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Miami Heat president Pat Riley just finished his 30th season with the organization. That milestone was recognized at the start of this past season, with the Heat dedicating its home court to Riley.<\/p>\n
But Riley isn\u2019t the only one who reached that mark this year, as Heat coach Erik Spoelstra also just finished his 30th season with the organization. While Spoelstra\u2019s milestone wasn\u2019t publicly celebrated this past season, Riley made sure to acknowledge it during his season-ending news conference last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cErik has been doing this for 30 years intensely as the video coordinator up to being my main assistant coach, 17 straight years coaching,\u201d Riley said.<\/p>\n
Then Riley went out of his way to make it known that he believes Spoelstra needs a break after a rough season that included Jimmy Butler\u2019s ugly and dramatic exit, a 10-game losing skid and being on the wrong side of the most lopsided playoff series in NBA history.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been here for 30 years, never took a year off and never takes a break,\u201d Riley continued. \u201cHe\u2019s had some personal issues in his life and I see the strain and stress on him like I\u2019ve never seen it before. This takes a toll. And when I talked to him the other day, he said he was going to Hawaii and I said: \u2018Good, I\u2019ll see you in training camp then.\u2019 That\u2019s not going to happen, but he needs a break and he needs time to reflect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spoelstra, 54, just finished his 17th season as the Heat\u2019s head coach after initially being hired by the Heat as the video coordinator in 1995. With Gregg Popovich recently stepping down as the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 coach, Spoelstra is now the NBA\u2019s longest active tenured head coach with one team.<\/p>\n
Spoelstra is also already the winningest head coach in franchise history in both the regular season (787 wins) and playoffs (110 wins), passing Riley on both lists.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as Spo goes, he\u2019s in great shape. He just needs some time to decompress,\u201d Riley said. \u201cReally, he just needs time. Every coach in this league after a season, it is a grind. It really is a grind. I mean, hockey is a grind, basketball is a grind. Guys make a lot of money and they get judged for how much money they make versus the grind that they have to go through. And the NBA is hard. You\u2019re playing probably up to 100 games per year and you\u2019re on the road half the year, you\u2019re in at 3 a.m. It\u2019s just a grind.\u201d<\/p>\n
One area that Spoelstra needs to address after taking some time to decompress this offseason is the Heat\u2019s inefficient offense. While the Heat closed this regular season with a top-10 defensive rating for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons, the Heat also finished with a bottom-10 offensive rating for the third straight regular season \u2014 21st-ranked this season, 21st-ranked for the 2023-24 season and 25th-ranked for the 2022-23 season among the NBA\u2019s 30 teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll figure this out,\u201d Riley said, expressing confidence in Spoelstra. \u201cHe knows, first, we need to defend and he needs to make whatever kind of changes he needs to make when it comes to the offense. We\u2019ll talk about that. If he wants to listen to me, he will. If he doesn\u2019t, he has a lot of great people working for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Riley, he made it clear during his season-ending news conference last week that he\u2019s not thinking about retirement even after turning 80 in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just turned 80 and I\u2019m proud of it. Eighty is the new 60,\u201d said Riley, who spent 11 seasons as the Heat\u2019s head coach and has served as the team president since he arrived in 1995. \u201cThat\u2019s how I look at it. I feel great. I\u2019m competitive as hell. I love being in the bowl. I\u2019m an Irish guy, so there\u2019s a depressive disorder that I have from being just Irish and hating losing because it makes me miserable. When you\u2019re miserable, you get a little bit depressed. And we all have that in us. All of us have a depressive disorder and that\u2019s when things go bad. I got a little depressed after those last two [playoff games against the Cleveland Cavaliers last month].\u201d<\/p>\n
After being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in two straight seasons, Riley\u2019s challenge is to improve a Heat roster that finished in 10th place in the Eastern Conference this season.<\/p>\n
During Riley\u2019s successful 30-year run with the organization, the Heat has made 24 postseason appearances while making seven trips to the NBA Finals and winning its only three NBA championships. But the Heat\u2019s last championship came more than a decade ago in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Heat owner Micky Arison] and [Heat chief executive officer Nick Arison] and I met, they\u2019ve been very good to me,\u201d Riley said. \u201cThey said, \u2018Carry on, Pat.\u2019 I\u2019m going to carry on and try to make this thing better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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