Heat job swap at NBA summer league creates ‘god-like’ international intrigue

July 11, 2022 World Sports

Erik Spoelstra could flash the pair of NBA championship rings won as head coach of the Miami Heat. But, as is his wont, modesty dictates otherwise. So a single wedding band suffices.

Then again, at least this week, the championship jewelry would pale in relation to a member of the Heat summer-league coaching staff.

Because Tim Cone has 24.

Years in the making, Spoelstra arranged for the most successful coach in Philippine Basketball Association history to spend time as part of the Heat’s offseason staff, including at the ongoing NBA Las Vegas Summer League.

The idea first was broached during previous visits by Cone, a 64-year-old native of Oregon, to Las Vegas to recruit prospects for his teams back in the Philippines. Up and back along Las Vegas Boulevard, Spoelstra, Cone and members of the Heat staff would spend July mornings working both their legs and basketball minds.

But the relationship predated even those strolls of sweat and strategy.