Pat Riley ‘Selfishly’ Admits To Have Wanted LeBron James For More Years On The Heat

Pat Riley’s legacy in the NBA was immortalized on Sunday when a statue was unveiled in his honor outside Crypto.com Arena as a tribute to all that he achieved with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is also a legend in Miami, thanks in large part to the famous “Decision” made by LeBron James in 2010.

Riley, after winning the 2006 NBA Championship as head coach of the Heat, became the man in charge of their basketball operations and changed the face of the franchise by assembling the “big three” of James, Chris Bosh, and existing icon Dwyane Wade. Together, they scripted history.

The Heat went to four NBA Finals, straight. They won two of those, turning them into a dynasty. Sadly, James left in 2014 bringing an end to that chapter, and Riley truly laments that.

“I thought when we got the Big Three,  Dwyane, Chris Bosh, and especially LeBron, that we were building a dynasty. Four straight Finals, two championships… it was an incredible run,” Riley said during a session with Lakers media.

“I truly believed it could’ve lasted 6–8, maybe even 10 years. But the NBA is a business,” he added.

James, who joined the Heat after leaving the Cavaliers, eventually wanted to return home. His goal was to win a championship with the team that drafted him, and he achieved that in 2016 by helping script a miraculous comeback from a 3-1 deficit against the Warriors in the Finals. The Heat failed to win another title after 2013, although Riley did oversee two more trips to the Finals.

“Players have the right to choose, and he went back to Cleveland and won a title. Selfishly? I wish I had him a few more years. But we’ll never know, will we?” Riley added.

Pat Riley reflecting on his time with the BIG 3 era in Miami:

“I thought when we got the Big Three — Dwyane, Chris Bosh, and especially LeBron — that we were building a dynasty. Four straight Finals, two championships… it was an incredible run.

I truly believed it could’ve… pic.twitter.com/ccevA6KW2M

— (@WadexFlash) February 22, 2026

The year LeBron left Miami also coincided with the rise of Stephen Curry‘s Warriors, who went on to dominate the NBA for the next few years. But had James stayed with Wade and Bosh, would they have been able to win more then Golden State? Perhaps they’d put up a better fight than the Cavs did, at least.

Riley was never salty about James leaving Miami ‘high and dry’. On Sunday’s press conference, he spoke about the sport being a business at the end of the day, but even years ago, he insisted that the King did the right thing by leaving.

“While there may have been some carnage always left behind when he made these kinds of moves, in Cleveland and also in Miami, he did the right thing,” Riley said in a 2018 ESPN interview.

“I just finally came to accept the realization that he and his family said, ‘You’ll never, ever be accepted back in your hometown if you don’t go back to try to win a title,” he added.

When Riley took away James’ chocolate chip cookies

On The Pat McAfee Show, James shared a story that highlighted how much Riley cared about him and the rest of the Heat squad. Bizarrely enough, it involved chocolate chip cookies which, at one point, were as valuable as gold to James.

He recalled how when he got on their plane, the flight attendants would make chocolate chip cookies for them. One fine day, however, it stopped, and they told James, “We’re not allowed to. No more cookies on these flights.” 

“That cookies story is true..

Everybody knows I love chocolate chip cookies..

One flight I got on and there was no more cookies and we all know where it came from” @KingJames #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/SO3qh9yV8B

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 26, 2025

“We all knew where it came from,” James said. “D-Wade looked at me and said, I think Riley’s done it again. Riley strikes again.”