Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra has enjoyed consistent success since he was appointed as the head coach in 2008. Jimmy Butler and company came out winners in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to set up a Finals date with the Denver Nuggets. This will be the 6th time that the Miami Heat has made it to the Finals under their Spoelstra. Back in 2010, he was still a novice coach with stars such as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh on the roster. During this time Spoelstra endured a difficult moment.
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James appeared to intentionally bump into his coach after the Heat lost to the Denver Nuggets to open with a 9-8 start to the season. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst discussed the moment during episode 2 of “Four Years of Heat.” Windhorst claimed that the bump was absolutely intentional.
The media made a huge story of the incident leading to speculation about Spoelstra’s future. The now 52-year-old responded by appearing utterly confident in front of the media, something Windhorst claimed was aimed at projecting confidence to the players.
Brian Windhorst claims the infamous LeBron James bump on Erik Spoelstra was intentional
The Miami Heat had had a poor start to the season despite having three obvious stars. A 9-7 start to the season worsened after a loss to a talented Dallas Mavericks squad.
The Mavericks, with the likes of Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, and Shawn Marion, ran out 106-95 winners. After the game, LeBron seemed to intentionally bump into Spoelstra.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1663924820772364290
The media immediately picked up the story, claiming that LeBron was frustrated with Spoelstra’s management. In response, Spoelstra projected an air of confidence in front of the media at the next conference. Brian Windhorst claimed that it was a huge moment, and Spoelstra was aiming to project confidence in front of his players:
“The bump was absolutely a message. LeBron doesn’t do that without sending a message. Just far he was willing to go, I am not sure. What I remember is, coming in on Monday, wondering how Erik Spoelstra to a lot of speculation about his job status. And Erik being absolutely as confident as I had ever seen him that entire season. That was a huge moment because while he was certainly projecting it to the media and therefore the public, he was also projecting it to the players.”
Erik Spoelstra laughed away the claim that LeBron James intentionally bumped him
Speaking to TNT’s Ernie Johnson in 2020, Spoelstra claimed that the infamous bump was not intentional. The coach claimed that considering the talent on the team, they were micro-analyzed by the media.
Additionally, the Heat had gone off to a poor start in what was the first season of their “big 3.” Spoelstra said that he and James found the incident hilarious back then as well, claiming that they intentionally bumped into each other only to burst into laughter in the hallways.
The Miami Heat eventually improved, and went off on a 21-1 run after the loss to the Mavericks. They made their way all the way to the Finals, where they again came up against the Mavericks and lost 4-2.
