Riley resigns as Heat coach days before season begins

MIAMI -- His hair is still slicked-back, although now tinged with gray. The "Showtime" style he used to win four championships with in the 1980s is a fading memory. His intensity on the sideline just wasn't the same.

Pat Riley resigned as coach of the Miami Heat on Friday, four days before the team he reloaded with young but largely unproven talent opens its season.

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Riley will remain as team president, but he turned over the coaching responsibilities to Stan Van Gundy, his top assistant over the past eight years with the Heat.

"It's not about me today. It really isn't," Riley said. "It's about the Heat and all those season ticket-holders that have bought seats and sponsors that are starting to come out now because of Caron Butler, Dwyane Wade, Lamar Odom and the possibilities of those guys. It isn't because of me.

"It's time to do this."

Riley, 58, ranks second in NBA history with 1,110 victories, and he led the Los Angeles Lakers to four championships in the 1980s. Riley won six division titles in his eight years in Miami, but only made the Eastern Conference finals once, losing to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in 1997.

But the Heat missed the playoffs the past two years, finishing at the bottom of the Atlantic Division last season at 25-57 -- Riley's worst record in 21 years as an NBA head coach.

"This organization has changed dramatically over the eight years since I've been here," Riley said. "We had one great team that was a compelling, contending team that couldn't get it done. The last three years have been patching and transitioning and getting to the point that we got to right now."

And that point is a promising one. The team is beneath the salary cap, has flexibility to possibly add big-ticket free agents after this season, and has players like Butler and Odom whom Riley believes are budding superstars and worthy candidates to serve as the franchise's cornerstones for the future.

Plus, Van Gundy -- the brother of Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy -- has long been ready to take over, Riley said. But the new Heat coach sounded humbled to follow his mentor.

"I'm not going to try to be Pat Riley," he said. "I don't think it's a difference in philosophy so much as we're just different people. I'm not getting into those comparisons. I'm certainly not looking to make a lot of Pat Riley comparisons here to begin with."

Players were shocked by Riley's announcement. So was Van Gundy, who now becomes part of just the second set of brothers to coach in the NBA; Herb and Larry Brown did so in the 1970s.

Van Gundy was a college head coach for eight seasons, three at Castleton State, four at UMass-Lowell and one at Wisconsin.

"I still at this point have not told my kids, my parents. I haven't told my brother, because I was still sort of half-expecting he would change his mind," Stan Van Gundy said. "He had mentioned it to me on Wednesday. I didn't even tell my wife."

Memphis Grizzlies president Jerry West, who was the Lakers' general manager during Riley's tenure there, said he was stunned by the news.

"He will be missed," West said. "As a friend, I hope this is a start to a new life that will bring home as much satisfaction to him as his enormous coaching career. He is a Hall of Fame coach, for sure, and I wish him the best."

Riley said he made the decision at 5 a.m. Wednesday after convincing himself that the rebuilding process was advanced enough for him to step aside. He told Van Gundy and owner Micky Arison later that morning, but did not reveal his decision to players until Friday morning.

The Heat's first game is Tuesday at Philadelphia; Van Gundy said he did not believe the quick transition would present a major problem for the team.

"I've been looking forward to the day that I could run an organization without the pressures of having to coach, too," Riley said. "As a matter of fact, this summer I spent probably most of my time, all of my time, managing and not coaching."

Riley was voted one of the top 10 coaches in NBA history in 1996. His 21 seasons running NBA teams include from 1981-90 with the Lakers, 1991-95 with the New York Knicks and 1995-03 with Miami. He was the NBA's coach of the year in 1990, 1993 and 1997.

Riley led the "Showtime" Lakers of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the 1982, 1985 and 1987-88 league titles. With the Knicks, he had more of a defense-oriented, bruising team that lost to Houston in the 1994 NBA Finals. With the Heat, though, Riley never duplicated that sort of success.

"I'm going to manage the team that I built," Riley said. "Contrary to what people think, I'm 18 feet from that court. I'll be out there every morning at 9:30, sitting and watching. I will not interfere. I'll try not to."

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