LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James and Pat Riley both sometimes wonder what might have been if their four-year partnership with the Miami Heat had lasted a whole lot longer.
After the Los Angeles Lakers unveiled a statue Sunday honoring Riley's landmark career as the head coach of the 1980s Showtime teams, James and the current Lakers took the court and lost 111-98 to the Boston Celtics.
Riley and James praised each other Sunday, and both NBA icons also openly speculated about the paths not taken after James' four-year Miami tenure, which ended more than a decade ago.
“I wish him nothing but the best, but I’m going to be selfish here and say I wish had him for another six or eight years,” Riley said. “Would have been great. But we’ll never know, will we?”
Riley was the Heat's president — the job he still holds — when James famously left the Cleveland Cavaliers for South Beach in 2010 to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. That superteam reached four NBA Finals and won two championships in their four outstanding years together, but James left to go back to Cleveland in 2014.
“I never said, ‘I’m going to go there for four years and decide to (leave),’” James said. “That’s just how the cards was played. But it’s human nature to look back and say, ‘Yeah, what could have been?’ That’s part of life. The four years that we had was great. Was able to pick up two chips. We lost two of them, unfortunately, but a lot of great memories. A lot of great time there. It would have been interesting to see what could have happened.”
When James left Miami, he cited his paramount desire to bring a championship to his native Northeast Ohio — a goal he accomplished in 2016 by beating the Golden State dynasty.
Riley has always said he understood James' decision. While many observers also thought Miami's salary cap situation at the time presented serious challenges to future title contention after the Heat lost to San Antonio in the 2014 NBA Finals, Riley clearly thinks those obstacles wouldn't have been a match for James' brilliance.
“I thought getting the Big Three — Dwyane, Chris Bosh and especially LeBron — that we had finally put together what I thought could become a dynasty, (and) it was," Riley said. “Four trips to the Finals in a row, two world championships, it was an incredible run. And as a coach and as somebody who really thought about how to build that particular team, I saw something that could have lasted eight to 10 years. But I understood.”
The 41-year-old James put additional perspective on his decision Sunday: He thought he was a lot closer than he actually was to the end of his career.
“I would have never gave myself ... another 12 years to be playing this game, either,” James said. "So that's another story.”
James, who was 29 when he left Miami, is currently playing his unprecedented 23rd NBA season. He played in his 1,600th career regular-season game Sunday, moving just 11 games behind Robert Parish for the NBA longevity record.
James said he has always got along well with Riley, who had moved into the front office full-time and ceded the Miami bench to Erik Spoelstra before James' arrival.
“That's one of the all-time greats to have ever been a part of this league, as a player, coach, executive, front-office executive, everything," James said of Riley. "Obviously what he did here for the Lakers organization in the ‘80s goes without saying, and rightfully so, him having a statue outside the building. I spent four years with him and I’ve got much respect for him, for his family and everything. It's pretty cool.”
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