Who’s the coach leading Heat on impressive summer league run in Las Vegas? Meet Dan Bisaccio

Summer league is a platform for some players to play their first minutes at the professional level. For others, it’s an opportunity to prove they deserve an NBA roster spot after competing in the G League or overseas for the past few seasons. And for some established but still young NBA players, it’s a chance to get offseason game reps.

For Miami Heat coach Dan Bisaccio, summer league has represented a different type of opportunity.

“This is my first official head coaching job,” said the genial Bisaccio, who has spent the past 10 seasons working for the Heat after initially joining the organization as a video intern for the 2014-15 season.

Bisaccio, 34, spent last season as a Heat player development coach and has spent the past three weeks as the Heat’s summer league head coach.

“I’ve been a part of a variety of different coaches and different summer leagues — Dan Craig, Juwan Howard, Chris Quinn, Malik Allen and most recently Caron Butler,” said Bisaccio, who was also recently named the head coach of the Heat’s G League affiliate. “All of these guys, I’ve had the opportunity to learn and grow from and really see how they handle their day to day.

“They’re tasking me with being able to give a lot of these players their first introduction to the Miami Heat organization, the Miami Heat culture and that’s something I do not take lightly. I’m honored every day to be able to have this opportunity.”

Heat advances to Las Vegas Summer League championship game with win over Warriors

Bisaccio has made the most of that opportunity, helping to lead the Heat to the Las Vegas Summer League championship game. The Heat will take on the Memphis Grizzlies for the Las Vegas Summer League title on Monday at Thomas & Mack Center on UNLV’s campus (8 p.m., ESPN).

The Heat clinched a spot in the Las Vegas Summer League championship game with a victory against the Golden State Warriors in the semifinals on Sunday, moving to 5-0 in the Las Vegas circuit that includes all 30 NBA teams. It marks the first time the Heat has made the summer league championship game since Las Vegas began crowning a champion in 2013.

“I don’t really look at it for myself, necessarily, like: ‘Hey, this is great as a head coach, we need to make that,’” Bisaccio said of the possibility of coaching the Heat to its first Las Vegas Summer League title. “There are so many people that are involved in this process. Our front office has done such a great job of putting this team together. Not only are they good players on the court, competitive players, but they’re great people. They work together, they work hard.

“And then our staff, I’ve been truly spoiled with our staff that’s made up of those from the Heat and also [the Sioux Falls Skyforce]. I credit [coaches] Kasib Powell, Wayne Ellington, for really keeping me sane at times and really bringing the energy and their willingness to be selfless and help out in every way is great. And then our coaches that aren’t even here, Chris Quinn, Eric Glass, Malik Allen, obviously [Erik Spoelstra], these guys are in my ear constantly about things that are like, ‘Hey, this is great, I love what you’re doing.’ A very big support group we have, and that’s something I’m truly appreciative of.”

This year’s summer league success is just a part of Bisaccio’s basketball story, though.

Bisaccio grew up playing the sport and even played in college, beginning his collegiate career as a 6-foot-4 forward at Clarkson University — a Division III school in upstate New York — before realizing he wanted to get into coaching.

“I kind of looked at it like, well, if I’m not going to be good enough to play in the NBA,” Bisaccio said, “I would love to coach at the highest level and coach the best players in the world.”

So Bisaccio, a Vermont native, transferred to Emerson College — another Division III school — in Boston. Bisaccio averaged 3.2 points and 2.1 rebounds per game in 24 games for Emerson during the 2011-12 season.

But Bisaccio wasn’t at Emerson to play his way to the professional level. Instead, he was there to learn as part of a basketball program that had already produced multiple NBA minds such as current Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti, former Orlando Magic general manager and current Thunder vice president of basketball operations Rob Hennigan and current Washington Wizards general manager Will Dawkins.

“It’s a small Division III school,” Bisaccio said of Emerson. “You drive by and you blink, you’re past the campus. But the beauty of it is within this campus, there’s been an amazing NBA pipeline that started up way back with Hank Smith, who was the original head coach, to Sam Presti to Rob Hennigan, Will Dawkins. And I’ve been fortunate to be a part of that pipeline.”

It has worked out for Bisaccio, who spent his first nine seasons with the Heat in the video room. After being hired by the Heat in 2014 as a video intern, he was promoted to assistant video coordinator in 2015 and then moved into the video coordinator role in 2019 before spending last season as a player development coach.

There was a serious health scare along the way, when Bisaccio was placed in a coma in November 2017 while dealing with a hepatic abscess — a rare but potentially life-threatening complication of appendicitis.

That’s when Bisaccio said he realized the Heat was more than just his employer.

“One of the beautiful things about the Miami Heat is that we do preach family,” Bisaccio emphasized. “A lot of teams and organizations, just not even in the NBA but everywhere, say that. It’s one thing to say it, but it’s another thing to really do it and step up. Unfortunately, I was in a coma. It was just something that was very bizarre, something that we really couldn’t get a handle on.

“During that time while I was in the hospital and I was in this coma, the whole Miami Heat family really stepped up. From [Heat president Pat] Riley, to Spo, to [general manager] Andy Elisburg on down to the players. [Then-Heat player] Wayne Ellington included, which is coming full circle now that he’s on the [Heat summer league] coaching staff. They really took care of my family while they were down there. They took care of my friends, it was amazing.”

During that time is when Bisaccio’s nickname of “10-Day Dan” took off, with Heat coaches and players wearing shirts that read “10 Day” in support of him as he recovered from his health issue. The “10 Day” stood for the 10-day contracts offered to players during the course of a season, and the moniker was given to Bisaccio because he went so hard as a member of the Heat’s scout team in practices and shootarounds that players and coaches joked he was trying to get a 10-day deal.

“It was an off day and we were doing a walk-through on offense and they needed an extra body,” Bisaccio said, recounting the origin of his nickname. “So they asked me to be the fifth guy. So for me, I’m not going to take that lightly. I’m going to go full force. So I’m sprinting around running and these guys are like, ‘What the heck is this kid doing? He’s acting like he wants to get a 10 day out there.’

“At first, it was kind of like a joke in terms of like, ‘Look, at this guy 10 day out here.’ Then it kind of started to turn into more of a term of endearment and something that they knew they could throw me into a drill or put me somewhere, I’m going to go all out all the time just as I know that’s kind of the expectations with the Miami Heat organization, in general.”

Bisaccio continues to approach the job with that mentality, whether he’s serving as a player development coach in a Heat practice or leading a summer league practice. In a few months, he’ll take that mindset into the G League for his new role as the head coach of the Heat’s developmental affiliate.

“I definitely still do that,” Bisaccio said. “Obviously, I don’t move as great as I used to. But anytime my name is called and I’m getting in the mix and guarding, I’m going to go all out. I’m going to be sprinting around.”