[Durando] “David [Adelman] was just a little kid, and he could explain what was happening on tape, like in the Finals and things like that,” [Erik] Spoelstra told The Denver Post. “I would be like, ‘Oh, what are they working on?’ He’d go, ‘Oh, watch this edit.’ He would pull the edit.”

Erik Spoelstra’s fondest memories, though, are the tours he took of Rick’s home office after everyone tired of pickleball and finished eating lunch.

Stacks of VHS tapes and scouting reports filled the room, documents of a life in basketball. Spoelstra, whose dad worked for the Blazers, held deep admiration for Rick and always wanted to see the latest film he was studying. The Adelman kids would take Spoelstra into the office and show him around. “One way or another,” he says, “I was always over there.”

As Spoelstra transitioned from playing to coaching and eventually joined Miami as an assistant in 1997, he remained friends with David’s older siblings and even consulted R.J. Adelman about offensive strategy from time to time before R.J. died in 2018. The entire family, Spoelstra says, has “meant the world to me. I’ve said it many times, but Rick was my role model. That’s why I got into coaching.”

The respect runs both ways. Spoelstra, forever a Rick Adelman disciple even after decades in Miami, can credit himself as one of the first people outside the family who recognized where David was headed.

“At a young age, we all just felt David would be the best of all of us,” he said. “He had a different level of maturity and understanding of the game. … David was dissecting it at a deeper level. And wherever Rick went, David was always at his side. So he’s been ready for this opportunity for a long time. I think he has a great feel for people, and the basketball acumen speaks for itself.”