As the Miami Heat enters its 38th season in franchise history, center Bam Adebayo and coach Erik Spoelstra enter their ninth consecutive season together.
It’s a rare player-coach partnership in today’s ever-changing NBA, as Adebayo is one of only three players in the league who are entering their ninth straight season with the same head coach. The other two players are the accomplished Golden State Warriors duo of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green with coach Steve Kerr.
“That’s the beauty of time,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat set to open the regular season on Wednesday against the Magic in Orlando (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). “But, unfortunately, we don’t get enough of that in this business. There’s just so much turnover and there’s so much change that you find yourself developing new relationships year after year. But when you have opportunities to coach somebody for multiple years, you get to know each other on a much deeper level. And I treasure that.”
Adebayo has come a long way during his time under Spoelstra, as he was drafted by the Heat as a 19-year-old with the 14th overall pick in 2017 and has since turned into a franchise cornerstone. Adebayo, who has already been selected for three NBA All-Star Games and is the only player in franchise history to make one of the league’s All-Defensive teams in five different seasons while with the Heat, is also entering his third season as the team’s captain.
Spoelstra has also come a long way, as he’s entering his 18th season as the Heat’s head coach after initially being hired by the organization as a video coordinator in 1995. Spoelstra has since been selected in the league’s annual preseason survey of general managers as the best head coach in the NBA for each of the last six years and was recently named the new head coach of the Team USA men’s national team through 2028.
“I always say this, I hated Spo my rookie year,” Adebayo, 28, said with a laugh. “I felt like he didn’t give me a chance as early as I felt like I should have. I got the opportunity. But it taught me to obviously be patient, be humble, and really look at what’s ahead of you. But other than that, our communication has really been the biggest growth difference. Before I’d be scared to walk in his office, I was scared to ask him questions because I didn’t know. I would try to ask the assistant coaches to see how he was thinking.”
Now, Adebayo and Spoelstra meet before every Heat practice to discuss that day’s work and other things going on in their lives.
“We talk to each other every practice. Before every practice, we have a five to ten-minute conversation depending on what it is,” Adebayo said. “I mean, it could be about kids, it could be about life, it could be about basketball. So, it varies from time to time.
“Now, I can text him, I can call him, check on him, check on his kids. And it’s become more of a brotherhood than coach and player.”
Adebayo and Spoelstra’s bond was strengthened by their shared Olympic experience.
Adebayo, as one of the big men on Team USA’s roster, and Spoelstra, as a Team USA assistant coach, won a gold medal together at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“It definitely has grown probably from the USA experience because we were each able to see each other in a different way and spend a lot of time overseas in those moments that I call in-between,” Spoelstra, 54, said of his relationship with Adebayo. “Grabbing a meal together, having coffee together, being on a bus together, hanging out after practice, and me not being the head coach. Me being an assistant coach and then sometimes just being a friend to each other. I love that. I wish we had more of those opportunities in this business, but that’s just not the way it is. And that’s why I’m truly grateful for that.”
Spoelstra hasn’t had many opportunities to coach a player for as long as he has been Adebayo’s head coach. Since Spoelstra became the Heat’s head coach in 2008, Udonis Haslem and Dwyane Wade are the only players he has coached longer than the eight seasons he has already been with Adebayo.
“It’s similar to how I feel coaching Dwayne and UD for all those years,” Spoelstra said. “Looking back on it, you just have so much gratitude for all the different chapters because you experience everything. You experience the good. You experience the friction. You experience the friendship, the experiences, the shared memories. And I just treasure that with Bam. “
This season is a new challenge for Adebayo and Spoelstra, as they work together to lead one of the youngest Heat rosters in recent years. The oldest player on Miami’s current roster is 32-year-old guard Norman Powell.
That makes the player-coach leadership partnership of Adebayo and Spoelstra even more important than usual.
“We just got to make sure we’re on the same page and we’re voicing the same thing,” Adebayo said. “We can’t have the two people who’ve been here the longest voicing two different things. So for us, it’s being on the same page and understanding we’re echoing the same call, the same message.”
Spoelstra is already the winningest head coach in Heat history in both the regular season (787 wins) and playoffs (110 wins). He has also already helped lead the Heat to NBA championships in 2012 and 2013 since becoming the team’s head coach.
Meanwhile, Adebayo is producing at a pace that would make him one of the greatest Heat players ever if he spends all or most of his career with the organization.
At Adebayo’s current pace, he and Wade could end up as No. 1 and No. 2 as the Heat’s all-time career leaders in categories like two-point field goals made, free throws made, assists, steals and points, among others. Adebayo is also on his way to overtaking Udonis Haslem as the Heat’s all-time leading rebounder within the next two seasons.
But unlike Haslem and Wade, Adebayo still doesn’t have an NBA championship. That’s what Spoelstra and Adebayo are working toward together, however long it takes to get that title.
“I know what I’m missing to fully be at that seat at that table,” said Adebayo, who has fallen short in each of the first two NBA Finals appearances of his career. “But as far as being mentioned with those two [Haslem and Wade], man, it’s a great honor.
“Obviously, when you look around this league, you don’t see a lot of dudes lasting 10 years on the same team, let alone a coach. So, man, just being able to build that bond over the years. Going through heartache, but also seeing each other succeed and ascend in this league. It’s crazy. You got to pinch yourself sometimes because it does go fast. It felt like yesterday I was just walking in here and he was just getting to know me. To now, we’re about to be nine years in.”