He may not be quite as popular in the Philippines as Manny Pacquiao, but Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, whose mother Elisa is Filipino, is still a pretty big magnet for eyeballs overseas.
Earlier this week, the Heat's TV crew produced a video on Spoelstra's favorite Filipino restaurant, Lutong Pinoy in North Miami, and in a couple of days it has already drawn more than 1.1 million views on Facebook. That's by far the franchise's most popular video ever according to Heat courtside reporter Jason Jackson.
"That's crazy," said Spoelstra, who made a pair of trips to the Philippines with assistant coaches and others in the NBA to coach clinics and speak to youth in 2009 and 2014. "I mean that's very humbling.
"When we went back during the height of the championship run it was exciting to share that success together, a whole country rooting for a team. But what's been really cool is that even though our team has changed, the support and the enthusiasm for the Miami Heat has remained. And that's been awesome to see."
Spoelstra, 46, has been very involved in the NBA's Filipino Heritage Week events this week.
Tuesday, he and point guard Goran Dragic did video conference calls with reporters in the Philippines. Then, after his post game press conference following Wednesday's win over the Pelicans, Spoelstra participated in a Facebook Live event where he fielded more questions from the Philippines.
Friday's Heat game against the Timberwolves, like Wednesday's against New Orleans, is being broadcast to the Philippines as part of the NBA's Filipino Heritage week. Saturday's Warriors-Bucks game will also be televised there.
Jackson said the Heat has a fan base of 5.75 million followers on social media from the Philippines, roughly 300,000 more than it does in America.
Spoelstra said he would like to go back to the Philippines sometime soon and is working on a return with the league.
"Last summer was one summer we were looking at, but my wedding got in the way," he said. "It's definitely something we'd like to do. I still have a lot of my family over there. But, it was the highlight of the summer every summer we'd go."
Spoelstra said the fact the NBA even celebrates Filipino Heritage Week "is almost mind boggling" to him. He's more happy though to be heavily involved in it.
"I remember being in junior high and Filipino people would say 'What the heck is [Filipino Heritage week]?" Spoelstra said. "I can tell you as soon as we touched down [in the Philippines during our first trip back in 2009] it was amazing just the enthusiasm people had for the NBA, anything that had to be related to basketball. Their passion for the game, you could just see it."
