![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages_Spoelstra.jpg\")
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Heat coach Erik Spoelstra (right), in his perch since 2008, is now the longest-tenured coach in the four major U.S. sports leagues.<\/p>\n
MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Erik Spoelstra is now No. 1. And the Miami Heat coach isn\u2019t thrilled by that development.<\/p>\n
The end of Mike Tomlin\u2019s 19-year tenure as coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday meant Spoelstra \u2014 who has coached the Miami Heat since 2008 \u2014 is now the longest-serving among active coaches in the four biggest U.S. major sports leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really bummed me out,\u201d Spoelstra said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Spoelstra became the NBA coach with the longest active tenure when San Antonio\u2019s Gregg Popovich retired last year.<\/p>\n
And at that time, among those who manage in Major League Baseball or are head coaches in the NFL, NBA or NHL only Tomlin had been in his role longer than Spoelstra.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy video room has sent me interview clips of coach Tomlin for years,\u201d Spoelstra said before Miami\u2019s game against the Phoenix Suns. \u201cI just love everything he\u2019s about. He\u2019s a coach\u2019s coach, super motivational in how he articulates his thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kansas City\u2019s Andy Reid, who has been with the Chiefs since 2013, is now the coach with the longest active tenure in the NFL. Tampa has the distinction of having the longest-serving in hockey and baseball: The Tampa Bay Lightning\u2019s Jon Cooper was hired in 2013, and the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Kevin Cash was hired to manage in 2014.<\/p>\n
Spoelstra also expressed some dismay that John Harbaugh\u2019s time with the Baltimore Ravens ended this season as well; Harbaugh was let go after 18 seasons there. Spoelstra said some of his biggest periods of growth as a coach have come after disappointing seasons and wished that other teams had the Heat approach \u2014 where stability is valued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I wasn\u2019t the longest-tenured,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cSome people could look at that as a badge of honor. I look at that as really a disappointment to this profession, that there\u2019s not more coaches that are given an opportunity to work through things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heat coach Erik Spoelstra (right), in his perch since 2008, is now the longest-tenured coach in the four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[128286,85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-237165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-erik-spolestra-longest-tenured","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}