The Miami Heat president Pat Riley is one of the true living legends of the NBA. While his tenure as a player is pretty average, his achievements as NBA head coach and executive are iconic. It is incredibly hard to find a better executive in terms of pure success than Riley.
However, the times in Miami are not perfect. After LeBron James left for Cleveland in 2014, Miami struggled to even make the postseason. Out of the last three years, they made the Playoffs once, winning one series in the process.
Riley, as president of basketball operations, is trying to lure big name free agents to South Beach and try to go back to the Miami Heat that made four consecutive Finals appearances. However, it has not worked exactly as Riley hoped.
Kevin Durant decided to go to the Warriors after a meeting with Heat last summer, and Miami was apparently the first team Gordon Hayward, now-Celtics forward, eliminated from contention. South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman asked Riley about Hayward, and Riley had an interesting answer.
It is very interesting that Riley uses the word ‘posse’ in his answer. Last November, former Knicks team president, Phil Jackson, used the same word in the context of James’ business partners, and LeBron took offense.
Even more interestingly, the whole Jackson situation was also connected with Cleveland as a city, referring to the fact that James demanded that he and his business partners stay an extra night in Cleveland.
Clearly, there is no love lost between James and Riley, even three years after the James departure.