Pat Riley Is an NBA Herro: Unchecked

The current Miami Heat are one of the best examples of NBA team building ever.

Pat Riley is truly an NBA legend, or Herro if you will.

Pat Riley showing us all how championship teams are built pic.twitter.com/Z2J9I9ihB4

— Ced™ (@cedfunches) September 24, 2020

His Miami Heat team is up 3-1 on the Boston Celtics and are just one win away from yet another NBA Finals trip, and that’s without any of the Big Three, who defined the most recent Heat championship era, and without ever tanking in an attempt to get the number one pick. To go from losing Chris Bosh, the face of the franchise Dwyane Wade, and of course LeBron James and be where they are today has to be one of the most remarkable examples of team building we’ve ever seen.

The Miami Heat are now one win away from their first NBA Finals appearance since 2014. Miami won NBA championships in 2006, 2012 and 2013. Miami is up 3-1 in the best of seven Eastern Conference Finals and next faces the Celtics in a potentially deciding Game 5 on Friday. pic.twitter.com/tAxBSstu4B

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) September 24, 2020

As this time around, unlike their two previous title teams, it wasn’t nearly as simple as trading for Shaquille O’Neal or signing James. The Heat have had to draft well as evidenced by the star-making performance from rookie Tyler Herro, the 13th pick in 2019, and the entire playoff run from prototypical modern big man Bam Adebayo, the 14th selection in 2017. 

Me doubting Pat Riley during the draft last year pic.twitter.com/mK7yKR4JDw

— Richard R. Waithe, PharmD (@richard_waithe) September 24, 2020

They also rightly believed Jimmy Butler could be the best player on a contender this past offseason, when a host of other teams clearly didn’t, and stated their commitment to winning in dealing for Goran Dragic in 2015.

Pat Riley traded for Goran Dragic in 2015 to help MIA make another run with Chris Bosh & Dwyane Wade. Dragic never played with Bosh, who was forced to retire, but stuck around to become an All-Star. Wade left, came back, retired. Now Dragic is making a deep run with Jimmy Butler

— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) September 18, 2020

All of this led by a head coach in Erik Spoelstra who went from tape operator to one of the best minds in the league with organizational support throughout, even when speculation about his job status was rampant.

Gonna put this quote from Erik Spoelstra on a calendar with a kitten or something: “Everyone overestimates what you can do in a day and underestimates what you can do over the course of months or a year.”

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) September 24, 2020

We hear the word culture a lot, well it certainly applies to the Heat led by a team president who has championships as a player, coach, and executive, but may be in the midst of his most impressive feat.

“To fit in here you just got to care about winning, that’s the number one thing.”@JimmyButler on the Heat’s culture. pic.twitter.com/lcGxIDkhQt

— NBA TV (@NBATV) September 18, 2020

Riley once famously put his rings on a table in a free agent meeting in putting together the aforementioned Big Three and now has a chance at being able to throw another one down, because for him and the Miami Heat, losing is always off the table.