According to official reports, the Miami Heat and head coach Alex Polstra have reached an early contract extension, and the new contract makes Spo one of the highest-paid head coaches in the entire NBA league.
ESPN's Woj reported that Spo received an eight-year early contract extension of more than $120 million!
Now 53 years old, Spo is in the final year of his contract, but the Heat have no reason to let go of what is almost universally regarded as the best coach in the league today. Under his leadership, the entire team culture and attributes created by the Heat are difficult for other teams in the league to match.
Moreover, this is the fourth year in a row that Spo has been selected as the No. 1 coach by the general manager of 30 teams, and the last person to win this title for so many consecutive years was Popovich from 2011 to 2018 (7 times in a row). And the 73% vote rate is already a new high in the past six years of general manager surveys, and everyone's recognition of Spo is beyond doubt.
In his 15 seasons at the helm of the Heat, Spo led the team to a 725-506 regular season record, reaching the Finals six times and winning two championships. In the past 15 years, the Heat have made the playoffs in 12 years, and only 2 years have a win rate of less than 50%.
With little to no rebuilding years, thanks to the team's ability to run trades and the coaching staff's ability to develop, a bunch of undrafted players have risen to the top of the draft every season and played very well with the team in the playoffs.
In the past four seasons, the Heat have reached the division finals three times and the finals twice, leaving classic battles such as the park vs. Lakers and the Black Eight Bucks.
Although every year the media and fans talk about the Heat's lack of talent and too few superstar roles, they have played beyond expectations time and time again, all of which is inseparable from Spo's masterful tuning.
In the general manager survey before the start of the season, Spo ranked first in the "Best Coach" category with 73% of the votes, and also ranked first in the "Best Manager/Motivator of the Head Coach", "Coach who can make the best adjustments in the game", "The manager who adjusts the best defense".
This summer, the Detroit Pistons signed Monty Williams as head coach, ushering in an "era of high salaries" for NBA head coaches. Monty was offered a six-year, $78.5 million contract, with an all-time salary and total amount.
Soon after, Popovich signed a five-year extension with the Spurs, and Wojnarowski mentioned that the contract totaled more than $80 million, and the record was broken again.
However, the Pistons and Spurs, which are currently led by the two coaches, are at the bottom of the East and West respectively, and have the momentum to dive into the lottery area. The Heat, on the other hand, are in fifth place in the East, continuing the dark horse posture of previous years.
Another high-paid coach is the Nuggets' Mike Malone. Two months ago, Malone and the Nuggets completed an early contract extension and also became one of the highest-paid coaches in the NBA, but his early contract extension was only 2 years.
And Spo's contract has reached a new height in terms of both the length of time and the total amount, which is also the highest total contract in history for an NBA coach, and it is the only one in history!