Pat Riley @ MindSay 
basketball
Am I the only one who doesn't really care one way or another that Shaquille O'Neill and Pat Riley have now one a championship away from Los Angeles and with a team other than the Lakers??? Anyone who watched that series between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks saw with their very own eyes that Dwayne Wade was the best player, not Shaq. He can score, shoot and make free throws, something that the Diesel could not be counted on consistently to do.
I'm happy for Shaq. I honestly am. I have no hatred or love loss for him just because he no longer wears purple and gold. I always liked him and recognize that as long as he can put on hightops and move around on a basketball court, he's the X-factor for the other team to have to deal with. At 34, he's still the most dominant player in the game even if he no longer posts dominant numbers. That said he's clearly past his prime and on the downside of his career. The Heat will never see nor get the Shaq who was the unanimous MVP in 1999-2000 and for three years in a row the NBA Finals MVP, 2000-2002. How much longer does he got left? 3 years? 3 good years? Big men don't last as long as guards and forwards. There's a reason guys like Hakeem, Patrick, Sir Charles and even the fitter-than-fit David Robinson are shadows of themselves the back half of 35. And Shaq, at 7'2", 350 is bigger than all of them and takes more punishment than all of them.
I hope one day after his career is over, and probably after Kobe Bryant's is too, Shaq can come back to Staples and Laker fans can welcome him as #34 is put up on the rafters alongside Wilt, Jerry West, Kareem, Magic, and George Mikan and that while he first was with the Magic and last with the Heat, that Shaquille O'Neill, at his best, with the best will always be a Laker, and will always belong to us. Enjoy your parade South Beach. Given how notoriously fickle their fans are don't expect well over a million to turn out like they did in the blistering heat down Figueroa or to stand by their team through the increased pressure and adversity that comes with BEING the champs and having to defend your crown. Say what you want about LA, about the Lakers, about Kobe, about Jerry Buss, about Shaq, with the exception of Michael Jordan, no other team has repeated, let alone three-peated in the NBA in well over a decade like we did. And if it weren't for a bare miss by Robert Horry in Game 5 against San Antonio of the 2003 playoffs it would have been a 4-peat and if Karl Malone stays healthy for the Finals, there's no way Rasheed and Ben Wallace beat the Lakers in 2004 either.
Oh what might have been.
The funny thing, to me anyway, as a devoted sports fan and connoseur (I think I spelled that wrong) is that for all the Laker haters out there, and Yankee haters too for that matter, interest in the Finals or the World Series seems to go south without them. Ratings for this years finals featuring 2 first-time teams with star players and colorful characters barely beat last years all time low despite a well-played 7 game series between Detroit and San Antonio. Nobody wants to watch Detroit or San Antonio. You know as well as I do that ABC/ESPN were craving a Laker-Heat finals (Kobe v. Shaq, Phil v. Riley) and if not that a Laker-Cav finals (Kobe v. LeBron). Anything other than Lakers-Celtics or LA-NY and the tv ratings suck. Salary caps and luxury taxes and drafts may have created parity among the franchises but that doesn't make the game more compelling to watch, more interesting to follow, or better competitively. I say screw social justice when it comes to sports and let the fat cats get fatter and let the likes of Kansas City and Milwaukee pony up and become competitive or watch their franchise relocate somewhere else. Get rid of the salary cap, get rid of the luxury tax. Get rid of the draft and let the teams who want to win and want to compete and relish the limelight of the playoffs, and the best players, the opportunity to shine. The cream will always rise to the top, even if they are 7 feet tall and have egos as big as their 350 pounds.
Heat coach Pat Riley will be with his team for Game 1 of Miami's Eastern Conference quarterfinal on Saturday, despite the death of his 96-year-old mother, Mary.
Riley ran the team's practice Friday after learning of his mother's death. He was not available for comment following practice, but the team said he would remain in South Florida and coach the game.
Riley spent four days earlier this week in upstate New York with his mother. He did not divulge any details of her illness when speaking to reporters Thursday.
"It's difficult, but you deal with it. Family is part of your life," said Riley, who had assistant coach Ron Rothstein coach the season's final two games. "And so, I did what I had to do in New York. ... The last four days was about a family crisis. Now it's about Chicago, moving on and trying to get this job done here."
On Thursday night, Riley announced that he would return to coach Miami for the 2006-07 season regardless of its playoff outcome. He released a statement through the team "due to numerous media inquiries and unsubstantiated rumors about his future."
Miami has the No. 2 seed in the East playoffs after a drama-filled season that saw Shaquille O'Neal miss 18 of the team's first 21 games with a sprained ankle. The Heat went only 11-10 in that stretch, after which coach Stan Van Gundy resigned, saying he wanted to spend more time with his children and family.
Riley took over, and Miami won 37 of its next 50 games. But the Heat finished April with a 4-7 record, albeit with O'Neal and Dwyane Wade -- the team's superstars -- playing either sparingly or not at all in the final three games, all losses.
"I put no credence into how we finished at all," Riley said.
The Bulls enter the playoffs having won 10 of 11.
He insisted the statement wasn't new.
"I said that already before," Riley said. "Of course they (ESPN) made big deal of it. That's what they do. But it's the same thing I've told to my beat writers."
When the Miami writers shrugged and said they'd never heard him say it, Riley said, "Well, I said it to somebody."
ESPN's Jim Gray said Riley told him "I doubt I will coach after this year. I came back because I had an obligation and responsibility to this organization. I put this team together. I would never say never - I'm not closing the door - but I really doubt I will come back next year."
According to ESPN, Riley cited the travel as a major reason he might not come back.
Riley, the Heat president, took over coaching duties after Stan Van Gundy resigned on Dec. 12.
Riley, whom Van Gundy succeeded on the bench shortly before the 2003-04 season, will make his debut Tuesday night when Miami opens a four-game road trip in Chicago.
"I will get back into this quickly," said Riley, the 60-year-old team president. He said he hasn't even looked at a playbook for two years.
Riley coached the team from 1995-03 after winning four titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and a stint with the New York Knicks.
Players were not available for immediate comment. The team left for Chicago on Monday, shortly before the news conference announcing the shake-up and learning of Van Gundy's decision.
Van Gundy said he resigned voluntarily.
"I made this decision for one reason and one reason only: I love my family," Van Gundy said. He said that because of travel, games and practices, he would have seen his children at home only 49 days out of 170 this season.
"That's just not enough any more for me. It's just not enough," Van Gundy said. "I mean, it's been like that for my kids' entire lives. I've got a 14-year-old daughter and it started to hit me when I started thinking about her birthday, which was last month. I've got four more years left with her. Four. And then she'll be off to college and I'm just not willing to sacrifice any more of those four more years."
Riley's eyes welled with tears as Van Gundy announced the reasons for his decision. Van Gundy said Riley has tried for weeks to persuade him to stay.
"It came down to a choice, and for me, the choice was clear," Van Gundy said.
He said he will remain in the organization, and insisted he had no desire to coach elsewhere in the NBA.
Van Gundy's job status was the subject of speculation in South Florida for months, starting when Riley - his mentor - said shortly after the Heat's 2005 playoff run ended that he may take a larger role in the team's day-to-day operations.
That comment, which seemed innocuous at the time, set off speculation that Riley was planning to dismiss Van Gundy and take over a team with two of the NBA's biggest stars, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, in his quest to bring the Heat their first title.
This year, the team was in first place but with only a 11-10 record, although without O'Neal for 18 of those games because the 12-time All-Star had a badly sprained right ankle. Rumors that Van Gundy's job may be in jeopardy continued to swirl. But Van Gundy insisted Monday his relationship with Riley has never been better.
The 46-year-old Van Gundy left with a regular-season record of 112-73. Riley has won 1,110 games in 21 seasons as a coach, plus led the "Showtime" Lakers of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to titles in 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988. He also coached the Knicks (1991-95).
Van Gundy was Riley's top assistant for eight seasons, getting the top job shortly before the 2003-04 campaign when Riley walked into his office unexpectedly and told him he was stepping aside.
And now, in a move perhaps not so unexpected but certainly just as sudden, Van Gundy is gone, hours after leading the Heat to an overtime win over Washington on Sunday night.
The move came nearly four years to the day after Jeff Van Gundy, Stan's younger brother, resigned as Knicks coach 19 games into the 2001-02 season. Jeff Van Gundy, now the Houston Rockets coach, said at the time he'd lost his focus and thought about quitting since that summer.
"The question I've always had for him is 'why did you go back,"' Stan Van Gundy said.
Through a Rockets' spokesman, Jeff Van Gundy declined comment Monday.
Before coming to the Heat, Van Gundy had college stints at Vermont, Castleton State, Canisius, Fordham, Massachusetts-Lowell and Wisconsin. When Riley joined the Heat, Van Gundy came with him - in large part because his brother, Jeff, was under contract to the New York Knicks and couldn't stay on Riley's staff.
His first season as head coach didn't get off to a good start, with the Heat losing Van Gundy's first seven games. But with Wade leading a talented nucleus of young players, Miami finished that season 42-40 and as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
That summer, Riley sent three players to Los Angeles for O'Neal - part of three championships with the Lakers. Van Gundy coached the Heat to a second consecutive season of a 17-win improvement, getting them to 59-23 and guiding them to the Southeast Division title and to the East finals.
Riley went to Los Angeles on a recent road trip for three reasons, two being to visit a hip replacement clinic and for a meeting with city commissioners in Malibu to gain approval for a home he plans to build.
The third reason, he said, was a final pitch designed to keep the coach. But he couldn't change Van Gundy's mind.
"I have an obligation to this franchise and to Micky," Riley said, referring to team owner Micky Arison. "I am going to definitely put off my hip replacement surgery, without a doubt."
