I have always said that the Miami Heat are better when they embrace their inner nWo. Dwyane Wade is not afraid to be a bad guy and LeBron James has shown a little bit of his heel side coming out. So when Danny Ainge, GM of the rival Boston Celtics, decided to take a shot at LeBron for complaining about officials, you had to figure it would elicit a response from South Beach.
It did just that, except it was from an unlikely source. The comment rubbed Heat President Pat Riley wrong way who uncharacteristically commented on Ainge.
Quotes courtesy of Ethan Skolnick of the Palm Beach Post
Danny Ainge needs to shut the fuck up and manage his own team.
He went on to give more thoughts on Ainge.
He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him.
It seems this wasn’t an off the cuff comment, he actually called the Heat press guy over and had him deliver the quote to the media.
Now most Miami haters will criticize Riley for his comments, but he just said what a lot of people were thinking. I also think it helps deflect some of the attention from his players. The organization prides itself on not engaging in the trash talk, so it is kind of surprising and ultimately effective that it came from Riley.
For his part, Coach Erik Spoelstra liked the interaction.
I love direct GM to GM communication. I think it’s awesome.