As is customary with interviews following championship losses, Spoelstra was moved to tears, collecting himself for roughly 30 seconds before fielding questions from media following the Heat’s 106-93 series-ending loss to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.
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The Heat certainly gave the Lakers a fight in the series, though Game 6 was a complete blowout and wasn’t nearly as close as the score dictates.
While a Finals defeat sucks, Coach “Spo” has nothing to feel bad about. Already considered one of the upper-echelon coaches in the game, he pushed his injury-riddled Heat squad to six games with a team that steamrolled through the NBA bubble. There’s no shame there. After all, Spoelstra has three rings to his name — one as an assistant and two as a head coach — so getting back to the top should be a moment of pride for him.
Spoelstra spent the majority of his presser praising his team and the toughness of the players, including Goran Dragic, who texted Spoelstra at 4 a.m., begging for an opportunity to play amidst injury.
Still, you can understand Spoelstra’s devastation: months inside a bubble, away from normal life, coming so close to the mountaintop before tumbling off. Should the NBA get back to a little semblance of normalcy in 2021, then Spoelstra might shed some more tears — maybe tears of joy should the Heat push for the NBA Finals again.
