Warriors consulted with Riley on the way to 3rd title
MIAMI — Miami Heat President Pat Riley apparently served as a consultant for the Golden State Warriors’ third championship in the past four seasons.
In a story chronicling the Warriors’ run to the 2018 title, Sports Illustrated reported that Golden State General Manager Bob Myers sought counsel from Riley at the start of the postseason.
“Give me some advice,” Myers asked Riley, according to the piece posted Tuesday.
Myers had been expecting to hear reflections of the Heat’s run to two championship runs over a four-season span from 2010-11 to 2013-14 with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, or from Riley’s Showtime Los Angeles Lakers days with Magic Johnson.
Instead, Riley spoke of how such success has to be organic — or not at all.
“You cannot force people to do anything,” Myers said was Riley’s response. “You cannot move them in a direction. You have to let them be.”
Myers said it left him unsure of where that would put the Warriors in the just-completed postseason.
Sunday, Wade spoke of how the Warriors were able to avoid the pitfall that beset the Heat at the end of their Big Three run, which ended with James returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers as a free agent in the 2014 offseason.
“I felt the last year, our fourth year going to the Finals was a terrible season for us,” Wade said during an appearance on Fox Sports Radio. “Obviously, all the stories don’t come out with a team. But we had a lot of issues. And some of it was trying to motivate guys. Some of it was trying to keep everyone understanding the reason we all got together. But guys start complaining a little bit. You know, your jokes aren’t as funny. You been around each other every day. The whole thing changes, and that last year, I wasn’t surprised that ’Bron went his separate way and we kind of split.
“And it wasn’t bad blood between us, it was just more so it wasn’t what it was any more, and it needed to change. And I think everybody’s kind of waiting for that to happen for [the Warriors] and it will get tougher. That’s why there haven’t been many three-peats in this game.”