It looks like Shaquille O’Neal, long considered an advocate of the 50-game regular season, finally may have convinced Pat Riley to see things his way.
The Miami Heat coach announced Wednesday he was taking an indefinite leave of absence for knee and possibly hip surgery. Assistant Ron Rothstein, the Heat’s inaugural head coach, will take over until Riley returns, probably some time after the All-Star break.
Riley’s decision came almost simultaneously with the announcement that Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban was leaving the team to coach Alabama. These two shockers come after the Florida Marlins dismissed manager Joe Girardi, the subsequent National League Manager of the Year, and the University of Miami dumped football coach Larry Coker, who had won a national championship in 2001.
Even Larry Brown was shocked.
Riley’s announcement comes as perhaps the biggest surprise. He had indicated recently that while he continued to have medical issues with his hip and knee, he would be able to make it through the season.
“I’m just tired of the pain and the medication,” Riley said at a news conference Wednesday in Miami.
Riley said he eventually would need the surgery and recently described at least the knee part as a relatively minor “scope [and] flush.”
Riley’s coaching contemporary, Phil Jackson, had long-delayed hip-replacement surgery last fall and missed most of the exhibition season.
The curious part about Riley’s decision, obviously, is the timing, which leaves open the possibility he has coached his last NBA game.
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No one is questioning that Riley needs medical attention. But with the defending champion Heat 13-18, Riley has appeared as frustrated with a team as he ever has been, seemingly embarrassed about the way it has been going about what he considers the sacred task of defending its title.
Last week, after the Heat lost to the Bulls here, players say Riley took out his frustration on a locker room door. As team president, he’s still angry and on Wednesday deactivated Antoine Walker and James Posey for being out of condition.
“I’m going to be displaced for a while, but not disconnected at all,” Riley said of his coaching leave.
Starting with a hide-your-head-in-shame opening night 42-point loss to the Bulls, the Heat has been the one of the patsies of the NBA. It has lost a half-dozen games by at least 20 points, with an exasperated Riley dragging himself through recent losses of 29 points to the Magic, 26 points to the Bucks and 24 points to the Knicks.
Riley, at times, has called the Heat the worst defensive team he ever has coached and a terrible offensive team. The only bright light has been the continued magnificent play of Dwyane Wade.
O’Neal came into the season talking about working up to the playoffs, like the Heat did last season, and that attitude angered Riley. He said the Heat wasn’t going to mail in the regular season and called it an insult to a championship team and the organization.
O’Neal, predictably, soon departed for surgery and Riley grew increasingly frustrated with poor, inconsistent and indifferent play from most, other than Wade, Udonis Haslem and Alonzo Mourning. Moreover, he had to deal with injuries to key players such as Jason Williams. It seemed to many Riley had come to resent many of the elements of the veteran team he had put together.
At times, Riley appeared to be running out of adjectives to express his dissatisfaction with the team, using words and phrases like “deplorable,” “horrible,” “bottom of the barrel,” “butt-kicking” and a team “feeling sorry for itself.”
And that was just against the Magic last week.
After another loss, he talked about wanting to be ejected, saying if the players didn’t want to play he didn’t see any reason to coach.
Though the Heat is in the ninth spot, just out of playoff qualification, the assumption was O’Neal would return and the Heat would make a run at successfully defending its championship. Riley even talked about O’Neal returning sometime on the team’s current road trip.
Now, though, the question of even making the playoffs has to be considered. It certainly bodes well for teams such as the Bulls, given the dysfunction of the champion.
“I haven’t been happy with our overall effort all year long,” Riley said.
Actually, many doubted Riley would return for this season.
The speculation after the Heat won the championship and Riley was silent about his future was he would leave on top. But intimates say Riley, as a 10 percent team owner as well as team president, felt an obligation to return to the organization and his own equity stake.
Riley also felt the need to protect the franchise’s investment in O’Neal. O’Neal has made it clear he didn’t like being coached by anyone other than Riley and many believe he forced Riley to replace Stan Van Gundy in December 2005. Riley previously had surprised the basketball world when he suddenly resigned before the start of the 2003-04 season and appointed Van Gundy to replace him.
“We have a championship team that is sideways right now,” Riley said. “I haven’t been happy about the situation. I hope that when everybody gets healthy, including myself, it’ll rectify itself. Keep your notebooks open. We’ll see how it plays out.”
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