Coach Spo

It seems Filipinos have rose up and made a name for our country in various sporting worlds. Not only do we have a NL Cy Young Award winner in Tim Lincecum, the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in Manny Pacquiao, but now we also have a head coach in the NBA! 

Erik Celino Spoelstra, Miami Heat's head coach, is the FIRST Filipino-American head coach in the NBA. He's currently the youngest coach in the NBA at age 38. 

From Wikipedia:

Early life

Spoelstra^[3]grew up in Portland, Oregon, where he graduated from Jesuit High School in 1988, and from the University of Portland, in 1992.^[4] At Jesuit High School, Spoelstra is third all-time in assists (488), tied for third in three-pointers made (156) and sixth in both three-point percentage (.384) and free throw percentage (.824).^[5]

In Portland where he was the starting point guard for four years, he averaged 9.2 points, 4.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game and was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year. He is a member of Portland's 1,000-point club.

After graduation from college, he spent two years as a player/coach for TuS Herten (later the Herten Ruhr Devils), a German professional team.

His father, Jon Spoelstra, was an NBA executive for the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets and New Jersey Nets.^[1] Spoelstra is one-quarter Dutch-Irish on his father's side, and his mother, Elisa Celino is Filipino, from San Pablo, Laguna.^[6] He was cited by Sports Illustrated (May 30, 2005) for honing star guard Dwyane Wade’s "shooting balance and smoothing out his release after the Flash’s return from the Athens Olympics."^[7]

Miami Heat

In April, 2008, Spoelstra (known to the players as "Coach Spo") was named successor to Pat Riley as head coach of the Miami Heat. Spoelstra joined the Heat staff in 1995 as the team's video coordinator. After two years, he was named Assistant Coach/Video Coordinator, then promoted to Assistant Coach/Advance Scout in 1999. He became the Assistant Coach/Director of Scouting in 2001. Spoelstra is the NBA's youngest current head coach; 69 days younger than the second youngest head coach, Lawrence Frank of the New Jersey Nets.^[1]

In naming Spoelstra as head coach, Riley said: "This game is now about younger coaches who are technologically skilled, innovative and bring fresh new ideas. That's what we feel we are getting with Erik Spoelstra. He's a man that was born to coach."^[8] Pat Riley plans to change his approach from when Stan Van Gundy was the coach. Riley predicted: "A lot of players want the discipline; they will play [hard] for Spoelstra, because 'they respect him.'"^[9]

During Erik Spoelstra's experience with the Miami Heat, there was wide speculation that Pat Riley would pick Spoelstra as his successor. Spoelstra was frequently the coach for Miami's summer league in which he enjoyed successful stints.