Riley to take over as headcoach of the Miami Heat today

[Malfa]

MIAMI -- Two years after stepping down as Heat coach, team president Pat Riley is on the verge of resuming the position.

The Heat has called an 11 a.m. Monday media conference at AmericanAirlines Arena, where Riley is expected to take over for Stan Van Gundy, who has led the Heat deep into the playoffs in his two seasons with the franchise.

Van Gundy, meanwhile, has resigned, a team source told the Associated Press around 9 a.m.

The Heat is 11-10 and in first place in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team on Sunday regained the services of Shaquille O'Neal, after the All-Star center missed the previous 18 games with a sprained right ankle.

Preliminary word was Van Gundy was stepping down due to personal reasons.

Riley stands third on the NBA's all-time victory list among coaches at 1,110, behind only retired coaches Lenny Wilkens (1,332) and Don Nelson (1,190). His career coaching winning percentage of .661 would put him third among active coaches, behind only Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich.

Riley previously had vehemently denied that would include a return as coach in place of Van Gundy.

But Riley also has made it clear, with his offseason overhaul of his roster, that he would have a more active involvement with the team this season.

In the offseason, Riley traded swingman Eddie Jones and forward Rasual Butler and added guards Jason Williams and Gary Payton and forwards James Posey and Antoine Walker.

On the eve of the season, Riley said of having a more active involvement, "I built something here for 10 years. I sure as hell don't want to just walk away from it."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... -headlines

[Matt]

i doubt the "personal reasons" explanation is true.

[ixcuincle]

Why is Stan Van Gundy resigning? Is there any reason for him to do this? Even though Miami is 11-10 people have got to remember that Shaquille O'Neal was hurt for a majority of those games. I think it's ignorant and foolish for him to be let go like this (unless Van Gundy has a personal problem). With Shaq back the Heat should get back on track and there was no need for Van Gundy to be let go like this , regardless of whether Pat Riley coaches the team or not. I now hope the Heat fail miserably , miss or get chased out of the playoffs , and then the organization will see the error of their ways.

[dada]

Very sad.

[SkipToMy_Lou]

Fuck Pat Riley...he musta put pressure on Stan to resign

[#12]

SHOWTIME

[Jona]

Fuck Pat Riley...he musta put pressure on Stan to resign

Wasn't it supposed to be an undisclosed family problem?

[J@3]

Pat put a hit out on Stan's baby momma.

[ixcuincle]

I apologize for my previous rant. I was pretty pissed when I heard that Van Gundy resigned at first...then the reports started flowing in that Van Gundy had personal family problems. If he had family problems and it was his choice then I retract everything I said...apparently Riley tried to talk him out of resigning but to no avail. I guess this was his choice.

[Indy]

Whaaaaaat a surprise.

I predicted that Pat Riley would take over the squad 20 games in, I was off by 1 game.

[Bang]

Right after Shaq arrives. How convenient. However, I do believe Riley is a better coach as Stan Van Gundy has made a few questionable choices during the playoffs...
GO HEAT!

[Cloudy]

Riley back, and Phil's back... Man, if Lakers were better it woulda been an anticipated finals of two of the league's greatest coaches...

Anyway, fuck riley... I hv a feeling that he forced stan lol

[Laxation]

Whaaaaaat a surprise.

I predicted that Pat Riley would take over the squad 20 games in, I was off by 1 game.

nice guess!
why would he want van gundy gone?

[Fenix]

Whaaaaaat a surprise.

I predicted that Pat Riley would take over the squad 20 games in, I was off by 1 game.

nice guess!
why would he want van gundy gone?

. To coach two of the best players in the L and get oppurtunity to win another title and wear Armani along the way?

[Indy]

Whaaaaaat a surprise.

I predicted that Pat Riley would take over the squad 20 games in, I was off by 1 game.

nice guess!
why would he want van gundy gone?

Because Pat is an egomaniac who wanted to coach this team from the beginning.

He made the trades that Shaq wanted him to make so that he could say that he did what the rest of the organization wanted him to do, even though he knew trading away Eddie Jones and losing Damon Jones for Jason Williams and Antoine Walker was a horrible move, he did it anyways. This way he can trade those two (which he'll probably do) come back to the bench and become the Heat "savior".

There were no family problems for SVG, this was Riley's plan from the beginning.

[cyanide]

That may be true, but I find this too sincere to be false:

"I made this decision for one reason and one reason only: I love my family," Van Gundy said. He said that because of travel, games and practices, he would have seen his children at home only 49 days out of 170 this season.

"For six weeks I tried to convince him to stay on," Riley said.

Riley's eyes welled with tears as Van Gundy announced the reasons for his decision.

"It came down to a choice, and for me, the choice was clear," Van Gundy said.

He said he will remain in the organization, and insisted he had no desire to coach elsewhere.

That'd be hell of an acting job to pull this off.

[John WB]

Sounds very suspicious to me.

[Ripper]

there's a 40 minute press conference about it on nba.com. If you still believe Riley pressured him to step down you have got to be a retard. He left to see more of his family, and it sounds like he made a great decision.
Anyway it will be fun to see if Riley can make the Heat a championship caliber team and that christmas matchup with the Lakers just became all the more interesting. This could work out well for the Heat.

[cklitsie]

That may be true, but I find this too sincere to be false:

...

That'd be hell of an acting job to pull this off.

Good to see your opinion didn't change in those 3 minutes..

Personally, I think it's definately a set-up. It's not like his children were born today and he suddenly can't coach anymore or as if he didn't know about this before he took the job..

[KDawg295]

Yea.. I agree that it was all a setup. I mean when you take a head coach position you have to make sacrifices, did SVG not know that?... and of course i bet Shaq had a say in this because after the playoffs last year, he did say that he would like to play for Pat Riley.

[ShAuN]

I dont me to sound liek I know it all, but I kind of had a feeling this was gonna happen. For some reason. But Riley is gonna lead them the way. I bet Wade will drop 30ppg now.

[havasufalls]

after watchin that entire press conference i cant say that i am 100% sure that the only reason he is leaving is for family reasons but i guess im a sucker cause i do believe that is y he is resigning

[Riot]

As much as I hate Stan Van Gundy and Pat Riley, I don't think Riley pressured him into re-signing. I don't think Riley tried to talk him out of it, either, but I don't think Riley did this.

I'm not saying this wasn't Riley's plan, but I think Van Gundy really is having family problems.

[Jeffx]

I agree with KDawg - Pat the Rat strikes again, and it's a bush league move. This is the same Pat Riley who faxed his resignation to the Knicks. I'm not buying it.

I'm listening to Mike & the Mad Dog on WFAN. Mike's claiming this Riley-Van Gundy thing goes back to Game 7 against Detroit. Van Gundy ran the offense through Wade, which infuriated Shaq(who wanted Riley to coach). According to Mike, during the summer, Jack Ramsey broke the story that Riley would coach Miami again.

I find it funny that The Rat didn't want to coach the team when it sucked, but now he's coming back. Big phony.

[KDawg295]

Thanks for da support jeffx