No one loves or hates James more deeply than him

In the summer of 2014, Heat president Pat Riley received a call from the team of LeBron James, the core of the team. This was less than a month after the Heat were defeated 4-1 by the Spurs in the Finals. James on the other end of the phone said: "I want to say thank you for these four years..."

Riley was silent. He said nothing, thinking a lot.

Riley is still doing the trapped beast fight. On July 11, Riley made an impassioned speech at the Heat's season summary press conference: "If you have the courage, you need to stay and continue to be together. You can't just rush out and leave after finding the first door." Riley The meaning is very clear, losing is uncomfortable, and running away after a failure is a weak decision. It's kind of like you start all over again, like the San Antonio Spurs came back after losing in Game 7 in 2013.

One day later, James announced in "Sports Illustrated" magazine that he was "going home." Riley was furious. He had met with James twice before. On one of them, he flew to Las Vegas with the championship trophy and a bottle of red wine produced in Napa Valley, California. The name of the wine is "Promise".

Of course, even if Riley exhausted all his methods, it did not change James' decision. Five years after the incident, Riley still feels a dull pain in his heart: "I lost control at that time. You are angry, you are sad, you get a phone call you don't want to hear."

Many people I don’t understand why Pat Riley, who has been in the NBA for many years, is so out of control about leaving the team in free agency, because James is too special for him.

In Game 5 of the 1980 Finals, center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar severely sprained his ankle. The starting players also suggested strategically abandoning Game 6 and concentrate on preparing for Game 7. The rookie "Magic" Johnson who just came to the Lakers stepped forward. In the following games, he continued to move between the positions of center, forward, and point guard. He magically scored 42 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists. Finally, he performed "Little Skyhook" won the decisive victory and won the championship for the Lakers.

The impact of this battle on Riley, who was still an assistant coach at the time, was subversive. Pat Riley, who later took over as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, proposed the concept of "positionless basketball," but there was no player of his type after Magic until the emergence of LeBron James.

Riley has been coveting James for a long time. In 2006, the Heat began to plan the possibility of forming a Big Three with the 2003 golden generation as the core. With the successful formation of the Big Three in 2010, Riley saw the hope that the Heat could one day become a long-lasting dynasty on par with the Celtics and Lakers.

"I originally hoped that this team could last 10 years and maybe enter the finals eight times. I don't know how many more championships we can win..." He added, "When LeBron plays At that call, I saw a dynasty fly out of the window."

At the age of 26, Riley followed the Lakers led by Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain to a 33-game winning streak. Bill Sharman won the Lakers' first championship after moving to Los Angeles; at the age of 36, Riley took charge of the Lakers. At that time, Lakers general manager Sharman entrusted him with an important task. When Riley stood firm and started the "Showtime" era of the Lakers, Sharman became the Lakers chairman and disappeared behind the scenes, but left the power of the Lakers to West.

Whatever you have experienced, you will think about what you will become in the future. Sharman has become Auerbach's most outstanding shadow, and West has achieved the only unquestionable "three consecutive championships" dynasty in 20 years... Riley is a dreamer with greater ambitions, and the position of a head coach obviously cannot make him. He is satisfied.

He went all the way east and came to Miami to expand his territory and take over all the power. He put on an Al Pacino look on the cover of GQ magazine, longing for his team not to be Magic, Ewing or Wade's, but Pat Riley's. From 1995 to 2020, 25 years. The Miami Heat's glorious history of basketball was all created by him.

Pat Riley is a heroic figure, but the ring is not all he wants. Coincidentally, James didn't just want to be a great athlete and become a vassal of Riley and his South Coast empire. Times have changed.

For James, joining the Heat is not only for the championship, but also to learn how to succeed from the godfather. In four years, he experienced failure and success. How could a king with a full-fledged mentality continue to endure having a supreme godfather above his head.

Let’s go back to Cleveland! Achieving a championship there will be a myth, and King James wants to create his own greatness.

The most common thing James says is to "put the most important things in the main position." This is exactly the main theme of Pat Riley. The Heat president often uses this sentence to emphasize that he Believe that individuals must be disciplined in order to reach the top of their sport.

Tristan Thompson once mentioned that when James was trailing the Warriors 1-3 in the 2016 Finals, he texted his teammates one by one: "Any of you who think we can't win the series, just F.M.D. Don't get on the plane!" These seemingly exciting words are similar to Pat Riley's past inflammatory quotes.

When James returned to the Cavaliers in 2015, he took teammates James Jones and Mike Miller away from the Heat. He's also cultivating a culture, hoping to build his own in the barren land of Cleveland without a championship. Before the season started, he called everyone together for a players-only meeting. In this meeting, he listed precise positions for each player. Those who are unwilling to cooperate and sing the opposite will have no choice but to accept the fate of being sent away (Dion Waiters is talking about you).

The fact is that James' arrival did not have an immediate impact. He was injured during the season and the Lakers failed to make the playoffs right away. He waited patiently for a year, observing and evaluating, deciding who should stay. When Rich Paul becomes Anthony Davis' agent, everything falls into place - come to the Lakers.

What did James learn from Riley? It's obvious whether it's about the experience of winning titles or the way you manage a team. However, it took only four years to understand the forty years of hard work of the fortune teller, which was obviously too short a time.

After six years, the Heat entered the finals again. The reunion of the master and apprentice is also a contest between the most influential player and the most influential team executive. For the first time in his career, Pat Riley stands on the opposite side of his favorite "all-around warrior." Except that the head coach is still Spoelstra, the Heat in 2020 are completely different from the Heat in 2014.

Ten years ago, Riley dumped nine championship rings in front of James, thereby successfully recruiting the King. Riley has won these championships as a player, coach and general manager. He knows how to be a champion, and his experience will help James realize his dream of winning a championship. So when he recruited James to Miami, he thought he got a long-term helper, but he never expected that ten years later, he would personally create such a mature competitor for himself.

Watching the first game of the Finals, James stood in the 4th position and beat Jimmy Butler with his back, assisting a three-pointer and setting off a fast break. I wonder if there were any waves in his heart. Facing the Pacers in the Eastern Conference playoffs 8 years ago, they scored 16 points in the final quarter. The Pacers' head coach is Vogel.

In the fourth game, facing the Heat's strategy of defensive breakthroughs and long-range shots, he cleanly hit two ultra-long three-pointers; in the sixth game, when the season came to an end, James every time The ball went into the basket and hit it steadily. The emperor is no longer the hesitant young man he was before.

This year’s finals is Pat Riley’s 17th NBA Finals and James’ 10th finals. For Riley, there is nothing in this world that he has not experienced. He has been in the league for nearly half a century since he served as Jerry West's substitute for the Lakers; since he became the coach of the Lakers, he has been a team manager for a full 40 years.

Riley once said: "I have been in the NBA for 45 years and have witnessed many dynasties and great teams. With the Lakers in the 1980s, I won 5 championships in 12 years. What does this mean? It means failing to win the championship 7 times. You need to face all this and come back." Pat Riley has been in charge of Miami for 25 years. He kept doing what he thought was right. Although James' departure from the Heat was a blow to Riley, the culture of the Heat team has never changed.

"You will go through your ups and downs, but what will never change is the way you do things."

Last season, the Heat only achieved 39 wins and 43 losses. The record is one of three in the past 17 seasons where the winning rate has been below 50%. The other two times were because Wade was reimbursed for the entire season due to injuries, and the other time was when Bosh was diagnosed with blood clots, which also ended his season.

Since 2014, James has gradually gotten rid of players' dependence on management. In the era that Riley was familiar with, the head coach had enough authority, and the coach's authority was far from degenerating to the point where it is trampled by stars today. With James' "decision", more and more superstars have awakened their self-awareness, the old rules have begun to loosen, the team's authority has declined, and superstars can kick you in the face at any time if they are unhappy. But under Riley's leadership, the fact that stars do not have special privileges will not change.

The Heat do not have high-ranking rookies who "believe in the process". They only have training matches that are harsher than the game. It would be impossible for Riley to do such a low-status thing, and it would be even more impossible for Riley to admit star privileges. Under the banner of championship, the Heat have not recruited a big-name star in six years.

As a result, the Heat have become what they are now: team, grassroots, and tough, with four players on the team averaging more than 16 points per game. After being defeated by the multi-point attack of Popovich's Spurs in 2014, the Heat kept trying, changing players one after another, and finally opened the door to the Finals again.

During Riley's life, he not only built the colorful "Showtime" dynasty, but also cultivated two teams that are famous for their defense and iron-bloodedness in the history of the league - New York. Knicks and Miami Heat. After that, he took root in the Heat and regained superstar basketball to create the "Janeway Connection." Now he has recruited a group of team players and unexpectedly reached the finals.

"Being ourselves, and all that we are capable of being, is the only end of life." - Robert Louis Stevenson. Pat Riley quoted it in his autobiography, The Winner With in. At the age of 75, he is still practicing this creed with actions.

In the past 15 years, the Heat have been the only team in the NBA to reach the Finals 6 times. In order to win, Pat Riley fought decisively, took it and let it go. Faced with the opportunity to trade for Iguodala, he did not hesitate to package and trade Winslow. With a chance to acquire Butler, Riley traded Richardson and likely was willing to trade other young, talented players on the roster in pursuit of another All-Star. That's Riley's style.

There is more than one way to win, and Riley put together such a young team that lacked talent and eliminated the Bucks and Celtics along the way. It is no exaggeration to say that he successfully challenged himself. In the past forty years, the only romantic figure who has truly been inclusive and lawless may be Jerry West.

In 1981, in "Magic" Johnson's second year with the Lakers, Magic and his players forced head coach Paul Westhead to publicly declare that he and Westhead could only keep one. On the Lakers. Pat Riley took over as head coach of the Lakers at the age of 37.

In 2020, LeBron James’ second year with the Lakers, head coach Luke Walton left. Frank Vogel takes over as head coach of the Lakers, now 47 years old.

The coincidence of history seems to indicate that the new Lakers under Jeanie Buss will start a new Showtime era. James has another championship and continues to elevate his greatness.

As for the Heat, entering the finals as fifth in the Eastern Conference and defeating the top all the way, what else is there not to be proud of? Neither you nor I are the "Chosen One." Every moment, keep your feet on the ground, train hard, stand firm, be clear about your identity and beliefs, and make the choice you think is right in order not to regret it. To most ordinary people, this is greatness in a broad sense.

Finally, let’s take a look at Pat Riley’s former teammate West. In 2011, Jerry West was enjoying his fourth year of retirement. With a glorious resume in the basketball world, West has no need to prove his ability. One week before his 73rd birthday, he still accepted the invitation of former Lakers director of public relations Raymond Reed to officially join the Warriors uniform. Group.

West was tired of being at the helm of the team and no longer wanted to single-handedly determine the team's fate. He made a request to report the progress of the work directly to the Warriors boss and not assume any responsibility for making the final decision.

Warriors fans are familiar with what happened next. West, who was unwilling to monopolize power at the decision-making level, established a new dynasty ahead of Pat Riley, who owned the Big Three.

Could it be that as early as 2011, Logo had anticipated that top players in the future would decide their own futures?