Pat Riley hasn’t made many public comments about LeBron James leaving the Miami Heat for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but there were many grumblings about Riley not being very happy with James.
In a new book called “The Soul of Basketball: The Epic Showdown between LeBron, Kobe, Doc and Dirk that Saved the NBA,” by Ian Thompson, Riley does a tell-all about what exactly he is thinking when James left.
Some excerpts of the book were published by ESPN on Monday morning, and give a clearer view of what exactly the Heat’s general manager was thinking.
As time went on, Riley realized going home was the best decision for James and his family and he finally came to terms with that.
“While there may have been some carnage always left behind when he made these kinds of moves, in Cleveland and also in Miami, he did the right thing. I just finally came to accept the realization that he and his family said, ‘You’ll never, ever be accepted back in your hometown if you don’t go back to try to win a title. Otherwise someday you’ll go back there and have the scarlet letter on your back. You’ll be the greatest player in the history of mankind, but back there, nobody’s really going to accept you.’”
He wasn’t always okay with it though. When James first made his decision, he was mad for a few days and in some ways felt betrayed.
“I had two to three days of tremendous anger. I was absolutely livid, which I expressed to myself and my closest friends. My beautiful plan all of a sudden came crashing down. That team in ten years could have won five or six championships. But I get it. I get the whole chronicle of [LeBron’s] life.”
According to sources at ESPN, even though Riley is okay with LeBron leaving now, the two haven’t talked since he left the Cavaliers.