We are all witnesses.
Pat Riley would probably rather not be described by a tagline made famous by LeBron James at this point and time, but hey, it is what it is.
It’s been less than 72 hours since James’ “The Departure” announcement rocked Heat Nation and led to him return to his Cleveland roots, yet Riley has already gone into mad-scientist mode in terms of putting back together the Miami franchise he left in tatters.
We are all witnesses in observing Riley immersed and entrenched at doing what he does best, namely raising the spirits and cultivating the minds of all his troops. After convincing Chris Bosh to return to South Beach when everyone already considered it a foregone conclusion that he was heading to his hometown of Houston, Riley has him boldly accepting the responsibility of the replacing four-time league MVP James as the Heat’s new ring leader.
“I can’t lie to you, I’m excited for the challenge,” Bosh said of the prospect of being the man again as he once was in Toronto. “It’s the challenge of being a leader. I think sometimes you miss it. You wonder if you can still do it and step up to the challenge. I haven’t had to be that guy. I played with the best player in the world. I didn’t have to be the alpha. But now I get to see if I have it in me and not many people are going to believe I have what’s necessary. But that’s what makes it exciting.”
And thanks to Riley, he figures to have a lot more help in finding himself than most would have imagined just days ago. Besides the pending re-upping of Hall of Fame-bound guard Dwyane Wade and veteran forwards Udonis Haslem and Chris Andersen, in recent days Riley has added Luol Deng and Josh McRoberts to the mix and there are rumblings the Heat could still be in play to land the All-Star caliber services of both Phoenix’s Eric Bledsoe and Detroit’s Greg Monroe.
And the 69-year-old Riley has mastered it all with an eye toward the future. As currently constructed, only Bosh and McRoberts are assured of being in the position to still collect paychecks from the Heat beyond 2016, an offseason during which James, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Love, Joakim Noah, and Deron Williams could all be free agents and perhaps available to Riley and the Heat.
Over the “Big 3” era, Miami advanced to the finals four straight seasons and won back-to-back tiles and Riley clearly isn’t ready for all the fun to end in South Beach.
“You always fear,” Riley recently told ESPN of James bolting and all the increased turnover the league now regularly experiences. “There’s more restlessness now than there’s ever been in this league. I always am concerned when players are in the situation they’re in, but we feel we have the best organization in the league to keep players and to also attract others to want to come.
And Pat Riley has long stood at the center of it all.
