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Pat Riley, Miami Heat

Pat Riley is coming under increasing media pressure to retire from the Miami Heat. Gilbert Arenas is the last person to call for Riley to step down from his role on South Beach.

“Pat Riley has to fire himself. No one’s complaining about Spo (Erik Spoelstra), but it’s still like he’s overseeing Spo. He’s the Godfather,” Arenas said via his Gil’s Arena podcast.

The Heat have endured a difficult season. Jimmy Butler forcing his way out of the franchise derailed things before they got going. Erik Spoelstra has overachieved with a lackluster Heat roster for multiple years. Now, without a top-tier All-Star, Miami’s flaws have been revealed.

Riley has been at the forefront of the Heat’s desire to re-tool rather than rebuild. That desire has often led to a poorly constructed roster. Butler’s brilliance helped the Heat reach two NBA Finals in recent years. However, those runs were in spite of Riley’s roster construction, not because of it.

Stephen A Smit Calls For Riley to Retire

During a recent episode of ESPN’s First Take, veteran analyst Stephen A. Smith also called for Riley to step down. Smith noted how Riley’s presence is potentially stopping elite stars from making their way to Miami in free agency.

“There’s a lot of people that would love to come to Miami, one would think,” Smith said. “But LeBron James departed from there, Kevin Durant didn’t come there, and Damian Lillard, you couldn’t get there. Then, you made a colossal mistake. We already heard Dwyane Wade’s story all over social media about you messing with LeBron’s chocolate chip cookies. And when you look a guy like Jimmy Butler in the face and say, ‘We ain’t moving you,’ forcing him to become a bit truculent to force his way out, it looks like an organization that you’re not inclined to gravitate to.”

Riley recently turned 80 years old. Now would be the ideal time for him to step down from his current role and allow the Heat to begin rebuilding from the ground up. Fresh faces with fresh ideas can help turn the franchise around, although that would likely begin with a full-scale rebuild.

Jeff Teague Has Also Called for Riley to Step Down

During a recent episode of his “520 in the morning” podcast, Jeff Teague joined the chorus of voices calling for Riley to finally walk away from the Heat franchise.

“They gotta get rid of Pat Riley, man,” Teague said. “…Blow up the Heat. It’s time for the Heat to blow up, too. It’s time for the whole organization just to start over. Let Pat Riley just go ahead and retire, man. Sit down somewhere, you 88. Let’s just start it over. Let Erik Spoelstra run the team from the top to the bottom. Be the coach and the GM. Just start over.”

Riley is a Heat legend. He will have a role with the franchise until he decides the time is right. However, when looking from the outside, that time is now. Miami needs to take a fresh direction, and to do that, it needs a fresh start. However, that fresh start should still have Spoelstra leading the way, he is, after all, the best coach in the NBA.

Adam Taylor is a basketball reporter covering the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns for Heavy. He has also written for CelticsBlog, USA Today, Yardbarker and FanSided. Adam has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Open University. More about Adam Taylor