Erik Spoelstra ‘furious’ over John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin departures

MIAMI – Ace Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is looking to turn around what has been an inconsistent season until now, the 55-year-old recently achieved an honor that happened because of the news in the NFL. With Heat’s Spoelstra reaches 800 wins this season as he continues to climb, he is now the longest-tenured head coach in all four of the nation’s major professional sports leagues. (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL).

This comes after Mike Tomlin he left the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday.

This season marks Spoelstra’s 18th with the franchise, with Tomlin’s shock announcement to retire marking the end of his tenure with the Steelers, having been the organization’s head coach since 2007. Another head coach whose long tenure ended was John Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens, after being fired after being there since 2008.

While some might say it’s a badge of honor, Spoelstra was “frown” to hear from both Tomlin and Harbaugh.

“It really pissed me off,” Spoelstra said before Tuesday’s game against the Phoenix Suns. “And I was really bummed about the John Harbaugh news, too, because I’ve been a fan of both of them for a long time. My video room has been sending me tapes of interviews with Coach Tomlin for years. I just love everything he’s about. He’s a coach’s coach, super motivated, and the way he speaks his mind. . . . So I’ve been a fan of both of them.”

“It makes me sad, because they’re titans of the game, and I always thought they’d be around forever,” Spoelstra continued. “Obviously there’s a lot of change in the sport, but you want to have good leadership … We’ll see if they can find leaders with somebody else who can be as consistent as they have been for decades.”

Erik Spoelstra discusses Mike Tomlin news, John Harbaugh not being a head coach for the Steelers and Ravens and how he is the longest tenured head coach in all five American sports.

Instead of the pride it can provide, he’s “crazy” about it, here’s why: #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/mGDEPGL1ks

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) January 13, 2026

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra says he wishes he wasn’t the longest-tenured head coach

While it is The heat is in the process hopefully we can turn the season around in a positive way, there’s no denying how influential Spoelstra has been over the past 18 seasons. It’s no shock to most in the sports world that Spoelstra is the longest-tenured head coach, but it’s a label he wouldn’t want to have, explaining how fast change happens in this day and age.

“But it’s a shame, and I wish I didn’t have the longest tenure,” Spoelstra said. “Some people might look at it as a badge of honor. I look at it as a real disappointment for the profession, that there aren’t more coaches who are given the opportunity to work on things, some of my biggest growth opportunities have come from disappointing seasons where we really went to work in the offseason to find ways to get better.”

“But you’ve got to have ownership and management that you know are ready to go through trials and not just succumb to stagnation or change times, things of that nature,” Spoelstra continued. “I think if you take a case study of all the leagues when it’s time to make changes, when they make changes, and over and over again, whether it’s really benefited the organization or not, I guess not.”

Either way, Spoelstra looks set to improve as Miami enters Tuesday’s game at 20-19, eighth in the Eastern Conference, ahead of a three-game home stand this week.