Pat Riley is famous in NBA circles for being true to his word. Once he makes up his mind, nothing can change it, and we all saw it in the way he dealt with Jimmy Butler’s antics this season. And interestingly, this isn’t the first time he has shown off his absolute authority. In fact, compared to his fallout with Shaquille O’Neal, the Butler saga feels almost cordial.
Advertisement
After acquiring Shaq in 2004, the Heat knew they had to maximize their championship window. And they did that in some fashion, winning the NBA championship title in 2006, which was Miami’s first-ever win. However, injuries to Dwyane Wade meant they were unable to mount a title defense, and things progressively went from bad to worse for the Florida side.
Miami won only 15 of their 82 league games, making it the worst record not just by any team that season, but also for a team which were the defending champions.
In February 2008, which was in the mid-season itself, an angry Riley decided to trade Shaq to the Phoenix Suns and in his place, brought in Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.
Last year, in The OGs podcast, Shaq spoke about how he got Riley to ‘change his ways’ after offering him a $41,000 check to allow him to go out partying. Riley was otherwise very particular about his players following his strict ‘curfew rule’ as part of his plan to keep them disciplined and game ready always.
But with Shaq not performing well that season as the leader of the side, did that arrangement sour relations between them? It’s a possibility. The duo reportedly almost came to blows once and had to be separated.
In his memoir Shaq Uncut, Shaq recalled how his incident with the Heat’s head coach eventually led to his departure from South Beach. The incident between them both had such an impact, that Riley even refused to negotiate with Shaq’s agent, Perry Rogers to find him a new team.
Soon after my little incident with Pat, he called Perry and told him, “It’s over. We’re trading Shaq.” Perry said: “Let me fly out there and talk this over with you.” Pat said, “No, we’re done.” He told Perry they had a deal to trade me to Phoenix. Perry called me and said, “What do you think?” I said immediately, “Let’s go.”
Of course, with the amount of disrespect Shaq felt he was receiving in Miami, he was just eager to leave. So, when he learned that the Heat would be sending him to Phoenix, he didn’t think twice before agreeing to move.
That move would ultimately end up being the eventual end of Shaq’s competitive career, as the center failed to make valuable contributions till his eventual retirement in 2011.
Apart from Shaq and Butler, Riley is renowned to be a hard taskmaster who stood up to other superstar players as well, such as Wade and LeBron James during their time in Miami. In 2016, Wade became a free agent after he could not agree with Riley’s new offer for him. Instead, the Bulls offered him $47.5 million for the next two seasons. At the time, Riley said that he could not sacrifice team success to keep Wade well-paid and happy.
During his time as the Heat’s President, Riley found it hard to keep LeBron at bay after he pushed for the veteran to get back to coaching. LeBron wanted Erik Spoelstra out after players were not responding well to him. However, Riley did not agree. What infuriated him more was that LeBron went on to return to the Cavaliers and made a public spectacle of the same.
So were Butler and Shaq the ones in total fault? Perhaps not.
