If you don’t recall Pat Riley went thuglife after the Finals and basically called into question The Big 3’s manhood if they decided to break up.
“I think we need to have a perspective about things,” Riley said. “I think everybody needs to get a grip—media, Heat players, organization, all of our fans—we got to get a grip on greatness and on teams. I’ve been here for 45 years in the NBA, and I’ve witnessed dynasties, I’ve witnessed great teams. The ’80s Lakers, five championships in 12 years. So what does that mean? Seven times they didn’t win. In that run, they didn’t win. You got to deal with it, you got to come back.”
“This stuff is hard,” Riley said. “And you got to stay together, if you got the guts. And you don’t find the first door and run out of it if you have an opportunity. This is four years into this era, this team, four Finals, [has] only been done three other times before. And two championships. From day one to the end, it was like a Broadway show. [We] sort of run out of steam, and we need to retool. We don’t need to rebuild. We need to retool. And that’s what we’re gonna do. I’ve been a leader and a decision-maker, and that’s my level of expertise. And I’ll do everything I can to retool the team. But everybody, just get a grip. This has been a great run.”
According to Bleacher Report, LeBron didn’t take it that well.
It was a calculated risk by Riley to not kiss LeBron’s ass and challenge him to stay with the HEAT long term, but with all risks there was a chance it might backfire.
We will know soon enough if Riley will be haunted by those comments.