Inside The Heat

Erik Spoelstra coaching, with kids in tow, after fire destroys his house

Ethan J. Skolnick|
Ethan Skolnick

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Miami Heat

Erik Spoelstra's three children, two young boys and a girl, wanted to watch a basketball game.

"So I figured I better come to work," the Miami Heat coach said with a smile, prior to the Heat facing the Charlotte Hornets at Kaseya Center on Friday night.

It's remarkable that Spoelstra could smile at all, after what happened early Wednesday morning, as he was returning with the team from Denver at the completion of a four-game road trip. He found his house on fire, a blaze that required more than 20 units to contain.

Spoelstra was captured in videos, watching everything burn. But he knew that his kids were safe with their mother in another residence, and no one was inside. There has been no cause released yet by authorities, pending an investigation.

He spoke Friday of gratitude for that, as well as for the work of first responders to contain the damage before it reached the rest of his Coral Gables neighborhood, and the support from the Miami Heat organization and the greater NBA community.

Spoelstra spoke for about three minutes about the situation and his family, before turning the forum to basketball questions, but no one really had those. The focus was on Spoelstra as a person; he's well-known to local media since starting with the Heat as a video coordinator in 1995 and being elevated to head coach in 2008 -- now the longest-tenured coach in the NBA.

"It's obviously been something that's been uniquely challenging for our family, but the Spoelstras are resislient, right?" he said, looking at his kids, as they shrugged.

"As you can see, I have my kids up here right now, so things in the house, those things can be replaced," he continued. "But if they can't be replaced, it really doesn't matter. This is really what matters, the family, our closest ones, our dog also was safe, and not in the house. Thank God. We're just grateful, grateful that everybody's safe, and in a great place."

Spoelstra called the first responders "very kind."

"And I'm just appreciative to the Heat family," Spoelstra said. "Pat (Riley), Micky (Arison), Nick (Arison), Andy (Elisburg), everybody reached out, right away. And asked if I needed a few days. And I'm appreciative for staying on the routine. The kids wanted to come to the game tonight, so I figured if they want to come to the game, then I better work. The routine has been good for us today, the routine has been good for them, they had to go to school. No days off."

Final Heat-Hornets injury report

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Ethan J. Skolnick
ETHAN J. SKOLNICK

Ethan has covered all major sports -- in South Florida and beyond -- since 1996 and is one of the longest-tenured fully credentialed members of the Miami Heat. He has covered, in total, more than 30 NBA Finals, Super Bowls, World Series and Stanley Cup Finals. After working full-time for the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Bleacher Report and several other outlets, he founded the Five Reasons Sports Network in 2019 and began hosting the Five on the Floor podcast as part of that network. The podcast is regularly among the most downloaded one-team focused NBA podcasts in the nation, and the network is the largest independent sports outlet in South Florida, by views, listens and social media reach. He has a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and an M.S. from Columbia University. TWITTER: @EthanJSkolnick and @5ReasonsSports EMAIL: fllscribe@gmail.com

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