Riley Interview: LeBron Could've Been Part of "Historic" Run
Pat Riley sat down for an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report, reflecting on the LeBron Era getting snipped short, building through the draft ("a life of misery"), and other enlightening tidbits as the Heat push through a turbulent season with playoff aspirations sitting on the ledge of a cliff.
The part covering Riley's reaction to LeBron James departing was particularly fascinating.
"That's the most surprising thing for me, is how those..." Riley said, voice rising. "Generational teams stay together. The players stay together. They know what they have. They see what they've won. They see that there's going to be a little bit of an adjustment here, and they don't want to leave that. You may never get it again.
"That was almost shocking to me that the players would allow that to happen. And I'm not just saying LeBron. I mean, the players, themselves, would allow them to get to a state where a guy would want to go home or whatever it is."
"So maybe I'm dealing with a contemporary attitude today of, 'Well, I got four years here, and I think I'll go up there for whatever reason I went.' You know, the whole 'home' thing, I understand that. But what he had here, and what he had developed here, and what he could have developed over the next five or six years here, with the same team, could have been historic. And usually teams from inside…"
Riley thinks this team "in the next couple of years can get back to being the best team in the Eastern Conference," but that he personally doesn't have the same fire.
"I'm not driven like I used to be," Riley said. "But I do want this organization to stay what it is. As long as it's on my sort of watch here, I still want to bring great success for Micky and for the fans. And I feel really bad right now, where we are, versus where we could be."
The Heat are currently in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, a half game ahead of the Bobcats.
