Miami Heat president Pat Riley regrets how he handled the Dwyane Wade free agency debacle that ultimately ended in the abrupt and unexpected departure of the most decorated player in franchise history.
Too little, too late.
"The buck really stops here," Riley said in a news conference on Saturday. "I'm not trying to fall on the sword for anybody. I have great regret that I didn't put myself in the middle of it, and immerse myself totally in the middle of it. Get in a canoe and paddle to the Mediterranean if I had to, you know? Be in New York when (Wade) arrived on (July) 6th and greet him at the airport. I didn't do that. I wasn't there in the middle of that negotiation, and that's my job."
After Wade's fallout with Riley — the result of lowball contract offers and a questionable list of offseason priorities — the fate of the franchise now rests on the uncertain health of Chris Bosh, who missed significant time over the past two seasons with blood clotting, and the broad shoulders of Hassan Whiteside, the 7-foot shot-blocking menace who Miami signed to a four-year, $98 million contract on the first day of free agency.
Looking back at the negotiation process, Riley said that although he wanted to keep Wade happy and well-paid, he wasn't willing to sacrifice overall team success moving forward. At least, not to the tune of the $47.5 million that Wade will earn over the next two seasons in Chicago.
"My thoughts were always to try to make the team better and at the same time try to make sure that Dwyane, over the course of the three, four, five years that he had left in his career, that he was going to get his money," Riley said. "He would get it — but not at the expense of paralyzing our ability to win."
But while Wade heads to Chicago and while a new era of Heat basketball awaits, the past 13 seasons won't soon be forgotten.
"It's not going to be the same without (Wade), but we will forge ahead," Riley said. "...There will always be a key under the mat, I just hope it doesn't get too rusty, that's all."
Riley also said that, although the two haven't spoken since Wade's decision, he believes that their relationship will remain strong now that the dust has settled.
"If I saw him right now, I really believe that it'd be a warm embrace," Riley said after noting that he's in the middle of crafting a lengthy email to send to Wade. "I don't have any of those feelings, you know, any negative feelings for him at all. I know that he was caught in a quandary with his thinking and his thought processes at the time, and what he felt was going on. And I know I was locked into mine at that time. So that's what happened."
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