The Miami Heat are an organization built in the image of Pat Riley, via Erik Spoelstra. LeBron James once tested the authenticity of the previous fact.
The Miami Heat are known for doing things a certain way. That is exactly how they have gotten so far as an organization in such a relatively short period of existence in the NBA.
This is also what led to them eventually hiring current Miami Heat head man Erik Spoelstra as the head guy. Although Spo is the unquestioned leading man as the coach of the Miami Heat, at least in The Godfather Pat Riley‘s eyes, everyone hasn’t always seen it that way.
In a piece published by the Miami Herald, detailing Coach Spo’s sitdown with TNT’s Ernie Johnson in recent days, they brought up two infamous incidents from the Big 3 era of the Miami Heat. The first of the incidents is that time where LeBron James asked Pat Riley if he ever got the itch to coach again. The second incident is the infamous bump between LeBron and Coach Spo as James headed to the bench.
On the first incident, Spo indicates that Pat Riley never mentioned it to him, although Riley would reveal that the question was asked to him in his book. When discussing how he feels about how he perceives Riley to feel about him, this is what the Miami Heat head coach had to say about it all.
"“Pat hates it when I say it,” Spoelstra said. “If I worked for a different organization and president, I would have been fired three or four different times. Pat just stays the course. He gets more resolved … when people force him to do something. That’s how his personality is.”"
As mentioned, that wasn’t the only commentary that he provided though. He even gave us a bit more insight on the second incident, the infamous shoulder bump between him and LeBron James.
Spoelstra indicated that although the media and the world thought something of it, it was nothing. Notating the fact that “when you’re on teams like that, they naturally get micro analyzed”, with “they” meaning any and all situations.
Spoelstra went on to reveal that the situation became a running joke in the Miami Heat facilities. He said that following the incident, he and LeBron “would walk by each other in the hallways and collide into each other” before laughing the situation off.
Needless to say, it was all overblown. What wasn’t overblown though, was the lesson we would learn from the above incidents and everything else we have ever seen from LeBron James. Although he is a great basketball player, the second greatest at worst and arguably the greatest, he isn’t good at everything it seems.
That one thing that we can point to right now that he isn’t that awfully good at is knowing when a coach is good for him or when he has a good one coaching him. While every coach he has gotten let go wasn’t the best for him, he never gave some of them the opportunity to do what it is they were attempting to do.
Whether it be Paul Silas, Mike Brown, David Blatt, or even Luke Walton, they couldn’t survive the wrath of The King. Thankfully Pat Riley was the shot-caller in South Beach because sometimes, even the great ones don’t know what’s good for them.