On a night where the NBA’s superstars were on the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse court for the NBA All-Star Game, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra found himself star-struck by the league’s elder statesmen, who gathered in Cleveland for the league’s 75th-anniversary celebration.
“We all felt like kids,” Spoelstra said. “Wanted to be super respectful but just quite naturally, you wanted to grab a piece of paper and start getting autographs. One of the coolest things I saw was Rick Barry going around getting autographs from all the other 75 players.”
The NBA honored its past and current stars on Sunday night as Spoelstra coached Team Durant’s All-Stars to a narrow, 163-160 loss to Team LeBron — and Heat star Jimmy Butler, who was drafted to LeBron James’ team. James knocked down the game-winning shot in the fourth quarter to seal the win. Butler had two points, two steals and one assist in 9:20 of play.
