Kerr trusts Spoelstra to lead the US Olympic basketball team.
Miami – Steve Kerr, former coach of the United States men’s Olympic basketball team, fully trusts Erik Spoelstra, the current coach, to take on the challenge of leading the team. Kerr and Spoelstra faced each other on Wednesday for the first time since Spoelstra was officially hired by USA Basketball. Kerr expressed his full confidence that Spoelstra is ready for the challenge.Spoelstra will coach the U.S. men’s team in the 2027 World Cup in Doha, Qatar, and at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Kerr led the Americans in the 2023 World Cup, where they finished fourth, and then on the road to Olympic gold at the 2024 Paris Games. Spoelstra was part of Kerr’s coaching staff at both events. This weekend in South Florida, USA officially begins its path to the 2027 World Cup. A team of 12 players will gather for the first two qualifying matches, which will run until March 2027. Spoelstra hasn’t contacted Kerr yet to discuss the details of how to adapt to international basketball. He will do so at some point.“It was a great choice. He is one of the great coaches of all time. Great knowledge of what FIBA is, the difference between coaching a team for seven weeks and coaching one for nine months, all that. He has his finger on the pulse of everything. It’s going to be great,” Kerr commented.
Steve Kerr
The United States has won the last five Olympic gold medals. Spoelstra will have the task of extending that streak and saw in Paris how difficult the job can be, with the Americans needing to recover from a double-digit deficit to beat Serbia in the semifinals, and then keep France at bay to get the gold medal. When the American national anthem sounded in Paris to commemorate the Olympic gold, Kerr turned to Spoelstra and said, “Good luck.” The announcement that Spoelstra would take over the team was more than a year away, but Kerr already seemed to know who should be the next coach. “I was very impressed with Steve in terms of how he was able to handle everything. We all know there’s a lot of pressure. I think he, as part of his genius, handled it wonderfully. Just getting the team, one, to handle all the expectations and then getting the team to hit their stride at the right time and be able to handle adversity like we did against Serbia. I think it was great leadership on his part. That experience will be something I’ll never forget,” Spoelstra added.“I am incredibly grateful for having had the opportunity to be part of your technical team for the last two summers. All the staff, we had a great time. It was a life experience. It was Basketball 101. We all grew with it, just from a basketball training development experience. It’s the same four lines, two baskets and a basketball, but it’s a different sport, FIBA. And we felt honored in that first year and the second year, I think, the experiences we had the previous summer helped us for that Olympic experience,” said Spoelstra.
Erik Spoelstra
