Riley will once again be able to offer multiple stars the chance to come play for him and the Heat. And Riley has shown he’s able to convince people to come join the Heat when he gets them in a room — none greater than when he convinced LeBron James to leave Cleveland in 2010 to form a “Big Three” with Wade and Bosh by taking his talents to South Beach.-WaPo
Drive's me NUTS! That's like saying...It's exactly like saying, come to think of it, Dan Gilbert convinced LeBron James to come back to Cleveland! It was EXACTLY the OPPOSITE! Gilbert was so blindsided that JAMES was thinking of "coming home" he still had that hateful screed he wrote about James on the "Cavaliers" website! He could not even say his name to David Blatt, he repeatedly referred to LeBron James as "that man."
So the Washington Post quote about Riley. IT IS RILEY-SPEAK that he "convinced" the Big Three to come to Miami; "We planned this for years," he has said. NOT TRUE. NOT. TRUE.
DWYANE WADE made the Summer of 2010 happen. It was WADE'S friendship with James when they played together internationally that was the spark. As their friendship deepened Wade and James dreamed of one day playing together. They started talking out loud to one another about their dream. "Why doncha come down here? Ya like Miami, doncha? Beautiful city. Weather. I love ya Bron but I ain't fittin go Mistakin'. Got Pat Riley! I already won a championship with him. He's great, man. Great coach. Great teacher. Nothin' 'gainst Mike Brown, Bron. Arison's cool, too. Gilbert?"
THUS.
Riley spun the same malarkey about the Summer of 2016: "Planning this for years." Honest to God, he said that. "Going whale hunting," that's what he said about the Durant chase.
I was reading some of the sportswriters writing things like, "DON'T COUNT PAT RILEY OUT!" and I was thinking these guys have no clue. Kevin Durant just spent six or eight years, whatever it was, "enjoying" coitus interruptus in OKC, getting SO close, edging, but unable to consummate with the Larry O'Brien trophy like Joe Lacob and the "Heat" are not as close as OKC was to a championship: He is NOT going to sign with Miami.
I was reading some of the sportswriters writing things like, "DON'T COUNT PAT RILEY OUT!" and I was thinking these guys have no clue. Kevin Durant just spent six or eight years, whatever it was, "enjoying" coitus interruptus in OKC, getting SO close, edging, but unable to consummate with the Larry O'Brien trophy like Joe Lacob and the "Heat" are not as close as OKC was to a championship: He is NOT going to sign with Miami.
I also read some of the Miami-area jock pencils and it was the same nonsense. "Ah! Riley's got the last interview! Nobody can close a deal like Riles." Finally, Sunday night, after Durant had concluded all the meetings and announced that he would reveal his destination the next day I read a Miami-area writer write that "maybe" Durant wasn't coming. "MAYBE"! I got so exasperated I fired off this email to the writer at 11:23 p.m.
Mr. [name withheld], please sir. You know Kevin Durant is not taking his thunder to South Beach, there are no "maybes," about it, he is not coming. He is not coming because Miami, especially with the losses of two starters, the uncertain health of Chris Bosh, and the Riley-created coming exodus of Dwyane Wade, are promoting "another Miami HEAT blowout in the Summer League."
Goos [sic] luck with that.
Pat Riley has made a hash of free agency whale-hunting since his end of Finals rant burned bridges with LBJ. Now, in going whale-hunting for Durant he has "deeply angered" Wade and, if there is any justice in the world, Wade will never talk to Miami again. He will just move on.
The Riley Era, sir, will end with a whimper not a whale.
THUS. (Never heard back from the guy, btw.)
Mr. [name withheld], please sir. You know Kevin Durant is not taking his thunder to South Beach, there are no "maybes," about it, he is not coming. He is not coming because Miami, especially with the losses of two starters, the uncertain health of Chris Bosh, and the Riley-created coming exodus of Dwyane Wade, are promoting "another Miami HEAT blowout in the Summer League."
Goos [sic] luck with that.
Pat Riley has made a hash of free agency whale-hunting since his end of Finals rant burned bridges with LBJ. Now, in going whale-hunting for Durant he has "deeply angered" Wade and, if there is any justice in the world, Wade will never talk to Miami again. He will just move on.
The Riley Era, sir, will end with a whimper not a whale.
THUS. (Never heard back from the guy, btw.)
