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How Team USA’s Yin and Yang coaches Kerr, Spoelstra balance each other originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
LAS VEGAS – If opposites truly attract, Team USA Men’s Basketball has the perfect pairing on its coaching staff in head coach Steve Kerr and assistant Erik Spoelstra.
Kerr, 58, has won four NBA titles as the Warriors’ head coach behind a philosophy centered on his four core values of competitiveness, mindfulness, compassion and joy. The last of the four, joy, might be what he rates highest on his own personal pyramid.
Spoelstra, 53, has won two championships as the Miami Heat’s head coach while building “Heat Culture” into what feels like its own religion. The Heat’s mantra that was painted this past season on their court during the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament is a pledge to be the “hardest working, best conditioned, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team.”
Joy isn’t part of the Heat’s equation. Their euphoria comes from the triumph of knowing they’re always one percent physically and mentally stronger than their opponent.
“Being coached by Steve I’d say is a little more laid back,” Heat star big man Bam Adebayo, and member of Team USA, said to NBC Sports Bay Area on Tuesday after their final day of training camp at UNLV. “Especially compared to somebody like Spo. Spo’s just real intense.
“That’s just his nature. He’s real intense. He’s a savant when it comes to studying basketball. So I’d just say the laid-backness of coach Kerr is definitely one thing that stands out.”
The two coaches have won a combined six NBA championships as head coaches and have reached the NBA Finals 12 times, making six trips each to basketball’s biggest stage. They’re two of only four current head coaches named as the league’s 15 greatest coaches of all time as part of the NBA celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2022.
But neither Kerr nor Spoelstra was really ever supposed to be in this position to begin with.
Kerr wasn’t a major recruit coming out of Palisades High School before he became a star at the University of Arizona. Spoelstra was selected…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/team-usas-yin-yang-coaches-204728071.html
Author : NBC Sports BayArea
Publish date : 2024-07-10 20:47:28
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