Heat’s Spoelstra has been intentional in building relationship with Giannis: ‘You can’t force it’

Miami Heat admin October 20, 2026 0 Comments

Heat’s Spoelstra has been intentional in building relationship with Giannis: ‘You can’t force it’

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has seen a lot and learned a lot during his 18 seasons as the team’s head coach. Many of those lessons have come from coaching superstar players.

From Dwyane Wade to LeBron James to Jimmy Butler, Spoelstra has learned something different from each one.

Spoelstra’s next challenge is getting the most out of new Heat superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Heat acquired the two-time NBA MVP through a trade with the Milwaukee Bucks this past offseason.

“I reflect on a lot of the mistakes I made when I was a younger coach, and I’ve changed a lot over the years,” said Spoelstra, who is entering his 19th season as the Heat’s head coach. “And I’ve worked hard at seeing the human side more of players and the things that they have to go through, but also what they want to get out of the game. And the great players all want to win at that highest level, and they want to be held to a standard. And they want to be able to trust that the organization and coaching staff and the players in the locker room all have that same drive to be able to win at that highest level. That’s what they’re driven by is winning.”

But Spoelstra doesn’t want to just stop there. He wants to know the layers behind Antetokounmpo’s maniacal drive to win.

“The great players understand the bigger picture and want to win and want to know about the plan and want to know how to get there,” Spoelstra continued, with the new-look Heat set to begin the regular season on Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., ESPN). “I think I’ve understood that, in general. But I think it’s also been helpful just to understand the why a little bit more and try to dig into that a little bit more instead of the how. We know what the what is, but dig into the why. That takes getting to know people and trying to go through something deeper than just an X and O discussion.”

So, Spoelstra and a few other Heat coaches made a trip to Greece to visit Antetokounmpo’s hometown in August. They spent time with Antetokounmpo and got to know him, even visiting Filathlitikos Indoor Gym in Athens where Antetokounmpo began playing the sport.

“I was interested about him and his background,” Spoelstra, 55, said. “And to be honest, I just wanted to see that gym of where he played and where he started the dream of chasing something big in this beautiful game of basketball. I watched the documentary, and a lot of our staff had already been over there in that gym and they were talking about it. I was like, ‘I got to see that gym.’ I want to get to know him. I want to see the gym and hear from him what actually happened in that gym when he was 15, 16, 17 years old. That was a cool thing to experience and then to hear about his journey and to be over there.

“But it wasn’t over the top in terms of, ‘Hey, here’s what our offense is going to be and here’s what defense we’re running.’ It’s breaking bread and getting to know each other.”

It gave Spoelstra a chance to get to know Antetokounmpo and Antetokounmpo a chance to get to know Spoelstra before their first season together.

“I’m sure he probably wants to get to know me, too,” said Spoelstra, who is currently the NBA’s longest active-tenured head coach. “He’s a highly intelligent player. All the greats are. They’re extremely intelligent. And the kinds of questions he asks are not run-of-the-mill questions. They’re deeper questions, whether it’s about family or basketball. And I’m sure he wanted to understand a little bit more about me and where I’m coming from, just in general. I want him to feel as comfortable as possible coming into it. But with that said, you can’t force it. It’s going to take some time — the relationship. We’ll have to go through some stuff to really get to know each other. I cherish those opportunities.”

Antetokounmpo, 31, agrees that his player-coach relationship with Spoelstra can’t be forced.

“It’s got to be organic,” said Antetokounmpo, who spent the first 13 seasons of his NBA career with the Bucks before being traded to the Heat this summer. “He comes up to me, he talks to me. He just lets it be organic. He doesn’t force it. I’m the same way. I don’t force it.”

Spoelstra is the seventh head coach who Antetokounmpo has played for during his NBA career, including interim head coaches (Larry Drew, Jason Kidd, Joe Prunty, Mike Budenholzer, Adrian Griffin, Doc Rivers and Spoelstra).

Spoelstra hasn’t reached out to any of them to pick their brains on coaching Antetokounmpo. That’s by design.

“I want to start this relationship from scratch without any preconceived perceptions about him,” Spoelstra said. “We are one of the most important relationships in the building, and we have to dedicate the time to get to know each other and get on the same page about everything. And that doesn’t happen overnight. I don’t want to force it in the first dinner that we have or even when I went over there to Greece.

“It’s getting to know each other and understanding where each of us are coming from, and what we want out of a season, and what our thoughts are about that process. But also just getting to know each other about what makes him tick and what’s important to him. His family, obviously, is extremely important to him. Those are probably things I missed my first couple years of head coaching. Those kinds of discussions. You don’t have to get right into the basketball.”

So far, Antetokounmpo has enjoyed being coached by Spoelstra.

“He’s going to push me. I can tell he’s going to push me,” Antetokounmpo said of Spoelstra. “He’s going to be very direct with me. He’s going to tell me what he expects of me. He’s going to keep me accountable. He’s going to push me. He’s going to challenge me, from what I’ve realized. I’m not the guy that goes back and forth with the coach. I’m just going to take it, listen. He’s been there. He knows what it takes to win.”

But getting used to being coached by Spoelstra has required an adjustment from Antetokounmpo. After all, Antetokounmpo battled Spoelstra-led Heat teams in three different playoff series during the past seven seasons, with the Heat winning two of the three series.

“At the end of the day, we’ve been competing against one another for many, many years,” Antetokounmpo said. “In my mind, when I wake up and I see him in the morning still, I’m like, ‘Oh s—, oh s—.’ When he talks to me, it’s weird. It’s different. But I know that he’s about the right stuff. I hope he believes that I’m about the right stuff. I’m going to try to do right by him, right by the team, and hopefully we’re on the same page.”

That’s what is most important to Antetokounmpo, being on the same page with Spoelstra.

“At the end of the day, the head coach and the best player, they don’t necessarily have to be always best friends,” Antetokounmpo said. “They have to be on the same page. When he says something, I’ve got to be like a parrot with the same message. We have to always be on the same page because that’s the only way it’s going to work. That’s what I do.”