold for Team USA has become practically de rigueur since NBA players entered Olympic play in 1992, the in-and-out approach of the NHL allowing its players to participate in the games, as well as Canadian dominance, had left the U.S. men without Olympic gold since those 1980 Games.
“I didn’t realize that we haven’t won a gold since then,” Spoelstra said. “And so the lead-up to all of this was awesome.”
With Spoelstra appreciative of the emotional drain of the experience, as well as the eventual exhilaration.
“And then you just saw like the emotions. That is real,” he said, having shared in his own such moment alongside Heat center Bam Adebayo at the 2024 Paris Games, with Adebayo expected back on the 2028 roster. “And that’s what the Olympic spirit is all about as a team, coming together for an incredible challenge and then doing it together, and then just having those raw emotions of victory.”
For Spoelstra, some of the most special moments of his association with USA Basketball have been the time spent with family, which again likely will be his approach at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
That’s what had him particularly emotional about the Olympic celebration last week in Milan, when the U.S. team made a point of bringing to the ice the young children of late U.S. hockey star Johnny Gaudreau, who was struck and killed by a drunk driver while bicycling near his New Jersey hometown in August 2024. Gaudreau, who died at 31, was a virtual lock to have been selected to the 2026 U.S. roster, with his jersey on display in the Olympic locker room and then skated on the ice after last Sunday’s victory by Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, among others.
“If you don’t get choked up by the children out there,” Spoelstra said, “you’re not human.”
And with that, with the U.S. players returning to their day jobs, Spoelstra returned to his, amid far less glamour and glory, as he attempts to guide the Heat above the play-in bracket for the first time in four seasons, currently in the midst of a three-game homestand.
But the work at the day job comes also knowing there will be gold to chase soon enough as coach of USA Basketball men’s senior national team, first in the 2027 World Cup in Qatar and then those 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Olympic bar for basketball already has been at the highest level, with the U.S. team of NHL stars offering a reminder of how ultimate unity can provide an ultimate payoff, the next time with the Heat’s coach in charge.
“What just an amazing accomplishment,” Spoelstra said of last Sunday in Italy. “They made everybody in this country so proud.”
