Former Boston College guard Malcolm Huckaby, who was signed to a one-year deal by the Heat in 1996-97, joined Dennis & Callahan on Friday and offered his opinion of Heat coach Eric Spoelstra. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

Huckaby recalled working with Spoelstra during his time as a member of the Heat, when Spoelstra was a video coordinator for the team.

“When I was playing down there in 1996-97, the assistant coaches really didn’t get the type of credit they do today in terms of helping guys develop and how valuable they are to the head coaches,” Huckaby said. “He and Stan Van Gundy, who was also an assistant down there at the time, these guys would function on about three hours of sleep.

“We would come back and, prior to moving into the American Airlines arena, we had a practice facility and these guys literally would sleep there overnight.”

Huckaby went on to discuss Spoelstra’s role in the development of Dwyane Wade, who quickly developed into a star partly due to Spoelstra’s coaching.

“Obviously, everybody knows that Dwyane Wade is a great slasher, a guy who can get to the hole and is very explosive,” Huckaby said. “But the thing I think has improved in his game is his consistency of his jumper. He credits Eric Spoelstra for that.”

Wade made headlines for confronting Spoelstra during a timeout in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Huckaby said he does not see that as a current issue between the two though, as both Wade and Spoelstra appear to have moved on.

“Nobody wants to see that happen, in particular when it’s your star player going up against any coach, whether it’s a veteran coach or a young coach,” Huckaby said. “It happens, they have moved on, and they have rebounded pretty quickly from that the way Wade came back afterwards and had a pretty good game in that Indiana series. I think that is kind of in the rearview mirror for them right now.”

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Entering Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night, the buzz surrounded names like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo. By the end of the game, though, the spotlight turned toward referees Dan Crawford and Ed Malloy.

Crawford and Malloy raised eyebrows with their questionable technical foul calls that went against the Celtics, particularly in the second quarter. By the end of the game, the Celtics were whistled for five technical foul calls while the Heat were not called for any.

ESPN basketball analyst Stephen A. Smith was one who voiced his concerns over the game’s officiating, noting that Ray Allen in particular did not do enough to earn a technical foul.

“Don’t tell me that [Crawford] would just arbitrarily decide, ‘I’m going to give Ray Allen a tech for saying no and turning away,’ ” Smith said. “That’s got to be something that’s coming from the league. It makes no sense to me.

“For an official to give you a technical over something like that, to say it’s egregious is a gross understatement. They really, really need to fall back. It is ridiculous.”

Another one of the technical foul calls Monday night was a team technical foul for delay of game after Garnett tapped the ball behind the baseline following a second-quarter field goal.

Even the Florida media questioned that call, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel wrote: “A delay-of-game technical foul on the Celtics in the first half of a playoff game, really?”

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