The Miami Heat have offered their current coach, Erik Spoelstra, the highest amount ever paid to a basketball coach. It would be $120 million for an 8-year contract, according to the American journalist Adrian Wojnarowski, one of the most respected sources on American basketball. 

It's the highest overall figure in the history of world basketball, but on an annual basis it doesn't even come close to what his colleague Gregg Popovich earns as coach of the San Antonio Spurs in Texas.

The former coach of Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili earns $19 million a year, making him the highest-paid coach in the league, but he does not have a guaranteed salary like the current Miami Heat coach. 

Erik Spoelstra is a two-time NBA champion and has been associated with the franchise since 1997 when he started as an assistant coach. He took over as head coach in 2008 and four years later won his first title as head coach in the 2011-2012 season, going 4-1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He repeated the feat the following season (2012-13), beating the Popovich-led San Antonio Spurs in the seventh game (4-3).

These two titles as head coach added to the one he won in the 2005-06 season, when he beat the Dallas Mavericks (4-2), but as an assistant to the legendary Pat Riley, who had him as a specialist video coach in his first stint and later as a top assistant. That season, with stars such as Dwyane Wade and multiple champion Shaquille O'Neal, the southern franchise won its first title. 

In 15 years, the Miami Heat have reached four finals under Spoelstra. Last season, they reached the Finals only to lose to the Denver Nuggets, led by Serbian star Nicola Jokic. Not only did they make it to the Finals, but they did so as the lowest seed in the playoffs, beating the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics.

Born in Illinois on 1 November 1970, he has coached a total of 1,231 regular season games in the NBA, amassing 725 victories to place him in the prestigious list of the top 20 winningest coaches in NBA history. In the current season, his team is fifth in the Eastern Conference with a record of 22 wins and 15 losses, seven games behind the leading Boston Celtics.