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Spoelstra & Heat Head Back to School

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has spent most of the off-season studying his basketball team in hopes of finding more answers that will help the team reach the NBA Finals again.

But Thursday, Spoelstra and other members of the Miami Heat organization went back to school at W.R. Thomas Middle School to teach kids that there's more going on in an NBA franchise than just the action on the court.

Spoelstra shadowed a middle school principal as part of the program which featured events in the classroom and on the basketball courts.

The Heat head coach said he's been studying other teams around the league and visited with other coaches to discuss their philosophies and see how they constructed their teams from the ground up.

Spoelstra also gave a very public comment on the state of the NBA labor negotiations.

"Be patient. We're close," Spoelstra said of the ongoing dispute. "We all miss it, but we'll be back at this soon."

While not necessarily getting into the details of the labor dispute, NBA commissioner David Stern has put a gag order on teams to not talk publicly about the labor negotiations.

(TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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