Steve Kerr praises Erik Spoelstra as ‘great choice’ for US Olympic basketball coach

MIAMI AP Golden State s Steve Kerr doesn t see much of a need to pass the Olympic coaching torch to Miami s Erik Spoelstra In Kerr s mind Spoelstra was ready for the looming challenge long ago Kerr the former U S Olympic men s basketball coach was facing off with Spoelstra the current U S Olympic men s basketball coach on Wednesday night for the first time since the Heat sideline boss was officially hired by USA Basketball to take over the national association Kerr announced he has zero doubt that Spoelstra is ready for the challenge and all that comes with it He was a great choice Kerr revealed before the Golden State-Miami encounter He s one of the great coaches of all time Great awareness of what FIBA is about the difference between coaching a squad for seven weeks and coaching one for nine months all of that stuff He s just got his finger on the pulse of it all He s going to be great Spoelstra will lead the U S men at the World Cup in Doha Qatar and the Los Angeles Olympics Kerr led the Americans at the World Cup when they finished fourth in Manila then again on the way to Olympic gold at the Paris Games in Spoelstra was on Kerr s staff for both events Later this weekend in South Florida the U S officially starts its quest to reach the World Cup A -player club assembled for the first two games on the -game qualifying schedule will gather for practices at the University of Miami before flying to Nicaragua to open play on Nov The qualifying games run through March Spoelstra hasn t reached out to Kerr yet to talk specifics about how he pivoted from NBA thinking to international basketball thinking He will at chosen point I ve mentioned it before but I m just so incredibly grateful for having that opportunity to be on his staff for the last two summers Spoelstra mentioned The entire staff we had such an amazing time It was a life experience It was Basketball We all grew from it just from a basketball coaching growth experience It s the same four lines and two baskets and a basketball but it s a different sport FIBA And we were humbled in that first year and the second year I think the experiences that we had the summer before helped us for that Olympic experience The U S men have won the last five Olympic gold medals Spoelstra will be tasked with extending that streak and saw in Paris how formidable the job can be with the Americans needing to rally from a double-digit deficit late to beat Serbia in the semifinals then hold off France for the gold medal behind a dazzling show from Stephen Curry And when The Star-Spangled Banner played for the Americans that night in Paris to commemorate their Olympic gold Kerr turned to Spoelstra and revealed good luck The announcement that Spoelstra was taking over the unit was more than a year away but Kerr already seemed to know who the next coach needed to be I was so impressed with Steve just in terms of the way he was able to manage everything Spoelstra stated We all know that there is great pressure I think he as part of his genius he managed that beautifully Just getting the crew one to handle all the expectations and then getting the association to hit the stride at just the right time and be able to handle adversity like we did against Serbia I think it was just great leadership on his part That experience will be something I ll never forget