Growing up watching old tapes of the Philippine Basketball Association, with the like of Robert “Sonny” Jaworski, “El Presidente” Ramon Fernandez, “The Captain” Alvin Patrimonio, the young Erik Spoelstra grew up wanting to play in Asia’s first professional basketball league in Asia.
Now a two-time NBA Champion with the Miami Heat, Coach Spoelstra admitted that somewhere in his youth, his “goal” was actually “to play in the PBA.”
“That was always a dream of mine. My family would send me tapes of PBA games, and I just saw that and how crazy the crowds were,” he mused.
However, Spoelstra said that he ended up playing overseas until he started doing camps and clinics and then becoming part of the NBA organization and the Miami Heat.
Spoelstra coached Superstar Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Ray Allen and Chris Bosh to two championships.
The Fil-Am coach traces his roots to his mother Elisa Celino, a native of San Pablo, Laguna.
