MIAMI >> Team player is a label that has defined Anthony Carter wherever he’s been.

And that’s exactly how UH fans remember him from his two seasons (1996-1998) with the Rainbow Warriors, and Carter, now 43, took that same mentality into the professional ranks as a player in the CBA and NBA and in Italy.

Since 2013, Carter has taken that same mantra into coaching. After spending four of the previous five seasons coaching in the NBA G-League, last summer he was named an assistant coach with the Miami Heat, whom he played for from 1999 to 2003. “It was a great move,” he said. “All along, I thought it was my first home. It was family oriented from Day One.”

Besides his playing days with the team, the Heat knew Carter from his time as an assistant coach with Sioux Falls, Miami’s G-League affiliate, the past two seasons, experience that primed him to return to the NBA, where he had previously spent one season (2015-16) as a Sacramento assistant under George Karl.

“I’ve just been working and working, doing whatever they’ve asked me to do,” Carter said. “(Sioux Falls head coach) Nevada Smith (helped me with) learning the video stuff (and) running practices. Just being hands-on with the guys is the most important thing on the court. He (Smith) gave me the freedom to be the engine to those guys when they’re out there doing drills and different things.”

Carter’s current position has him working with the Heat’s current two-way players, Yante Maten and Duncan Robinson, who have contracts that allow them to spend a maximum of 45 days in the NBA this season. Since Maten and Robinson spend most of this year in Sioux Falls, that is where Carter will do the bulk of his work with them.

He travels to Sioux Falls when the Heat are on the road, usually on the West Coast. Otherwise, when Miami is at home, he assists with practices and injured players like Goran Dragic, currently recovering from surgery, and Derrick Jones Jr., making his way back after tweaking his knee, in the on-court portion of their rehabilitation.

Carter has made several road trips with the Heat this season, but if staying in Miami to help an injured player recover faster is what circumstances dictate, he’s happy to do that because he figures he traveled enough during his 13-year playing career.

“It’s all about making the team better, the organization better and the players,” he said. “I don’t care if I go to Sioux Falls, stay in Miami, go on the road — whatever the team needs I’m just here to lend a hand. It’s not about traveling or staying here. At the end of the day, I’m helping the organization. I’m helping them flourish.”

Returning to Miami has reunited him with Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who has been at the helm since 2008, and with the organization since 1997, his first year as an assistant coach under the legendary Pat Riley.

And since Spoelstra, currently the NBA’s second-longest-tenured head coach with his current team, coached Carter during his playing days, bringing him back into the organization as a coach was a no-brainer.

“He’s one of my favorites. When I was an assistant, that was the guy I worked with all the time, so we’ve kept in touch over the years,” Spoelstra said. “He’s a Heat guy. I feel very fortunate that I have three guys on my staff (Carter, Juwan Howard and Chris Quinn) that have played for us and played for me. It’s a trust factor. I know them well, they know what the Heat system is all about. They know Heat life. AC is the epitome of that.”

Carter concedes he doesn’t watch many UH games since many are hard to find on television, but said current head coach Eran Ganot has reached out to him about returning to campus soon.

“We did talk this past summer about me coming back,” Carter said. “He’s trying to get me and my family back out there. That’s always important (to maintain my Hawaii ties) because they have the AC Carter Scholarship Fund there. I’m still helping kids get through college because somebody helped me growing up.

“It’s very important to keep reaching out to the fans because you never know when I’m going out there. I want them to show me love like they did when I was there, and I want to continue to show them love. It’s just important because those are some of the fans that helped me get where I am today.”