The Pat Riley series, part 3: No end in sight

The Knicks were furious and wanted three first-round draft picks plus $3 million in compensation for Pat Riley abandoning his post. But it settled on one FRP and a million in restitution, letting him and the Heat off easy. For context, in 2000 (five years later), the Minnesota Timberwolves tampered and were reprimanded by the league for salary cap circumvention on Joe Smith’s deal. The penalty was losing five first-round picks (got one back by appeal) with a $3.5 million fee.

Publicly, then Garden president Dave Checketts downplayed a power struggle, but it existed. The Knicks later used the Heat’s selection on Walter McCarty, a 6-foot-10 power forward, in the 1996 Draft, who played 37 games in New York.

Riley was introduced as the Heat’s fourth coach in its brief seven-year existence aboard the Imagination, Micky Arison’s Carnival Cruise ship docked at the Port of Miami. At his presser, he smoothly expressed regret over his New York departure. “I feel badly for the way things went down and what has been said and reported. A lot of people in New York feel like I abandoned them, and that’s just not right. This was a case of standing on principles…”

He was still fuming about his portrayal during the season the next time he saw his ex-colleague and NBA insider Peter Vecsey. When Riley caught up with Vecsey outside of the Heat’s locker room, there was a heated confrontation in front of current vice president of media relations Tim Donovan and a police officer over his print comments, labeling the coach the quitter within, mocking his book The Winner Within.

Riley’s first order of business was to build Rome in a season, trading Glen Rice, Matt Geiger, Khalid Reeves and a FRP to Charlotte for Alonzo Mourning, Pete Myers and Leron Ellis. The Hornets didn’t want to pay Mourning, a superstar center, what he wanted. But the Heat did in 1996, the summer after it got him to a seven-year contract for $105 million, the first nine-figure commitment in NBA history.

In 1995, one of the smaller moves that was later impactful beyond vision at the time was the hiring of Erik Spoelstra as video coordinator.

In year one with the Heat, the new president and coach led it to a 42-40 record, a 10-game improvement over the previous campaign. When he and the team traveled to New York, in his first return to Madison Square Garden on Dec. 19, 1995, Riley was booed by Knicks fans when he took the court with a hint of some cheers at lower decibels. Some faithful followers held signs that read “Pat’s a rat,” “Greedings, Pat,” “Riley – snake of New York,” etc.

The Heat were crushed in that game by 19 points. After it, ex-Riley enforcer Charles Oakley said in the locker room, “He came in here like he was God, waving and dancing… He’s high profile, one of [those] ego things.”

Additionally, that season, the club traded for Tim Hardaway, a three-time All-Star and Chris Gatling to solidify the foundation. In the first round, the eighth-seeded Heat matched up with the 72-win Chicago Bulls and were swept in three matches.

The Heat didn’t stand a chance because its frontline had Kurt Thomas, a rookie at power forward, and Walt Williams, a 6-foot-8 small forward who was a below-average rebounder next to Mourning. Chicago had Dennis Rodman, an all-time glass fiend, plus Toni Kukoč and Scottie Pippen, who averaged 11 boards for the series, denying the Heat extra possessions.

Additionally, the Bulls had Jordan, who was handed his fourth MVP award the next month, going off for 30 points a game. The Heat’s average margin of defeat was 23 points nightly.

 

********

That summer, 6-foot-11 P.J. Brown signed as a free agent in Miami. Following Mourning’s deal, the Heat signed Juwan Howard the same day, but the NBA refused to accept the latter on the grounds that the salary cap was exceeded for his addition. The club then filed a temporary injunction with a state court to prevent Howard from going to another team while it dealt with the league office.

Yet, it soon came to a settlement with the NBA, and Howard stayed in Washington. The Heat released this statement: “The Miami Heat and the NBA have agreed on a settlement in the Juwan Howard case. The Heat will have no further comment in the near future. Alonzo Mourning will remain with the Heat.”

Riley held a conference call with reporters, addressing the offseason. He said he had returned from the proctologist to get the NBA’s 10-foot pole removed from his ass.

In 1996-97, the Heat had its first 60-win season (61) and by mid-Febraury had 38 victories. In the organization’s history (founded in 1988), it had finished only two years with 38 wins or more. On Feb. 14, the team traded Thomas, Sasha Danilović and Martin Müürsepp to Dallas for the talented scoring forward Jamal Mashburn.

In 1997, Spoelstra was promoted from video coordinator to assistant coach/coordinator.

The Heat defeated the Magic in five, then met up with the Knicks, Riley’s old gang for the semis. It was seven outings of high-level defensive basketball, as Miami and New York shot 41% and 42% from the field.

In Game 5 in Miami, Oakley got tossed for shoving Mourning. Then New York’s Charlie Ward was boxing out into Brown’s knee at the free throw line, so he was flipped like a doll on the baseline. John Wallace tried to grab Brown but fell into the photographer’s row with them and it soon looked like a pile after fumble.

Next, Brown, Ward and John Starks were ejected. Miami won that evening and benefitted from suspensions to Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston and Ward in Game 6. The Heat were missing Brown but won without him as Dan Majerle, Hardaway and Mourning got hot against neutered New York defenses.

The Heat won Game 7 behind Hardaway’s 38 and Mourning’s 22 points with 12 rebounds and became the sixth team in NBA history to recover from a 1-3 deficit in a series. Afterward, in the East Finals, Riley and the squad were vanquished by the reigning champion Bulls in five.

That defeat depressed Riley. Following the series, he said the Heat were a team with hopes and dreams, “Then you run into the Bulls and reality sets in even though you don’t want it to.”

His third year down south was another success in the regular season, as the group won 55 games, but it had a rematch with the Knicks in round one of the Playoffs. The bad blood was still there. In Game 4, Mourning and his former teammate Larry Johnson were entangled while going for a rebound off Hardaway’s top-of-the-key jumper, and then it instantly turned into fisticuffs between them.

Riley and Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy tried to break it up, but the latter took a hit and held on to Mourning’s leg. At that position, J. Van Gundy could have been killed if a knee flew into the face or temple, but it strangely helped separate the brawlers who never connected on any blows aside from his. But as soon as he was helped up and held back, he was the one of the toughest guys on the court.

Mourning’s lack of self-control bought him $20K in fines and a suspension for the next match. At one point, when tensions were cooling, Mourning wanted another fade with what appeared anyone. Post-league announcement, Riley said he wasn’t surprised because it was consistent with its recent practices.

At the close out Game 5, the Heat’s offense was impotent without Mourning and failed to log more than 23 points in any quarter.

A year later, Riley and the first-seeded Heat were hosting the eighth-place Knicks. For New York, Ewing was 36 years old and not the same player following a wrist injury to his shooting hand in December of 1997.

For Miami, Hardaway looked spent, and Mourning had no sidekick as the series headed toward a fifth match. On May 16, 1999, the game came down to the last possession- with the Heat up one and four seconds left, Houston caught a sideline inbound at the top, broke a trap and made an elbow floater that kissed the front iron before falling in.

Straight up, the Heat was beat on its floor, and Riley said after it, “This hurts a lot more than last year (1998). Life in basketball has a lot of suffering in it. We will suffer for this.”

What’s noteworthy about this season is that Jordan had retired again. The East had quality teams, but there was no roadblock like him. People within the Heat organization thought the ‘99 team could have made the Finals. That’s why Houston’s shot is so damaging.

Yet it wouldn’t be until the 2000 East Semis that the Knicks put the biggest emotional hurt on Riley. Miami was again a 52-win outfit amid Hardaway’s decline. In February, it picked up Bruce Bowen, a dirty player with defensive skills, off waivers, and he turned into the eighth man (minutes averaged) of Riley’s rotation.

This iteration of the Heat was top-five in defensive rebounding and blocks while playing at the third-slowest pace in the NBA. In the Playoffs, it swept Detroit and met for its fourth rendezvous in five seasons with the Knicks.

The duel lasted another seven matches and was decided in its closing seconds. Hardaway had been a dud for the series and inefficiently emptied the clip in Game 7, shooting 30% from the field. Still, Mourning carried the club, dropping 29 points on 12 of 20 tries, but it wasn’t enough.

Keep in mind, the Knicks’ two leading scorers, Latrell Sprewell and Houston, shot ghastly percentages (below 40% of attempts for the series) throughout and combined for 10 of 30 makes in Game 7.

With 92 seconds left, the Heat was up 82-81 when the Knicks dribbled up court. Trying to force a turnover, Mourning blitzed Sprewell turning a screen but his show and recover was late, and Ewing dunked to give New York a one-point lead. Coming down the other way, Mourning was doubled in the post, tossing it back out, but Mashburn missed his ffadeaway in the lane.

The Heat were fortunate to get another attempt, but Hardaway wasted it, taking a reckless runner in the paint. Mourning tried to save it, but Sprewell contested and forced a jump ball that Miami won, and Riley called the team’s last timeout.

The best shot the Heat got off a sideline inbound was a leaning jumper by Clarence Weatherspoon. The Knicks threw the ball into oblivion on its check-in with two seconds left, winning by a point, in the Heat’s new home, American Airlines Arena.

The hosts were humiliated. Riley didn’t want to speak to anyone, team or media, and walked directly to his office. The players in the locker room were so despondent some could barely look reporters in the face. Many on that team knew that the group was done and couldn’t go further. Mourning then walked into Riley’s office, summoning him, “Get up and go talk the fucking team.” At that moment, the pupil was the coach, and his order followed.

In the offseason, Riley tinkered with the build (Mourning & Hardaway), trying to squeeze enough juice out of it for one last try at the title. To reload, he traded for Brian Grant, and got rid of fan favorites Mashburn and Brown, along with Otis Thorpe, Tim James and Rodney Buford, in a trade with Charlotte for Ricky Davis, Dale Ellis, Eddie Jones and Anthony Mason (former Riley player with Knicks).

After the moves, the Heat believed it had the best starting five in the league. Riley believed the team could get to the Finals for the first time. But that hope shattered quickly.

When training camp started at FAU, Mourning was absent from the scrimmage. He had failed a physical and was later diagnosed with kidney disease after seeing a specialist. The condition is called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). Aside from losing the team’s best player, Riley was devastated because Mourning was his most trusted disciple.

It was common for reporters to hang around the team, ask Mourning questions, and Riley-isms to fall from his lips.

When Miami’s center learned of his condition, he asked after his biopsy, “Doc, am I gonna die?” He was told there was no cure and to expect to be on dialysis within a year. Surviving became Mourning’s primary objective. World-class treatment and his diligence assisted his recovery, and he was miraculously able to return with 13 games left in the season.

That year, the Heat performed way above expectations without Mourning, who was afflicted in his prime, winning 50 games. Mason had his top season, earning an All-Star selection, too. But when Mourning came back, the flow of the offense changed and Mason’s role was affected to the point he quit on the team. The Heat lost in three to Charlotte, led by ex-Heatle Mashburn in the Playoffs and the Mourning-Hardaway build was over. The quiet rebuild began.

Hardaway was moved for a second-round pick (Matt Freije was chosen) and a trade exception. Mason wasn’t retained either.

The Heat won 61 games over the next two seasons, Riley’s last before sticking with president duties (for the time being), which put it in position on draft night to select Caron Butler (10th) in 2002 and Dwyane Wade (fifth) in 2003. In 2002-03, complications with Mourning’s condition returned in the last year of his deal, which forced him out. He eventually got cleared to play the next campaign (2003-04) but did it as a New Jersey Net.

Riley named Stan Van Gundy as his successor.

Wade quickly showed he was the Heat’s future and best player. After his rookie season, Riley dealt for former MVP and three-time champ Shaquille O’Neal, who Jerry Buss didn’t want to pay long-term over Koby Bryant. Moving Lamar Odom, Grant, Butler, a future FRP (Jordan Farmar) and SRP (Renaldas Seibutis) cloaked the Diesel (O’Neal) in black and provided Miami one of the most lethal two-man combinations in the NBA with him and Wade.

Suddenly, the Heat were contenders again with the team Riley built for Van Gundy. In 2004-05, the Heat advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals but lost in seven. Wade missed Game 6 with hurt ribs while the Heat was up 3-2 in the series.

Next season, the Heat stumbled, winning 11 of its first 21 games. Van Gundy was then replaced by Riley, who came down from the executive chair and didn’t want to. The move happened because the relationship with Van Gundy and O’Neal had soured with the player quitting on the coach.

Miami finished the campaign with 52 victories and reached its first NBA Finals, defeating last year’s rival Pistons en route, too.

Against the Dallas Mavericks, the Heat lost the first pair and was down 13 points with less than seven minutes left of Game 3, but Wade’s eruption saved the team. When Miami took a 3-2 lead, Riley ordered the group to bring one change of clothes and inspected everyone’s baggage before the flight to ensure everyone was as committed.

The Heat captured its first title in Dallas behind 36 points by Wade. Riley hadn’t stood on the winner’s stage for 18 years but did then and said, “I really believed it was our time. We talked about it all year. We got 15 strong, that’s what’s in the pit…”

He tried to run it back with that group, but O’Neal was now 33 and considerably heavier, while the group’s chemistry was weak. His players won 44 outings but were swept by the Luol Deng-led Bulls. The most memorable part of the season is Riley clapping his troops off the court- ridiculing them for turning into fat cats living off last season’s achievements.

His career on the sidelines lasted one more year- a miserable endeavor with 15 wins and Wade missing 31 nights. Riley then promoted Spoelstra as head coach on April 28, 2008, allowing the president to get back to behind-the-scenes action, which has changed in the last 15 years.

In late June, the Heat used the second pick in the Draft on Michael Beasley, who played 171 games before getting traded to make room for big fish in free agency 2010. Riley liked the NCAA rebounding leader and First Teamer of the Big 12, but other voices within the organization pressed for him.

Beasley was picked over Russell Westbrook (fourth), who won an MVP in 2017 and averaged a triple-double in four seasons. Kevin Love, a champion who is a former rebounding leader with a dependable outside jumper, went fifth. And Brook Lopez, an old-school big who completely changed his game as a veteran and became an elite defender plus 3-point threat, was picked 10th.

Putting Beasley on the roster over Westbrook and Lopez in the short term made Spoelstra’s new gig harder than it should have been as a rookie head coach. However, Riley’s next move, looking ahead to summer 2010, when LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Heat player Wade turned free agents, was one the sharpest of his career.

The Heat kept the books clean and still had to convince James, Bosh and Wade to take a pay cut, but it did and overnight, went from mediocre first-round exit to perennial contender and the NBA’s most hated.

 

How disliked was this group?

They were booed in every arena. Objects were even thrown at them. And one league exec broke decorum years after James, Bosh and Wade joined forces by talking smack. During the 2013 campaign, then Celtics president of basketball ops Danny Ainge criticized James for complaining about calls in a loss to Chicago.

When Riley got word his player was getting dragged, he released this statement through Heat PR. “Danny Ainge needs to shut the fuck up. [Ainge was the] biggest whiner going when he was a player. I know that because I coached against him.”

In the 2011 Playoffs, the Heat overwhelmed Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago and returned to its second Finals. It ended up being a rematch with Dallas that Miami lost after a 2-1 lead. The Mavericks converted 41% of its 3-point attempts and lived at the charity line, taking 26 freebies a night. Most notably, James wasn’t himself, refusing to attack the basket and finishing with eight points.

The Heat wouldn’t bring the Larry O’Brien trophy back to Miami until the next Finals, defeating Kevin Durant and Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder in five games. To keep that team fresh, Riley signed Ray Allen, then the NBA’s leader in 3-point makes, as a free agent in summer 2012 for three years at over $9 million.

Adding Allen was one of the most significant signings in the organization’s history because he saved the team in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals, facing off with the San Antonio Spurs. It also helped that coach Gregg Popovich committed one of the all-time arrogant decisions in NBA lore by sitting Tim Duncan, the Spurs’ best player and rebounder, thinking the game was over.

After James had dominated the fourth quarter, Miami was down three points, and he attempted a left-wing triple to tie. Bosh grabbed the rebound (the most important play of his career), dished it to Allen, and his 3-pointer banged. The Heat subsequently won in overtime and then Game 7 two nights later.

Winning with this group still didn’t make Riley sacrifice his rigid ways, even at age 68. On an off day in Los Angeles, Mario Chalmers, Allen and James wanted to hang out in Las Vegas. Riley didn’t permit them to leave the team.

In the build’s last season together (2014), James wasn’t a fan of management waiving Mike Miller, one of his favorite teammates. He was also annoyed that he’d learn from reporters, instead of being kept in the know, that his partner, Wade, would miss a game. He wasn’t having as much fun without Wade for over a third of the year. Additionally, the ramifications of Wade’s decline meant his voice wasn’t as powerful in the locker room as it used to be.

The Heat still made the Finals but were destroyed by the Spurs- a group motivated by coming seconds away from Miami’s last trophy. That team ended the Big Three era.

In the summer, James left for Cleveland, shocking the upper echelon of the Heat because it had delivered on its important promise to make him a champion. The question asked was, “Why did he leave?”

The Heat re-signed Bosh to a max and Wade to a shorter deal post-James’ departure, desperate to keep some of its DNA. The former would have his career cut short by blood clots, which affected him in the last two seasons while he was still an All-Star. He wanted to play after that but was denied by Heat doctors. He never balled in a meaningful game again.

Bosh’s first issue with blood clots came two days after the Heat traded for Goran Dragić, a Third-Team All-NBA guard in 2014, who was unhappy in Phoenix. Dragić’s presence next to Bosh, was supposed to eventually be a lethal two-man option, but it didn’t get to share the court long in 2016 either.

Wade got healthier than 2013-14 for two seasons, but disputes over a long-term deal broke his heart. In the summer of 2016, the Heat giving headache Hassan Whiteside the big bucks first upset Wade because he thought he should be the priority as the leader. When he was looking for his payday, he saw the Heat was attempting a Hail Mary for Durant, who he knew wasn’t coming to Miami.

Wade, a franchise legend, left in free agency to play for his hometown Bulls because Riley went cold on him. The departure ended up helping the Heat because in Chicago, Wade realized how unserious the organization was and convinced Jimmy Butler there were better teams to play for.

Between 2014 and 2019, the Heat failed to make the Playoffs three times. But its fortunes changed starting with VP of basketball ops Andy Elisburg’s chat with Cavaliers president Koby Altman about bringing back Wade for the low in 2018. Nineteen months after he left, Wade was back for the price of a SRP.

Next, in the 2019 offseason, after Wade’s retirement, Riley and his lieutenants pulled off a four-team trade that brought J. Butler, its current star, to Miami.

It shouldn’t go unnoticed that Miami missed on a superstar in the 2015 Draft. With the 10th pick, the Heat selected Justise Winslow, who many projections had as a top-five guy over Devin Booker, who is currently one of the three top guards in the NBA.

Riley and the Heat made up for that blunder by getting Bam Adebayo, an elite defender and mid-range shooter with the #14 pick in 2017. In 2019, it struck gold again at #13, choosing Tyler Herro, a versatile scoring guard. These two players are part of the core of the current group that’s gone to two NBA Finals in the last four years.

And recently, the Heat selected Jaime Jaquez Jr., 18th, and he has been the steal of the Draft.

But where does this leave Riley at age 78? He once said that he and his wife would exit stage left when Miami wins the next one. At present, the Heat is a quality team but not as loaded as some others in the NBA, putting his group in a similar spot to his former Knicks and the Mourning-Hardaway build.

But why should anyone believe him anyway? Part of the reason he has so many is because he’s cursed with needing more.

 

******

For more in this series on Pat Riley, click on Part 1 as well as Part 2.