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The Miami head coach mentioned that from Zamboanga, he went to Manila to continue holding basketball clinics in the capital. The recently-concluded National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals saw Filipino fans being divided into two groups: one being the fans of the newly-crowned champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the other one being the ones who rooted for Coach Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat due to Spoelstra being a Filipino-American. But he said his mother imparted Filipino values to him, and his trips to the country since 2009 have confirmed that, along with the understanding that being pathologically devoted to hoops is as sure a sign as any that Spoelstra is in touch with his Filipino side. A cordon of teachers encircled the court and shooed away students who tried to rush in for autographs. Of course, the head count still clocked in somewhere between 50 and 100 guests, and Uncle Tony laid out a feast. Around the corner, near the bathrooms and Uncle Tony’s pool and natural hot-spring Jacuzzi, was a similar banner from one of Spoelstra’s previous visits. Earlier in the week he attended a PBA playoff game, but instead of sitting in the courtside seats any team would have happily provided him, lockout regulations required him to buy tickets. A review of Classic Cavs: The Fifty Greatest Wins in Cleveland Cavaliers History. As the night wore on, the DJ cranked through “Careless Whisper,” “You Are Not Alone,” and ever more Air Supply. “This was a night I will never forget as over 200 people welcomed us to the Philippines with open arms,” Spoelstra shared. For years, Magpayo tried to get Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra — a two-time NBA champion whose mother is of Filipino descent — to attend … A few of the students looked up; their black bangs were sweat-plastered to their foreheads and a hint of panic was in their eyes. Since his father is American, his parents spoke in English, and for the most part he only heard … Filipino heritage Servers in white uniforms dished out lechon — roast suckling pig — from trays on red-tableclothed tables. He moved with his family to Wisconsin in the early 1990s, then retired to the Philippines with his wife shortly before Spoelstra’s first homecoming in 2009. This year the family gathering was especially sweet because Spoelstra brought his sister, Monica, who hadn’t been to the country in 37 years. He went on to write about his Filipino roots. I don't want to miss out on those moments,". “That blew us away,” Fizdale said. “Up!” The pattern — “Stance! It’s almost impossible to imagine another NBA coach — let’s say George Karl — dribbling through cones and doing defensive slides as part of some fairly lame PR event. Then again, having an experienced NBA coach who has three NBA championships under his belt- one as an assistant coach and back-to-back titles as head coach in 2012 to 2013, could do wonders for the national team. Obviously, he wouldn’t, but he makes you feel that way.”. Let's start with the obvious: Erik Spoelstra is the second-longest tenured head coach in the NBA and has already been recognized as one of the best coaches in the league. What was it like to play street games? His family’s consumption of Philippine cuisine was limited to staple dishes such as chicken adobo and sacks of frozen lumpia shanghai — little pork- and beef-filled spring rolls the size of stubby fingers. “And then from there, you’re like, ‘OK, where else can I play? Before long, Spoelstra was standing with about six hotel employees, his smiling face and plain, yellow polo shirt in the middle of a burst of purple and turquoise restaurant uniforms and chef’s toques. “For basketball enthusiasts, it’s a dreamland,” Spoelstra said. “Every little alley had some crazy basket hung up on a telephone poll and made out of a garbage can and you saw kids playing barefoot, like a basketball oasis,” Spoelstra said. They walked to the basketball court, where about 50 students wearing gym pants and gray NBA Cares T-shirts waited under the shade of an aluminum roof. In a hoops-mad nation like the Philippines, people take enormous pride in seeing one of their own as head coach of not just any NBA franchise, but the team whose uniforms LeBron James and Dwyane Wade wear.1. NBA FIT’s cause was a worthy one, and especially necessary in the Philippines, where a typical diet might consist of little more than white rice and pork or — if you’re on a budget — white rice and canned sardines. Earlier that night he promised to bring the trophy to the Philippines in the not-too-distant future. Since he visited during the semifinals, however, the floor seats were sold out and Spoelstra watched from a lower mezzanine area of the Araneta Coliseum. The Spoelstra charm was on display throughout his week in Manila, and not just among his fellow basketball coaches. During his years as the University of Portland’s starting point guard,3 the motherland had a way of creeping into discussions about Spoelstra’s basketball career. This, among other things, is what I love about the Philippines. If provided with the players that can run his system, Spoelstra could also change the culture with Gilas the same way he does with the Heat. Everything from five-peso coins to the right to have the losers crawl between my legs to plastic baggies filled with ice water. Every 30 minutes or so a 12-year-old boy named Renz would stand on the steps in front of the house and serenade the crowd. Those guys are all going to go back to their teams and be at a whole new level.”, Cone said Spoelstra is unlike any other NBA coach he has met. When Kammerer tried to sign a notebook, another student placed his notebook above the other one, and when Kammerer tried to sign that notebook, another kid jammed his forearm between the page and Kammerer’s pen. “There’s no place like this in the world.”. That morning, I walked to Torres from an elevated train stop near Manila’s Chinese cemetery. “I was fired up.” In Spoelstra, Kelly saw a 6-foot-3 point guard with a Division I pedigree and the size to play anywhere but center in the Philippine league. Respect this game, and it will respect you back.” Coming from almost anyone else, that line might ring false — just another boilerplate-gilded sports cliché. It's almost an impossible possibility but who knows? The initial frenzy wore off just as Spoelstra arrived. Spoelstra’s relatives at the party all wore custom shirts that contained a well-meaning if slightly awkward acrostic tribute to the guest of honor: Spoelstra changed into a T-shirt of similar vintage that read “AKO PO SI COACH SPO” — I’m Coach Spo. That’s how we could tell what a big deal hoops was.”, Here’s Spoelstra, toward the end of August’s trip to Manila, during a clinic he conducted for Filipino coaches: “We have a player on our team — very successful guy. They included fast-food staples such as Burger King, Chowking, and Jollibee; Dennis the Grill Boy, whose window signage promised UNLIMITED RICE; a pork-rind emporium called Guby’s Chicharon Espesyal;2 and the Spam Jam kiosk. What was it like? Former U.S. “They even knew that Bill Russell has won more titles than any player in league history and they knew the number of rings he has – 11,” he shared. Spoelstra spent two of his afternoons during this year’s trip at the Mall of Asia’s activity center, an open-air atrium looking out on Manila Bay. and Lonely Planet guide to the country — utang na loob and pakikisama. All rights reserved. Since childhood, the core of his identity has been basketball, and that probably won’t ever change. Spoelstra had long wanted to return to the Philippines, but he never found the right opportunity to schedule a trip during the 1990s and early 2000s, when he was clawing his way up the Heat’s organizational chart, from the video-coordinator’s “dungeon” to the coaches’ bench. Outside the van were more than a thousand restless teenagers eager to see the NBA’s only half-Filipino head coach. Will Erik Spoelstra, the Filipino-American head coach of the Miami Heat, consider calling the shots for Gilas Pilipinas? Memorable experience The former means “debt of gratitude,” and Spoelstra shows it by returning to the country year after year to share his love and knowledge of basketball. Spoelstra, 38, is the youngest head coach in the NBA and the first Asian-American to hold such position. Spoelstra was hustled away to a classroom for a press conference, but Fizdale and Kammerer were left in the scrum. Every time he does, the reception he receives — from media and everyday fans — gets warmer. After the group photo the students were given the green light to pursue any autograph or cell phone picture they desired, and in a matter of seconds bedlam ruled the courtyard.

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