No Subject

I wonder what Pitino is asking back. 

DJessen33

Riley still bleeding -- and learning
DAN
LE BATARD
I asked one question.
About the season's last bounce.

Heat coach Pat Riley digested it and went on his wandering way.

Riley said, ``At the moment of truth, we were frenetic and chaotic, our 
minds leaving our bodies, playing without discipline or purpose or 
intensity or knowledge. We were paralyzed. [Dan] Majerle was the only 
one who defended correctly, even though we knew exactly what was coming. 
Where were our heads? We just weren't connected at all at the season's 
most important moment, and now I have a team with a deep, deep wound we 
need to heal.''

Riley said, ``We got blown out three times late in the season and gave 
up 27-2 runs in the playoffs. That [expletive] never happens to us, and 
it concerns me more than the bounce -- because there's a flaw somewhere 
in your team's character when that happens. . . . We lost camaraderie 
and respect for each other this season. It never manifested itself in 
something you could see, but it was felt, believe me. Now there's a lot 
of doubt among our players, a lack of confidence, and we have to rebuild 
it. That bounce stays with you for five months before you can address 
it. We have to rebuild a trust from that bounce.''

Riley said, ``I have to take a step back on my drive -- on what I demand 
and expect. I was a little bit too hard on them after games this year -- 
too personal with some of them. I went too deep. You can hit a point too 
hard. I fear some key players look at me now and think, `He doesn't 
believe in me. He doesn't trust me. I'm never going to be good enough 
for him.' And when you get that, you run the risk of those players 
quitting on you.''

Riley talked and talked and talked after my one question, purging 
himself, and I didn't say a word until he finally stopped -- after a 
full 15 minutes.

``As you can see,'' Riley spit through a forced laugh, ``I've had a lot 
of time to do a lot of thinking.''

He could be playing for the championship now. That's the easy 
extrapolation. Never mind that it assumes plenty to think the Heat would 
have done what these Knicks have, blindsiding Indiana, especially with 
Tim Hardaway hurting, and never mind that the gulf between San Antonio 
and anything in the East now looks every bit as large as the one we once 
had between Michael Jordan's Bulls and everyone else. Riley says, 
``Theoretically, we should be in the Finals. I think about that all the 
time. We could have been the team growing against Atlanta and Indiana 
and watching our players gain the confidence champions need.''

Riley says he has been watching New York's run on television without 
suffering or feeling haunted, though, because ``I let go of that. You 
have to or it'll own you and steal all your freedom.'' In fact, Riley 
says he has watched with ``admiration'' because that Knicks team, 
especially coach Jeff Van Gundy, has overcome so much, becoming the kind 
of unit through adversity that Riley had hoped his Heat team would 
become this year.

You should still expect change, though, because this Heat team, in being 
eliminated in the first round three of the last four seasons, has tagged 
Riley with the worst string of failure in his career. Riley maintains 
the chance of trading one of his four core players (Alonzo Mourning, Tim 
Hardaway, P.J. Brown and Jamal Mashburn) is ``very small,'' which is 
what he must say to protect his trade leverage, but he does add, ``If 
somebody throws out some superstar names, the percentage of a trade 
rises. I'm not afraid to pull the trigger.''

Riley has shown interest in former Heat player Glen Rice, who still 
lives in South Florida, but adds, ``It has just been talk. Everybody's 
talking now because the second and third pick in the draft are being 
shopped. We'll see.'' Boston guard Ray Mercer remains a possibility, but 
Riley says, ``We're listening, but the thing that upsets me about the 
Boston Celtics is that they think we're just down here to give something 
away.'' Of course, Riley could have solved his shooting-guard problem 
last offseason, when the Knicks stole Latrell Sprewell out from under 
him.

``We pushed on that trade, believe me,'' Riley said. ``We pushed as far 
as we could push with Sprewell. At the very end, after we knew what was 
being offered by the Knicks, we offered more. We were giving up a lot, a 
lot, but Golden State said it was too late. We pushed the envelope, but 
I don't want to revisit that whole thing.''

Revisiting can be awfully painful, and now Riley has months to revisit 
that ball's bounce.

``Took the Bulls 25 years to get to a championship, took San Antonio 24 
years, took Utah 23,'' Riley said. ``Strange things happened this year. 
Karl Malone, waiting all his life, had the worst game of his career at 
the most crucial time in the playoffs. Reggie Miller, too. [Malone was 3 
for 16 the night the Jazz was eliminated; Miller was 3 for 18 the night 
the Pacers were eliminated.] Look, we took a major, major dagger in the 
heart that we can't allow to shatter everything we've built here. We're 
a very good basketball team. It doesn't have to be torn apart. We've 
built something good. Now it's time to augment it.''