Erik Spoelstra will reportedly take on a new brand of heat at the helm of the United States’ men’s national basketball team.
Erik Spoelstra is reportedly taking his talents from South Beach to Los Angeles.
Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the tenured head coach of the Miami Heat will succeed Steve Kerr as the head coach of the United States’ Men’s National Basketball Team, set to be the leader of the squad that will seek to defend home hardwood at the 2028 Summer Olympics in the City of Angels.
Spoelstra, 54, was an assistant for the team’s most recent gold medal run in Paris in 2024, which saw the Americans capture their fifth straight middle spot at the podium. The United States is hosting its first edition of the Summer Games since 1996 in Atlanta, which saw their men’s squad down Yugoslavia in the final.
This will mark the third straight Summer Games to feature a new head coach at the helm since Mike Krzyzewski oversaw the first three parts of this gold tally. Greg Popovich took over for the 2021 Games in Tokyo before Kerr, one of Popovich’s assistants in Japan, took over.
But Charnia hinted that such a pattern could be broken while discussing the news on Thursday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s going to be multiple cycles here for Erik Spoelstra,” Charania said. “The job that he’s done as an NBA coach, the job he did on the international level, he really impressed a lot of the players, a lot of the Team USA officials in the last Olympics.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will feature new coaches in their local showcase, as Kara Lawson took over for Cheryl Reeve on the latter side. Spoelstra’s first major showing will be the next FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2027 in Qatar, where Team USA will look to recover from a disappointing fourth-place finish from 2023.
Spoelstra is set to embark on his 18th season at the helm of the Heat. His tenure has featured four visits to the NBA Finals, including two triumphs in 2012 and 2013. He enters this season as the longest-tenured active head coach in the NBA after Popovich stepped down from his perch in San Antonio and currently places 17th on the all-time coaching wins list at 787. That’s good for second-most among men who spent their entire head coaching career with one team behind only Popovich’s all-time best tally.
Spoelstra and the Heat prevailed in the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament to place eighth last season, earning their sixth consecutive postseason appearance. Miami’s 2025-26 season opens on Oct. 22 against the Orlando Magic.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
