David Fizdale shared his thoughts on why LeBron James did not have the power to fire the head coach of the Miami Heat, Erik Spoelstra.
Fizdale was an assistant in the team and explained why James could not fire Spoelstra, even though the two did not see eye-to-eye, especially before James won his first title with the Heat in 2012.
“When it comes to players with power, your front office has to really be strong and your culture has to be strong to weather disgruntled players. And you have to have a certain amount of support for your coach so when things get turbulent.
I’ll give you a perfect example, it wasn’t always perfect in Miami between (coach Erik Spoelstra) and LeBron. But one thing we knew for sure, Spo wasn’t going anywhere, because he had the support of (team president Pat Riley and owner Mickey Arison), from the standpoint of, ‘This is our culture, this is how we do things, and everyone has to adjust to that.’
That’s the thing I respect so much about those teams like San Antonio and Miami, they make the players adapt to their culture. They don’t go the other way,” the former New York Knicks coach said on ESPN Radio, via Stefan Bondy of the Daily News.
