For Pat Riley, team success always trumps player loyalty

Shaquille O’Neal’s insight into the Pat Riley psyche proves that the Miami Heat’s roster moves decisions never really change.

When you have 10 championships under your belt–as a player, coach and executive–the world’s outlook on you is just different.

Words get tossed around like visionary and architect. Then people begin to take meetings with you for the simple fact of having a chance to pick the genius that embeds your brain. But as soon as things turn bad, the questions start.

For example: when Shaquille O’Neal was asked during Wednesday’s First Take appearance if Miami Heat team president Pat Riley’s thirst for control has caused him to lose touch with how to deal with today’s superstars.

A question like that would have never been asked if Dwyane Wade and LeBron James did not exit South Beach in favor of their hometowns or if there was no friction with Chris Bosh over his health status. However, that has been the reality of the Miami Heat’s culture for the past three years. So the question to O’Neal was neither farfetched nor out of bounds.

Predictably he agreed with the ESPN hosts, but he also offered great insight into the way the team president’s mind works.

"“Pat Riley is all about the team. You can be a great player and have done a lot, but if it does not work out for the team, then he’s going to make a decision…. Pat’s not going change. He’s been very successful doing it his way, but again he’s all about the organization first.”"

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The NBA’s newest Hall of Famer also told a story of Riley presenting him with the option to take $20 million less than his market value in order to add James Posey, Antoine Walker and Gary Payton to a team with championship aspirations. Which was very reminiscent of what became folklore about the Heat’s Big Three signings.

Two instances of shrewd business moves that the masses praised the “Godfather” for. Yet when he took a similar route with his latest aging superstar, people criticized him because it did not work.

Granted, Wade was a 13-year Miami veteran who took several pay cuts in the past. So it was expected that he would be taken care of. James even thought that he was in store for “that Kobe deal.” The same type of “Kobe deal” that pundits and fans criticized the Los Angeles Lakers for providing.

Somehow that would have been acceptable, regardless of the way Wade’s decline has been exaggerated over the years–with the reasoning being loyalty.

Management was supposed to overlook the injuries because the Heat take care of their own. Though that view can be chalked up to a bit of revisionist history.

Riley gave Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning post-career executive jobs, however he did not hesitate to move on from both of his original cornerstones when their playing days began to fade or they asked for too much money. The same went for O’Neal two years after bringing the franchise their first championship and it has not changed after Wade brought them three.

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As Riley told the Palm Beach Post’s Tom D’Angelo, “Players come and go, but franchises move on.”

Perhaps learning from his NBA Finals bid with John Starks, that loyalty in the game of basketball will only get you so far before contradictions about sticking with an individual too long begin to take hold. Especially when he can reconcile during their playing afterlife.