Riley steps down as Heat coach

[djnemo65]

Originally Posted by jsarno

How can you possibly say that?
Stan Van Gundy had a great 04-05 when he took the Heat to 1st place (59-23 record), but he came out of the gates like a lame duck in 05-06 when in his first 21 games he went 11-10. Riley took over and took the team to a 41-20 record from there on out.
This year was only the 6th time in his 24 year career that he did not take a team to a first place finish. (in 2 of those 6 years he finished 2nd) That's AMAZING. Only 3 times did he not guide his team to the playoffs. He's a 5 time NBA champion! I personally dislike the guy due to the Celtics / Lakers rivalry, but I respect the man as a coach...he did one hell of a job and is most certainly in the top 5 all time.
He's too old for this. He did what he went to Miami to do...turn around a franchise. He did the same thing in New York and in L.A.

Haha, OK Jsarno, Riley turned around the 80's Lakers, lol. Even though they had already won a championship two years before Riley became coach and had arguably the greatest roster in the history of the sport. That's not to say Riley wasn't the right guy for that job - obviously he got it done - but there's a difference between turning a team around and stepping in to take over a team loaded with talent.

When he resurfaced with the Knicks it was a similar story. He took over the team that probably had more talent than any other in the league and the best center of his generation, however this time he wasn't able to get it done in the playoffs. His decision to encourage Starks to keep shooting in the 94 Finals lingers as one of the all time playoff coaching bungles, imo.

With the Knicks roster aging Riley bolted for Miami amidst controversy. Same story, current team aging, new opportunity with a talented team with a dominant center, Riley says peace.

Heat don't win the big one, Zo gets sick, rosters gutted, Riley's gone..then we get to the Van Gundy episode, in which I'm not sure you realize Van Gundy wasn't fired. He was pushed out amidst strange circumstances, in my unsubstantiated opinion, by a guy who smelled a championship close.

Look, Riley belongs in any top 10 discussion of all time great coaches, but he has a record of leaving teams as soon as things get tough which is not admirable. Most egregious was taking time off to scout this year when the team was tanking, which Smoot mentioned. For these reasons he'll always be a jerk to me, championships or not. At least Phil came back to coach the Lakers during a transitional phase for them.