NOTICE: THERE IS NO INSIDE DOPE HERE! Only a dope.
In the Spring of 2010 the undersigned stopped at a restaurant after running some errands. It was one of those beef-and-beer sports bar types and they did have televisions and the televisions were tuned to a game. The sound was off. It was a basketball game between the Cleveland "Cavaliers" and Boston "Celtics." The undersigned was there for about 30 minutes and watched the game while eating his beef. It was clear to the undersigned in those 30 minutes that LeBron James was off somewhere. He wasn't there. He was off physically, not moving much, and he seemed to be off mentally, there was a blank expression on his face. Cleveland lost that series and LeBron James had seen the future: His team was not talented enough to win an NBA championship. That summer LeBron James was off to Miami.
A few weeks ago Miami was playing a game in the NBA Finals against San Antonio. The undersigned did not see 30 minutes or any minutes of that game but did read the account of someone who saw the whole game. Greg Cote of the Miami Herald wrote that it was clear from LeBron James' body language that James did not believe his team was talented enough to win another championship. Miami lost that series. After the final game James said that he was open to playing elsewhere via free agency and that the "Heat" roster needed to be upgraded "at every position."
Exactly two weeks after that final 2014 game Miami president Pat Riley held a fifty-five minute press conference. Riley's first words were:
"Good morning everybody. Want to trend something? I'm pissed."
Riley then smacked his palms on the table he was sitting at in apparent genuine anger.
Didn't like that.
Riley went on to say who he was pissed at: everybody. Everybody (else), the media, Miami "Heat" supporters, "Heat" non-basketball employees, "Heat" players. Everybody needed to "get a grip."
Didn't like that.
The sky was not falling was part of Riley's message, the team did not need to "rebuild" with a major overhaul of players (contrary to LeBron James' feeling), the roster only needed to be tweaked, "retooled." Riley said he would do that. Liked that. Positive.
Riley spent most of his opening remarks before taking questions talking about--talking to--the "Heat" players. He began by telling LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh:
"You got to stay together, if you've got the guts. And you don't find the first door and run out of it."
Pat Riley channeling Dan Gilbert. Didn't like that.
“We’re going to find out what we’re made of here. It’s not about options or free agency."
Not a matter of liking or not liking that, that's just plain wrong: It is about options and free agency.
Riley had just finished end-of-the-season interviews with each player:
"One of the things that was a common thread that came out of most of the meetings with players was this: Mentally exhausted, mentally fatigued. I understand that. I don’t accept it. If you go to the Finals four years in a row, maybe they didn't know how to prepare themselves for 4 years in a row in the Finals."
"If that’s something of an excuse or you use that as a crutch, then that’s what it takes --- a real special team and it takes a special mentality to be able to do that and also win a championship. If players are saying this was a tough year and grind every day and every night, well welcome to the NBA and the world of world championship basketball. They should have a discussion with Bill Russell about winning eight straight championships. I saw that in the team. I saw the mental fatigue."
Didn't like that.
"What are you going to do to come back and make the team better? We have a long-term opportunity for long-term success."
“That’s my message to players. They’re hearing it right now. Take accountability to your own actions and not lay it off on somebody else."
...
“The four years we had with LeBron we hope turns into another 8 or 10. All three of them have opt
outs. They created the flexibility. They will think about. We’re not walking around on eggshells anymore and not talking about it. We need to talk about it now."
Well, now they're talking.
Now really: If you were the best player in the world and had come to Miami four years ago FOR LESS MONEY and had won two championships wouldn't you have found Pat Riley's press conference to be patriarchal, patronizing, unfair and insulting and wouldn't you have wanted to tell Pat Riley to "get a grip" or worse? I would. So on the drive home from work the day of the press conference I mentally composed a title to a post, "Pat Riley Goes Off" in which I was going to say at least that I didn't think Pat Riley's press conference would be "helpful" to Miami's cause of retaining James, et al. Imagine my surprise then when I got home and read that the consensus of the sports-writing Insiders was that Riley had hit a home run in the press conference and that LeBron James would find his remarks "challenging" that he would show Riley that he had the "guts." What did I know, I was just a dope so I never wrote the post.
A few days after that press conference James officially informed the "Heat" that he was exercising his contractual right to "opt out" of the remainder of his contract and a few days after that James, Wade, and Bosh met together at lunch to discuss their plans and voila Wade and Bosh then opted out too. The Insiders reported that the lunch discussion surely was that the Big Three were all going to take Riley's "challenge" and would take pay cuts to allow Riley to sign another marquee player ("G-U-T-S."). Surely that was what was discussed, the Insiders reported. Unsourced.
The Insiders were wrong. In subsequent SOURCED reports, it was revealed that LeBron James had
informed Wade, Bosh and the "Heat" that he wanted the maximum amount of money allowable under the collective bargaining agreement in his next contract, with Miami or whomever, and that those
teams unwilling or unable to offer said max need not apply. And it was revealed in these sourced reports that James had not told Wade and Bosh that he was going to resign with Miami, in fact, Wade and Bosh had NO IDEA after the meeting what LeBron James' intentions were.
Did this have anything to do with how LeBron James took Pat Riley's press conference? There has been no sourced reporting on James' reaction. There was a sourced report that James had "tuned out" "Heat" management earlier in the season on the subject of returning. So "I don't know" is the honest answer to that question. Are LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh going to resign with Miami? Anybody who says they know the answer to that question is a dope.
