Revisiting The Dynamic Between LeBron James, Pat Riley and the Miami Heat

The dynamic between LeBron James, Pat Riley and the Miami Heat has always been an interesting one.

Many wonder what caused LeBron James to leave, whether they’re talking about the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Miami Heat.

Yet, for those that followed his career from his inception, the writing was one the wall for both departures.

Yesterday, Pat Riley made headlines by saying that his level of vitriol after James left South Beach to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers was matched by Dan Gilbert and his letter addressed to James in 2010. That letter, which claimed that the Cleveland Cavaliers would win a ring before James, who left to Miami because he wanted a shortcut to a championship (after seven years) is one that turned out to be wrong.

If Riley was to have said something similar, he would have been equally wrong.

(However, it is worth pointing out that when James arrived in Cleveland he said someone from Miami said he was making the worst decision of his life.)

Yet, despite the disdain that the two may have for each other now. This was a tale that started out like it was scripted.

The Way Out

LeBron James had been in Cleveland for seven years and completely changed the franchise by the time he left. His potential for greatness was on display from the start, as he appeared as a young and springy wing with a penchant for taking over games.

The number one overall pick from Akron, Ohio played the part of the hometown hero for the Cavs, taking what was a 35-win team in his rookie year to a 61-win team by the time he skipped town to head for the beach. At 22, he led the 50-32 Cavs to the Finals. Though the series ended in a sweep, as James would face his real NBA rive (the San Antonio Spurs) for the first time, it still seemed like the beginning of James’ promising career.

However, the next year, the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden (as well as Ira Newble, Donyell Marshall, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown) to acquire 33-year-old Ben Wallace, 32-year-old Joe Smith, 30-year-old Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West in what was essentially looked at as a blockbuster trade for the Cavs given the defensive prowess of Wallace and his ability to rebound. Szczerbiak was one of the better three-point shooters in the game and Smith and West were decent scorers. However, they gave up the two-way ability and youth of Hughes and Gooden in the trade, and with all of the moving pieces, the chemistry of the group.

The Cleveland Cavaliers would only win 45 games that season despite LeBron averaging 30 points per game.

Still, they were able to take the Boston Celtics and their Big 4 to seven games. James might have been the leading scorer in the series with 26.7 points per game. However, he shot just 35.5 percent from the field and 23.1 percent from three-point range as the Boston Celtics defense threw everything they had, including Rajon Rondo, at him.

The next year, the Cleveland Cavaliers would trade Smith and Damon Jones to acquire Mo Williams, who arrived like a godsend next to LeBron with his scoring prowess. With Williams sharing the backcourt with West, the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to have three players capable of attacking the rim from the perimeter at all times Ilgauskus’ shooting ability and Anderson Varejao’s hustle and finishing ability (like Tristan Thompson’s now) only made the Cleveland Cavaliers offensive attack that much more deadly.

With the fourth-best offensive rating (112.4) and third-best defensive rating (102.4), the Cavs won the most games of any season in James’ first stint with 66.

After sweeping the Detroit Pistons (a playoff foe that James defeated to reach the Finals before and that lost some of its bite with the losses of Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace and then Allen Iverson) and the Atlanta Hawks (sound familiar?), the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals as Dwight Howard dominated the Cavs frontcourt and the sharpshooting forwards of the Magic decimated the Cavs with threes.

It didn’t help that LeBron bombed away from three in Game 3, missing all but one attempt to go 1-8 from three-point range in a game where no Cav could seem to get it going. Though he bounced back in Game 4, with 44 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists, he also had 8 turnovers.

No, no. In this series Dwight Howard was the most dominant player on the court. This is the series that brought Howard into infamy. He averaged 25.8 points, 13.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 blocks per game. He even shot 70.1 percent from the free-throw line.

James averaged 38.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, 8.0 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.2 steals per game. Sensational. Otherwordly. Still, he averaged 4.2 turnovers per game and shot 29.7 percent from three-point range on 6.2 attempts per game.

By this point, two things should be clear.

(1) Despite James’ greatness, James has been at fault for his losses at this point as well.

(2) James doesn’t necessarily need more talented players beside him, he just needs a supremely talented player beside him.

The next year, the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to send a message to LeBron in his final year, right? So get this. They basically made the same “blockbuster” transaction they made when they traded Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden for Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak. This time, they swapped out Wallace for 37-year-old Shaquille O’Neal and Szczerbiak for 34-year-old Anthony Parker while adding 33-year-old Antawn Jamison to the mix.

Is it any wonder that the Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t keep up with James chased rings? There were only four players under 33 in the Cleveland Cavaliers rotation. In the end, age catches up to players if they don’t get enough rest and that was certainly the case for Jamison and Ilgauskus in the playoffs. O’Neal missed nearly two months after tearing a ligament in his thumb in March. With a behemoth at 37-years-old missing that much time, it wasn’t going to look pretty for the Big Diesel when he returned and it didn’t.

After losing three straight games to the Boston Celtics and being bounced out of the semifinals James took off his jersey walking through the tunnel.

By this point, one thing is clear.

(1) He needs a new start and a new team if he wants to get over the hump.

A Particularly Credible Mentor

So what is it that LeBron James gets out of going to Miami over other places like Chicago or New York. The answer starts with Pat Riley. Pat Riley literally took James under his wing and though the narrative is that James’ ego wasn’t catered to, Riley cared about both James the player and the man.

Read this quote from Riley, transcribed by Howard Bloom of Sports Business News:

"“If you want to be the Boat, you have to continue to win, and to do that you have to bring other players with you,” Riley says. “He’s a leader vocally and by example, but I see his frustration when we lose to good competition. Sometimes the players who helped win a championship one year aren’t the same the next year. He has to make sure those guys are in it mentally all the time. He has to be the leader they trust and whatever he says goes.”"

Doesn’t that sound like James, to the tee? No matter who is on the roster, he makes it known he’s the top dog. However, despite his status as the top dog, he knows he needs the best he can get out of his teammates and the best teammates he can get.

Oh by the way, the boat.

That’s B.O.A.T. or Best Of All Time.

That’s what Riley would call James, instilling confidence in the King by fueling his ego, in the way only a man who coached Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson and coached against Michael Jordan could.

There are different types of teachers in life and they come at different phases in it. It seems like Riley was the credible mentor that could help guide James in his NBA career. James has had mentors before, like his high school head coaches Dru Joyce II and Keith Dambrodt. Early on in his career, Eric Snow and Paul Silas were key mentors for James. However, at the NBA level he had yet to have a mentor as credible as the infamous Pat Riley.

The Brotherhood

Being on the Miami Heat wasn’t just joining a team where there was him and a whole bunch of other talented guys on the roster. Dwyane Wade had been one of James’ best friends since the day they met. Pat Riley preached about things like “Heat Lifers” and the family that the Miami Heat were.

As Dion Waiters said he’s a real The Godfather type of guy (perhaps that’s what inspires LeBron to watch the movies and read the books), talking about “the family”. The fraternal bond that the Miami Heat had, the way that they made sacrifices for one another on the court, was inspiring.

Chris Bosh sacrificed superstardom, Dwyane Wade sacrificed his role as the top dog. That was perhaps key in selling James on working on his post game.

Before coming to Miami, James maybe would have never worked tirelessly to develop a solid post-up game as before he got just about all of his offense from the perimeter. He had to learn how to get in the post and dominate for the benefit of the team, regardless of his lack of desire to bang in the post with the bigs.

Ultimately, that’s what’s made the biggest difference in James’ play.

Defensively, he would have always been able to guard every position.

Offensively, his ability to be a threat from the post allows him to do things like switch onto the smaller player at will just to post them up for an easy two or take that opportunity if he’s already matched up against the smaller player. It allows him to take advantage of his strength and physique, as he looks like a mini-Shaq on the low block at times.

Off the court, James learned about the camaraderie that goes along with winning championships. Sure, his teams in Cleveland always had the fun pregame routines and they were friends. However, in Miami, the team actually acted as if they bled, sweat and cried together.

That’s the way the Cleveland Cavaliers act now.

The College Experience

The Cleveland Cavaliers managed to get LeBron James when the prep-to-pro era was alive and well. While this meant that James would be able to dominate for them for at least four more years it also meant that James would get to grow up in the NBA culture and be a professional athlete from Day One.

No kiddy stuff.

So when you saw James dominating in his first four years you saw a kid primed to be the greatest player in the world unleashed on the NBA. He had “no regard for human life“. He was doing his absolute best to be the best player on the court and he didn’t have to waste any time to get started.

It’s probably what was best for his career as we watch him ascend up the all-time leaderboards. However, it also left James without what would have been an easy opportunity to win a NCAA title and build what he knew were championship habits.

In Miami, with the talent he possessed and the talent he had around him, it was a virtual certainty he would win at least one title. When he brazenly said “not one, not two, not three…” he may have started to reach into his fantasies a bit by the end but it was more or less expected for the Miami Heat to win at least one title with James there even before his speech, if not more.

After getting to the NBA Finals for the second time and failing for the second time, James had the type of experience kids have in college after losing in the NCAA tournament. He had an epiphany. He wanted to come back better than ever and this time he would have the players in his corner to win it all.

Three years later, after working on both his game and his mindset, James won two championships. He likely could have won a third if Wade’s knees didn’t look shot. As we already know, James needs just one supremely talented player beside him.

Four years with the Miami Heat would allow James to look through a yearbook of four consecutive years where he reached the NBA Finals and be able to build a blueprint for that level of success no matter where he went.

Lessons from a mentor, lessons from a team that played like a family and lessons from four runs to the NBA Finals would be all James needed to reach the NBA Finals even without the Miami Heat.

When I hear Pat Riley was mad at James and he took it personal, I understand. It doesn’t matter if James felt miffed by some of Riley’s personnel decisions or rules he tried to give James about who he had around, LeBron’s departure stung Riley because in his mind, LeBron was a “Heat Lifer”.

Instead, LeBron left his adopted family to return home. When you think about it, it’s exactly the type of thing he would have done after all he learned from Riley.

After all, to be the best of all time he needed other players with him. In Miami, Wade was on the decline while in Cleveland, Kyrie Irving was on the rise. Cleveland also had the first pick in the draft, and at the time Dion Waiters did show some promise in the backcourt. They had more cap space and they had better trade opportunities. Looking down the road, the Cleveland Cavaliers gave James the best chance to succeed personnel-wise.

The rest would be on him.

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*All statistics referenced from www.basketball-reference.com