MIAMI — Pat Riley celebrated an anniversary Monday, one with the Miami Heat, and also one, fitting in the timing, with Micky Arison.
“He,” Riley said Monday of the Heat owner, “saved, basically, my coaching life.”
On Sept. 1, 1995, the Heat traded a first-round pick and $1 million to the New York Knicks for the rights to make Riley their franchise steward.
The following day, a 30-year anniversary celebrated Tuesday, Riley was named coach and team president.
As Riley spoke Monday, it was in advance of Arison’s Saturday induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. For all of his own basketball accolades, Riley spoke of a “level of gratitude” as he was asked to reflect on what Arison meant to himself and the franchise.
It was during this period 30 years ago, having resigned from the Knicks when unable to gain management control there, that Riley was unsure what would come next.
What came next, Riley said, was a personal bridge to this future that 30 years later stands as a winning bond, a personal bond, and, come Saturday in Springfield, Mass., will further fuse an emotional bond.
“I’m not biased about what I’m about to say,” Riley began, “but Micky, when he controlled, bought the interest in the Heat in 1995 and got managing control of the Heat, that’s the day that the franchise took a turn. And unbeknownst to a lot of people, they didn’t know what kind of turn it was going to be. But that’s the day that the franchise began to move in another direction.
“He saved, basically, my coaching life, I think. When I look back at that summer, it was highly doubtful that I was going actually be able to coach the next year or whatever.”
Heat owner Micky Arison at Kaseya Center on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024 in Miami. (John McCall/South Florida Sun Sentinel)So as he would do countless times moving forward, Arison went into his pocket, essentially paid off the Knicks — and a marriage of convenience and conviction was born. Now, Arison is able to wear three NBA championship rings when he takes the stage, with Riley at his side, Saturday night at Springfield’s Symphony Hall.
“So when that finally came to fruition, and I became the coach on September 2nd, we both went to work, and we went to work on trying to make the team better,” Riley said. “Not only did we form a business relationship, but we formed a great friendship. And I think that’s where it starts from one side of the coin.”
From there, Riley went to work, and, he said, as significantly, Arison allowed that work to proceed largely unhindered.
“So, as an owner, to me, he showed tremendous loyalty to myself, our staff, to people in the organization that have been there ever since he bought it,” Riley said. “He’s a tremendously honest guy. He’s always been very honest with me, whether I wanted to hear it or not. We’ve always had that kind of relationship.
“And I believe that he’s very sincere about what he really wanted to accomplish, which he really wanted to win.”
Three decades later, Riley said the success is undeniable.
“I think what we’ve been able to accomplish over the 30 years is really good,” Riley said. “We built something, I think, that South Florida enjoys, from a sports-entertainment concept, and winning championships, getting to the Eastern Conference finals.
“But more than that, I think that night in and night out, Micky wanted to make sure that the people in South Florida thought we could win, we were competitive. Even the years we know that we may not be the team, we fought like hell to be the team. From that standpoint, I think he deserves a hell of a lot of credit.”
And, yes, hands on, even while largely, by choice, in the shadows.
“He’s also a risk-taker,” Riley said. “If you’re going to win big, you’ve got to take some risk, and you don’t even know what the outcome might be, but you have to take some risk.”
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That risk management began almost immediately, with the trade that brought Alonzo Mourning to the team on the eve of Riley’s first Heat season, a trade that came at the cost of future All-Star Glen Rice, among others.
“The Zo trade right out of the box, was a risk,” Riley said. “The Zo signing, Juwan Howard signing, those were huge financial risks. He might have gulped a little bit on both of those deals. One was taken away (the Howard signing rescinded by the NBA for a procedural matter). But he wanted to win, and wanted to put a team on the court that could win as fast as he could. So he had great belief from an ownership standpoint.
“Micky and I have had that kind of a relationship back and forth, but mostly positive, always positive about what we were trying to do. If he didn’t like something, he would tell me, ‘I don’t think we should go that way,’ and I wouldn’t go that way. And if he said, ‘Go for it. Go for it’ —damn right, let’s go for it. We had the same mentality.”
So if money needed to be spent, and if such spending was encouraged by Riley, be it Lamar Odom, Shaquille O’Neal or others that followed, those ultimately were Arison decisions, Riley said.
“Some of them haven’t worked,” Riley said, “some of ’em have worked big time.
“As I said, he saved my coaching career, gave me an opportunity as an executive.”
