Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and his wife Nikki announced a “difficult” life decision in the midst of the team’s 2023-24 regular season, but it isn’t related to basketball. They have divorced after seven years of marriage.
“We have made the difficult yet amicable decision to jointly file to formally end our marriage,” Erik Spoelstra and Nikki Spoelstra wrote in a joint statement issued to the Miami Herald. “We are both grateful for our relationship and remain fully committed to co-parenting our children and continuing to make them our shared priority. We appreciate everyone’s support as we move to the next stage of our lives and thank you for respecting our family’s privacy.”
Erik Spoelstra has accomplished a whole lot as a head coach since he got married in the summer of 2016. Namely, he coached the Heat to a pair of NBA Finals appearances in 2020 and 2023. Miami lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the 2020 championship series and lost to the Denver Nuggets in five games in last season’s NBA Finals series.
His Heat squad isn’t exactly playing its best basketball at the moment. The team is riding a three-game losing streak with losses to the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks. The Heat now own a 10-8 record, which is tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the seventh-best record in the Eastern Conference.
Granted, part of the reason for Miami’s current losing streak can be attributed to the absence of star wing Jimmy Butler, who has sat out the team’s last two games with an ankle injury.
He is arguably the Heat’s best player, seeing as how he is averaging 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 41.5 percent from 3-point range across 14 appearances with Miami so far this season.
While the season is still young, Butler’s 3-point percentage of 41.5 percent on 2.9 attempts per game is the best of his pro career to this point by a wide margin.
Erik Spoelstra and the Heat will have a chance to get back to their winning ways when they take on star point guard Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers at home on Thursday night.
A win against Indiana likely won’t come easy though, as the Pacers own a 3-2 road record on the season and are ahead of the Heat in the Eastern Conference standings with a 9-7 overall record.
