Longtime Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, will be the next head coach of USA Basketball’s men’s national team.

Just in: USA Basketball is expected to name Erik Spoelstra as the new head coach of the men’s national team, sources tell ESPN. Spoelstra succeeds Steve Kerr for the next World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics after serving as a lead assistant on Team USA’s 2024 gold medal squad. pic.twitter.com/eApR2LsXeB

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 9, 2025

Spoelstra, who is about to kick off his 18th season as head coach of the Heat, has been a lead assistant coach for Team USA since 2022, including at the 2024 Olympic Games (gold medal finish) and the 2023 FIBA World Cup (fourth place finish).

“Team USA managing director Grant Hill decided upon Spoelstra,” Charania said. “Hill has set an internal infrastructure for Team USA’s coaching cycles: Kerr was a top assistant for [Gregg] Popovich before becoming head coach, and now Kerr will transfer the job to Spoelstra.”

Spoelstra will succeed Steve Kerr, who was the head coach since 2022. Spoelstra will presumably serve as head coach for the 2027 FIBA World Cup, as well as the 2028 Olympic Games.

Miami Heat rookie dazzles with skillset In preseason debutReports say Miami Heat was ready for Giannis, but it wasn’t mutual

A pair of reports Tuesday showed where the Miami Heat stand in relation to one of the game’s superstars.

First, there was ESPN reporting that Giannis Antetokounmpo surveyed the NBA landscape this summer, specifically the weaker Eastern Conference and decided that only the New York Knicks made sense as a landing spot in a trade.

During a meeting with Bucks management in Greece this summer, the former MVP reportedly expressed concern about the franchise’s ability to compete — and that led to the Knicks being granted an exclusive negotiating window for a period of time in August. But the Knicks didn’t offer anything the Bucks came close to considering. (It might have been easier for New York if they hadn’t moved five first round picks for Mikel Bridges last summer).

So where do the Heat come in?

Well, it’s long been known they would have interest (who wouldn’t?) and Antetokounmpo does share an agent with Heat captain Bam Adebayo. According to the Miami Herald, the Heat were willing to include anything but Adebayo to get a shot at Antetokounmpo, but the window wasn’t open to them.

The Miami Heat were prepared to offer the Milwaukee Bucks a trade package for Giannis Antetokounmpo that did not include Bam Adebayo, per @flasportsbuzz

“If Antetokounmpo had asked out, the Heat was prepared to make an offer that did not include Bam Adebayo, according to a… pic.twitter.com/u6lPRFfjIw

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 7, 2025

What would such a package have looked like? It would be headlined by Wisconsin native Tyler Herro, who is up for a contract extension, and could include Kel’el Ware, Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and others, as well as draft choices. The Heat, however, don’t have a lot of the latter, still trying to get back to parity after the unfortunate trade for Terry Rozier and other transactions.

The bigger issue, however, is that it was never going to get to that, because Antetokounmpo was targeting a long-time Heat rival (New York) instead, even though the Heat can offer no state tax, better weather and a much richer recent tradition.

It’s another sign that the Heat will need some of their young players to pop, in a positive way, as well as some shrewd other moves and luck to be able to acquire the caliber of ceiling-raiser they once were able to attract with more ease.