NBA ALL-STAR MEDIA DAY

February 19, 2022

Erik Spoelstra

Media Day Press Conference

Q. On experimenting more with LeBron James when coaching him.

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I feel remiss about that. If I knew he was willing to play center, I'd have done that 10 years ago. He played 1 through 4 anyway but put all the chips in and decide to run all five positions. Ron Rothstein, my old assistant coach, had 40 years of experience in this league and was with the Bad Boys with Chuck Daly and our first head coach at the Heat. He was a great mentor as a young coach getting into this business, but he always said to me back then 10 years ago, he was like, if we started LeBron the entire season at any one of the positions, he would be the best player in the league and the best player at that position, whether it was the 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.

We should have tried it one of those years. That would have been pretty cool.

But then the second thing is longevity. He'll play at this level as long as he chooses to. He's that committed to everything behind the scenes and taking care of his body, the science, the rest, and he's redefining what the possibilities are for human performance, and that should be very inspiring for the young generation coming up, that they could easily play 20 years and play at a high level.

Q. Have you gotten any texts from any of your players?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: No, they all told us that before we went out, kind of letting us know where they were going to be and keep working on their suntans, which I hope they do. We've worked extremely hard this season, and there's been a lot of diversities, a lot of things that have been unpredictable. I want our guys to unplug, come back with a major suntan and get ready for a great push and final run before the Playoffs.

Q. On teams employing small ball and position-less lineups in today’s NBA.

ERIK SPOELSTRA: It's all cyclical. Whatever the trend is for the current NBA, and if everybody is doing it, then the advantage is probably when somebody is doing something different, just like when teams were really big 15 years ago and we played small and played fast and shot more threes, that became a competitive advantage. It's less of an advantage when everybody is playing that style.

It also takes the right personnel and the right kind of bigs, and you're seeing that right now in this league. There are bigs that can really make you pay, and the kind of bigs that would also have been very successful in the '90s. They're able to have a great impact on this game, as well.

Q. Going back to Darius [Garland] for a second, is there a skill set or a trait that stands out about him?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: I think it's what I mentioned. That's what I notice, when the level of competition went up it brought something more out of him, and that's what all the great players have. When we scrimmaged against the main team, that's where you saw a different Darius. He was playing extremely well, and everybody in the gym noticed it, to the point when they had injuries they selected him to continue on. That was a great testament to his work, his competitiveness and how he played.

Q. How does this year’s All-Star experience feel different for you?

ERIK SPOELSTRA: Yeah, hopefully things are slowing down, and when I say slowing down, it's from the standpoint that you can still be extremely focused and driven and your work ethic can be demanding, but you also want to be able to enjoy the ride. It goes by so fast. I can't believe that was nine years ago. It feels like yesterday. Sometimes that brings me so much joy, and sometimes it makes me sad, realizing these are different chapters, so I just want to be able to reflect and share these memories with great people and these relationships that you develop in locker rooms. They transcend just the team and the season that you're in right there.

I look back on players and teams that I've coached, and they send me texts, and we exchange communication, and ultimately this is a bottom-line business, it's about winning, but it's about those relationships. It's about shared experiences and memories. That's what we'll all take with us when we're all retired and everything. I want to make the most of that.