Being a head coach in the NBA is no easy job, especially these days, with the position having very little wiggle room and nearly no job security.
Over the past few weeks, some of the best coaches in the league have been fired, with some teams simply wanting a new voice at the position.
Nick Nurse, Mike Budenholzer, Doc Rivers, and Monty Williams have all been sent packing despite most of them having championship experience and multiple NBA Coach of the Year awards.
Some believe that winning the Coach of the Year award is no longer something coaches strive for unless that coach goes on to win it all, which only one coach can do every year.
Although job security doesn’t seem to exist for head coaches in the modern NBA, a few seem immune to getting the axe, like Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat, who ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins believes it’s a tragedy he has never won the regular-season award for the league’s best head coach via The Pat McAfee Show.
"It's disturbing that Erik Spoelstra has never won a Coach of the Year" ~ @KendrickPerkins #PMSLive #HeatCulture pic.twitter.com/6TcKxjKNhr
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 5, 2023
With the Coach of the Year award losing its luster during this era of the NBA, Spoelstra likely doesn’t mind not having won the regular-season award, especially considering he’s already won two titles as a head coach and one as an assistant.
At this point in the NBA Finals, Spoelstra is three wins away from getting his hands on another Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Even though he’s likely got many more years as the leader on the sideline in the NBA, he’s arguably in the conversation for being one of the best head coaches ever.
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