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EspañolSuits, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said amid the NBA’s latest fashion debate, have never exactly suited him.
That, he revealed this week, included the start of his Miami Heat tenure, when Pat Riley tried to set him up with a better fit.
Instead, that episode turned into something closer to David Byrne’s Talking Heads look, back during Spoelstra’s days as a Riley assistant.
It all became a talking point in the wake of the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday unveiling a statue in Riley’s honor in front of their arena, a statue of the Heat President in one of his iconic Armani suits from his Showtime Lakers coaching era.
Following that ceremony, Riley was asked about the NBA’s post-pandemic move to casualwear for coaches in 2020, including the quarter-zips and polos now worn by Spoelstra and all other NBA coaches.
“What a coach should wear, I wish it went back to coat and ties,” Riley said during a media session at Crypto.com Arena. “I think an audience wants to see somebody on the sidelines who looks like a leader, dresses like a leader, acts like a leader.”
Except, Spoelstra acknowledged ahead of Tuesday night’s 128-117 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, it didn’t initially exactly work as a leading look.
“I can see the arguments both ways,” Spoelstra said at Fiserv Forum. “I think as long as we look professional and look different than the players, I think that’s great. I think it’s becoming a little bit different anyways in corporate America. But then I also see Pat’s point of view. When I see the footage of him from the Lakers to the Knicks to the Heat, he did look sharp.
“But he wore suits differently than us – us mortals. We just didn’t look the same, as the way he looked. That was an iconic Armani look.”
Spoelstra was a Heat video coordinator upon Riley’s Heat arrival in 1995, later moving onto Riley’s coaching staff, which meant more of a front-facing role for Spoelstra, no longer hidden in the video room.
“He gave me a few suits back when I was an assistant coach,” Spoelstra said. “But I looked like the lead singer for the Talking Heads. Is that who that was?”
Spoelstra then was offered the name David Byrne.
“Yeah, that’s who I looked like,” he said of Byrne’s intentionally-oversized suit. “I didn’t realize I had to tailor the suits.”
While three decades have passed, Spoelstra said the comfort of comfort clothes during and beyond games has remained the preferred personal choice.
Spoelstra is a vice president with the National Basketball Coaches Association, which routinely has voted in recent years to retain the casual look, rather than reverting to suits.
“Pat and I debate about this all the time,” said Spoelstra, with the Heat next moving on to Thursday night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Xfinity Mobile Arena, “We went to the Hall of Fame this year for Micky Arison and so I had to wear back-to-back nights of suits, and I swear that was all Pat was talking about.”
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That came this past summer, for events in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
“He’s like, ‘See, you look great, you look presentable,’ ” Spoelstra said of Riley. “And I said, ‘Well, I had to go get these just for this weekend, and I don’t plan on wearing them again until the next Hall of Fame event we get to go to.’ ”
Prior to Spoelstra being asked his thoughts on the subject Tuesday in Milwaukee, Bucks coach Doc Rivers offered his thoughts on the suit debate regaining examination,
“It’s a tough one because quarter-zips are so comfortable. They’re so easy to wear,” Rivers said. “I will say this, and I brought this up to someone (and) that’s going to go through the chain: I do think it wouldn’t be a bad idea during playoffs because the most you’re going to travel for is two games, and wearing suits in the playoffs shows the significance of the playoffs.
“I would be in favor of that one . . . other than I would have to start working out again because none of my suits would fit anymore.”