Pat Riley, you live by the sword, you die by the sword, pal..too bad; Decision 2

[csfansince60s]

There was an interesting article on the RealGM wiretap today about Riley bemoaning The Decision Part 2. Boo-hoo!

Pat Riley felt that the Miami Heat were in the position he wanted them to be in despite losing in the 2014 Finals to the San Antonio Spurs, but LeBron James decided to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"That was almost shocking to me that the players would allow that to happen. And I'm not just saying LeBron. I mean, the players, themselves, would allow them to get to a state where a guy would want to go home or whatever it is.

"So maybe I'm dealing with a contemporary attitude today of, 'Well, I got four years here, and I think I'll go up there for whatever reason I went.' You know, the whole 'home' thing, I understand that. But what he had here, and what he had developed here, and what he could have developed over the next five or six years here, with the same team, could have been historic. And usually teams from inside?"


"It would be like Magic and Kareem and [James] Worthy, they weren't going to go anywhere," Riley said. "They had come at a time when there were free agents. They weren't going to go. You think Magic was going to leave Kareem? You think Kareem was going to leave Magic? You think Worthy was going to leave either one of those guys, or [Byron] Scott or [Michael] Cooper? No, they knew they had a chance to win every year. And this team had a chance every year. So that was shocking to me that it happened. Now, could we have done more? Could they have done more?"

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/237029/Riley-LeBron-Could-Have-Had-Something-Historic-Over-Next-5-6-Years-With-Heat

While I strongly dislike Riley (after all, he was a Laker and a cHeat), some of his words have merit in regards to lack of loyalty among teammates, and Bosh and Wade have alluded to the same when the Decision 2 was coming and fomenting a bunch of negative sentiment down in South Beach.

That be it as it may, I have NO sympathy for Riley, nor Wade nor Bosh. They all colluded to come together well before they ultimately came together. The fact that james left them should have been no surprise. It's kinda like a guy who has an affair with a married woman, and she cheats on him too. Boo-hoo!

[Beat LA]

It's good to see that he's still Riled up (pun intended). It is pretty funny to see him talk about loyalty when he up and decided to bolt from the Knicks after promising them a title, lol.  Plus, of course the lakers had a chance to win every year - they were in the west, which was a joke for much of the 80s.  I wonder how many titles they would have won if they had had to go through the sixers, knicks, bucks, pistons, hawks, and even the bulls every year just to get to the finals.  Riley is a great coach and a master motivator, though - you can't deny that.  I can't believe that he even interviewed for the Celtics job after Jimmy Rodgers was fired.  We would have been even better, but it would have been weird, lol.  Either way, it's fun seeing his dreams squashed, lol.

[footey]

yawn

[Eddie20]

 Sounds like Riley's running on empty.

"I'm not driven like I used to be," Riley said. "But I do want this organization to stay what it is. As long as it's on my sort of watch here, I still want to bring great success for Micky and for the fans. And I feel really bad right now, where we are, versus where we could be."

[csfansince60s]

It's good to see that he's still Riled up (pun intended). It is pretty funny to see him talk about loyalty when he up and decided to bolt from the Knicks after promising them a title, lol.  Plus, of course the lakers had a chance to win every year - they were in the west, which was a joke for much of the 80s.  I wonder how many titles they would have won if they had had to go through the sixers, knicks, bucks, pistons, hawks, and even the bulls every year just to get to the finals.  Riley is a great coach and a master motivator, though - you can't deny that.  I can't believe that he even interviewed for the Celtics job after Jimmy Rodgers was fired.  We would have been even better, but it would have been weird, lol.  Either way, it's fun seeing his dreams squashed, lol.

+1.....excellent insight into the lack of a gauntlet that the Lakers had to go through compared to the murderous East back then

[SHAQATTACK]

Well he lost LBJ ..ran off

Bosh .....may never be able to play for fear of his health

Wade ...near the end of his run.

I wish Pat and Phil Jackson would marry each other and go live on a remote island 

[incoherent]

Pat needs to take the same advice he offered Danny a few years ago.

[Roy H.]

 

Hypocrite.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

So he's "bemoaning" the same attitude that got him the Heatles in the first place. Makes sense. 

[indeedproceed]

Pat Riley is a salesman. You never tarnish your own product. And when people leave your product for someone else's, they're wrong, and you don't really understand why they'd do such a thing.

Pretty transparent. I wonder if the better response would've been, "I'm Pat Freaking Riley, and I've brought 3 trophies to Miami since I got here. LeBron James, we thank you for your service, and can't wait to crush your dreams at a later date. Mazeltov."

Honesty, respect, resentment. A Riley dozen. 

[Who]

It shocked me too. To leave a place like Miami -- a Championship organization from top to bottom + strong team around him that just went to the Finals 4 years in a row and won 2 Championships -- an organization that did so much for him. To show no loyalty to that organization? That confuses me.

I understand leaving when a team is failing you. Not giving you the opportunity to win. Having no confidence in things changing. That I understand.

Leaving a first class organization like Miami with a wonderful coach, front office, owner, star teammates, quality supporting cast ... 4 Finals in a row, 2 Championships. Clearly more opportunities to add to their Championship toll in the future ...

That confuses me. I do not understand that.

If as an organization you cannot count on some (any!) loyalty from your star players when you have done everything possible and accomplished so much together ... that is a dark day.

[j804]

He saw Wade slowing down, knew Love was on the block and Cleveland had just landed the 1st overall pick = jumped ship to form a new big three typical LeBron

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

It shocked me too. To leave a place like Miami -- a Championship organization from top to bottom + strong team around him that just went to the Finals 4 years in a row and won 2 Championships -- an organization that did so much for him. To show no loyalty to that organization? That confuses me.

I understand leaving when a team is failing you. Not giving you the opportunity to win. Having no confidence in things changing. That I understand.

Leaving a first class organization like Miami with a wonderful coach, front office, owner, star teammates, quality supporting cast ... 4 Finals in a row, 2 Championships. Clearly more opportunities to add to their Championship toll in the future ...

That confuses me. I do not understand that.

If as an organization you cannot count on some (any!) loyalty from your star players when you have done everything possible and accomplished so much together ... that is a dark day.

LeBron gave them 2 Championships. He owes them nothing.

And he carried a mediocre roster to the [dang] finals two years in a row winning one of them. People think there was a big three? No, the past two years it's been LeBron getting his Greg Jennings on and putting the team on its back.

He realized that the next 4 years in Miami meant diminishing returns as Wade and Bosh declined so he went home. The end. It hadn't been a big 3 since the Thunder series.

[fairweatherfan]

If as an organization you cannot count on some (any!) loyalty from your star players when you have done everything possible and accomplished so much together ... that is a dark day.

Well, players have been in the same boat for quite a while now, so it's logical that at some point it would become a two-way street. 

It's also worth noting that 2 of the 3 star players still showed that exact loyalty.

[Endless Paradise]

It's always cool for an organization to unceremoniously amnesty guys like Mike Miller and trade former Heat lifer Joel Anthony to a non-playoff team, but it's disloyal when players decide to leave that organization.