Erik Spoelstra after Frank Vogel dismissal: It is a ‘sad state’ of coaching

Not terribly surprisingly, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was not pleased to learn that Frank Vogel was out in Indiana.

Larry Bird announced Thursday that Vogel would not return as Pacers coach, and Spoelstra was rather alarmed to find out that he and Toronto’s Dwane Casey are the longest-tenured coaches in the Eastern Conference.

“That’s very disturbing, actually,” Spoelstra said, via James Herbert of Eye on Basketball.

“I’ve only been the head coach for eight years. What am I, the second-longest tenured?” Spoelstra continued. “That’s a sad state of where the coaching profession is right now, and instability of organizations.”

One of the reasons Bird stated for making the chance was that Vogel’s voice had grown stale after five and a half years. Spoelstra disputed that.

“Teams’ rosters change every two or three years, so my voice is new to virtually everybody in this locker room,” Spoelstra said. “It’s the same with Dwyane [Wade] and [Udonis Haslem], that’s it. But my voice has also been different as a video coordinator, as an assistant coach, as a scout, as a head coach. Look, just look around the league at the teams with great, consistent continuity, and see how their record is over the years.”

You may recall that Spoelstra expressed similar sentiments after David Blatt was fired. Coaches are a fraternity, and they don’t like to see each other out of work – especially when the other coach has been fairly successful.