On Monday, Miami Heat President Pat Riley held a media availability and was asked about the plan for the offseason. Unprompted, Riley issued a statement which was interpreted by Miami media as a shot at LeBron James. From the Miami Herald:
Riley was asked about the draft and next season and the Heat's president, in classic Riley style, dropped a loaded one-liner, which was immediately interpreted as a dig at LeBron.
"No more smiling faces with hidden agendas, so we'll be going in clean," Riley said.
Asked to clarify if that comment was about James, Riley said, “that could be anyone across the board,” before adding, “I’ve already got about half a dozen emails from people I don’t even know recommending [a player], and somewhere in that email or text is always a smiley.”
via Did LeBron mislead Pat Riley last summer during free agency with a smiley face emoji? | Heat Check.
(Side note: click that link, it's incredible. Best American Sportswriting, 2015.)
For what it's worth, here's LeBron's comment about it on Tuesday:
LeBron was asked about Riley's presser. "Whatever he said, that's not my concern right now."
— Ethan J. Skolnick (@EthanJSkolnick) April 21, 2015
There's been rumors of bad blood between the two since Riley held a press conference going into free agency last year and challenged the Heat's trio of stars to stick together. Instead, James bolted back to Cleveland, made the playoffs as the two-seed, and the Heat fell apart due to injuries and inconsistencies, missing the playoffs.
The problem is that whatever James may have told Riley, he had the right to change his mind. It's LeBron's career, LeBron's life, LeBron's legacy. James was rumored to have cut off all contact with everyone but Dwyane Wade during the time in-between July 1st and when he reached his decision eleven days later. Chris Bosh says he didn't hear from him. Most people say that he was on lockdown. James was facing inordinate scrutiny and pressure from everywhere, just as he did in 2010, and seemed to be geared towards staying away from it. He flew immediately to Rio the morning his decision appeard on SI.com, flying to the World Cup.
The man literally left the country to get away from the story.
James gave Riley four years, four finals, two championships, millions of dollars. He did his time, his contract had an option, he exercised it, he left. The end. The rest is just details.
There is some speculation that Riley's comment is related to a "hidden agenda" of James with regards to his late-season tweets that the Heat needed to draft Shabazz Napier, who was... not great as a rookie. So the idea goes that LeBron fed that idea to the Heat to get them to draft Napier, intentionally sabotaging the Heat.
Well, that could be true but a. it would be a remarkably stupid idea to draft a player because James suggested it, not only because you're the ones in charge of basktball decisions but because of James' opt-out, b. if the 24th pick in the NBA draft "sabotaged" your season, you probably went awry somewhere else and c. I'm still struggling to imagine James thinking to himself "Muahahaha, now my fiendish plot will be unleashed! I will convince them to take a UConn point guard which is never a good idea and they will fall from the ranks while I leave to go to a cold weather city with a history of losing so prolific there are literally documentaries about it." But that's just me.
Maybe Riley was misinterpreted, and the comment was taken out of context or was simply innocuous. But Riley's known to a. be hyper-competitive and b. hold grudges. But it certainly doesn't seem this situation is over, for Riley or for James.
In conclusion: 
