Riley Does An About-Face
Pat Riley took back his comments questioning the loyalty of the Philadelphia 76ers for trading Theo Ratliff when he was injured.
"I will firmly and without a doubt take the shoe out of my mouth," Riley said Wednesday, before the Miami Heat played the 76ers. "It takes a lot of guts to make a trade like that."
Philadelphia coach Larry Brown found the earlier criticism "remarkable." Philadelphia owner Pat Croce found it "awful," and wondered how the Heat coach and president could "stoop so low."
In the deal that brought Dikembe Mutombo from Atlanta to the 76ers, Philadelphia sent Ratliff, Toni Kukoc, Nazr Mohammed and Pepe Sanchez to Atlanta. The 76ers also obtained Roshown McLeod.
At the time of the trade, Ratliff one of the best centers in the league this season was one day out of surgery in which a screw was placed in his wrist.
"I think they sent a message about loyalty," Riley said Friday, a day after the trade deadline.
"Even though they are probably a very loyal franchise, a guy breaks his wrist and he's traded," added Riley. "But I can understand the temptation of the present moment. It would be the equivalent of me trading (Alonzo Mourning) for Dikembe, or something like that."
Mourning is out for the season battling kidney disease.
"I believe Pat Riley is 'royalty' in the league, and I'm not going to say anything derogatory about him, except that I'm disappointed he would stoop so low to try and taint this franchise," Croce said Tuesday. "That's awful."
Brown noted that four former Heat players - Jamal Mashburn, Tim James, P.J. Brown and Otis Thorpe - played for the Charlotte Hornetw against the 76ers on Saturday.
"I mean, that kind of blew me away," Brown told the Philadelphia Daily News for Wednesday's edition. "It's kind of remarkable to me a guy would make a comment (while the 76ers were) in Charlotte. I'm looking at four guys ... that tells you a little bit about Pat Riley."
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