Miami Heat: Pat Riley’s real talk as he comes straight off the hip about Finals
The Miami Heat didn’t win the NBA Finals, good, we’ve settled that. Waiting for weeks to hear him speak, the ‘Godfather’ finally did and he came off-hip.
The Miami Heat had a successful season. We can now say that with full confidence.
It wasn’t that we didn’t know or believe that in the first place, it’s just that after you make it to the pinnacle, you try to come away victorious. Moral victories shouldn’t be taken immediately after receiving a literal defeat, that’s for down the road.
That’s what we did here. However, all of us aren’t taking this time out to think about how good of a season they had, despite the defeat.
Some of us, Pat Riley to be specific, still have opinions on the Finals. Here is what the Miami Heat’s team president had to say in a recent appearance with Fox Sports.
"“They beat us fair and squarely,”“They were the best team. But there’s always going to be that asterisk, that caveat. If we had Bam and Goran—Goran was our leading scorer in the playoffs—at 100 percent, it could have gone to a seventh game. But I’m not going to look back on it, I’m just going to look at all the positive things.”“Yes, I would like to see what it would be like with everybody whole,” he explained. “But we’ll get that shot again. I’m just so proud of what our guys did… The Lakers were great; they were a great team and they have the greatest player in the game today in LeBron [James] and Anthony Davis.”"
The Miami Heat didn’t win the NBA Finals, but Pat Riley still has something to say about the whole thing.
Well, tell us how you really feel Riles! For the record, we love it.
Let’s explain though, as I’ve already had Lakers fans tell me how wrong or salty this seems. The headlines read “Pat Riley says Lakers title should have an asterisk” and that is fair, as that’s how the news works.
I would halfway agree with the sentiments had his statements had no context, but they do. He’s simply saying that we weren’t healthy and though not an “asterisk” in the grand scheme of it all, as he called them a great team with the second greatest player ever, but in his mind.
He knows that had he had a fully healthy squad, this is a seven-game series. Literally.
Next. Analyzing the rumors and how they fill a need. dark
We won’t cry over spilled milk though, as what’s done is done. We do like Pat Riley speaking candidly though.
We love to see it, actually. And for the record, he was right.