If the Heat find themselves short on physical therapists, they need only look to the courtside seats in Miami.
Midway through the third quarter, Miami-based musician DJ Khaled briefly rubbed coach Erik Spoelsta's shoulders while trying to get the home crowd fired up.
.@djkhaled was PUMPED after handing the ball to Max Strus ๐ pic.twitter.com/1oBkPgWa1A
โ NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 11, 2022
The mild-mannered bench boss couldn't help but crack a smile while discussing the sequence after the team's 120-85 beatdown of the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 5 of their second-round series.
"That was funny ... I didn't notice until the end what he was doing to get the crowd fired up, but I loved it," Spoelstra told reporters, per LockedOn's Wes Goldberg. "That's awesome. I was humbled to be part of that moment.
"He's such a great fan there, and I've over the years said hello a few times but that was the best interaction. That was genuine and it was cool."
An impromptu massage from a hometown musician has generally been a good omen in recent NBA history. In the 2019 Eastern Conference finals between the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks, Raptors superfan Drake famously worked on Nick Nurse's trapezius like he'd been taking night school to become an RMT.
Get you a hype man like Drake. ๐#WeTheNorth | #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/8X7pVo0Wvg
โ NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 22, 2019
Of course, the Raptors ultimately concluded that playoff run by hoisting the first NBA championship in franchise history. If the Heat follow suit with a title of their own, it would be the fourth in team history and third since Spoelstra became head coach in 2008.
