Pat Riley releases a statement saying he meant the Miami Heat’s loss to the Lakers had an asterisk next to it, not the Lakers’ win.
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Hubbub surrounding the legitimacy of this 2020 NBA Bubble championship has been circulating throughout the NBA world since ever since its conception. This is obviously due to the fact the Bubble is a neutral site with no fans and there is no travel from one city to the next.
However, longtime Heat exec Pat Riley brought up the fact that their 2 star players, Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo, missed games, and that is why there should be an asterisk next to this Lakers title.
Earlier today, Riley released a statement to clarify what he really meant.
Pat Riley clears the air on what he meant by his ‘asterisk’ statement.
Rob Pelinka had also, coincidentally, went on the Woj Pod to talk about how this Lakers title win was actually one of the hardest ones yet, on the same day Pat Riley came out with his initial ‘asterisk’ statement.
As he received backlash on NBA Twitter, Riley released a statement saying what he truly meant by his ‘asterisk’ comments. Riley said, “Their title win is legitimate. Our loss has an asterisk next to it. The Lakers were the better team. Period.”
Pat Riley is no stranger to ‘asterisk’ championships.
This isn’t Riley’s first injury-ridden NBA Finals. Perhaps the most infamous of Riley’s teams that suffered an injury during the Finals was when Magic Johnson went down in Game 2 of the 1989 NBA Finals.
Johnson suffered a hamstring injury which effectively ruled him out for the series. This led to the Riley-coached Lakers getting swept by the Detroit Pistons.
Back then, Riley had not released any statement on the Lakers loss having an asterisk next to it so it is strange he said this for this 2020 Miami Heat team.
