Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra will join the USA Basketball coaching staff for the team’s Olympic preparations in Las Vegas next month.
Spoelstra will be involved with the U.S. select team, which features a group of players that are brought in to compete against the Olympic roster.
This will be Spoelstra’s first stint with USA Basketball, and he will coach alongside San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.
“I really just want to be a part of the program,” Spoelstra said. “I’m always pushing myself to get better in the offseasons; I go visit people and all that stuff. This is going to be a basketball immersion. I mean, the dinners, the team meetings … for where I am right now in my career, I think this is the perfect thing for a summer of development.”
While Spoelstra will be a part of the preparation, he will not be going to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Popvich’s assistants, Steve Kerr, Jay Wright and Lloyd Pierce will accompany him for the games, but Spoelstra will still have a role in preparing the team.
This season, Spoelstra led the Heat to the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, but they were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.
