{"id":166125,"date":"2026-02-23T21:20:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166125\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T21:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:20:22","slug":"pat-riley-and-lebron-james-imagine-what-could-have-been-in-miami-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166125\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Riley and LeBron James imagine what could have been in Miami \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 LeBron James sat alone on the Lakers\u2019 bench during halftime, before the team\u2019s meeting, as he listened to Magic Johnson\u2019s soliloquies about Pat Riley. Earlier, the Lakers honored Riley with a statue on Star Plaza at Crypto.com Arena. Later, the Lakers fell to the Celtics<\/a> on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

James wanted to pay respects for Riley, not just the man who assembled the Showtime Lakers, but also the mind behind the Big Three in Miami, turning James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh into a force of the NBA \u2013 fit with a pair of NBA championships. James is in his eighth season in Los Angeles \u2013 double the time the 41-year-old spent in Miami \u2013 but both Riley and the Lakers star reminisced over the pair of NBA championships secured between 2010-2014, fit with a pregame hug shared before James hit the hardwood floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, he\u2019s one of the all-time greats to ever have been a part of this league,\u201d James said Sunday. \u201cNot only player, coach, executive, front office, everything. Obviously, what he did here for the Lakers organization in the \u201880s goes without saying and rightfully so, him having a statue outside this building. Obviously, I spent four years with him. I have the utmost respect for him, for his family and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if you ask Riley, he said Sunday that he dreamt of the what could have been, the potential for a decade of the trio of 2003 NBA Draft class stars suiting up in Miami. Riley, more than most league executives, understood that when James took his talents back to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014, returning to where he began his NBA career, that it was just \u201cthe business in the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Players have their opportunity to test the market and find their best fit. James, following the 2013-2014 season where the Heat fell to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, chose his new home. He moved to Los Angeles in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish him nothing but the best,\u201d Riley said, \u201cBut, oh, I\u2019m going to be selfish here and say, I wish I had him for another six or eight years. Would\u2019ve been great, but we\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

James, when told about Riley\u2019s comments about the early 2010s Miami Heat, said that it was human nature to think about the \u201cwhat could have been.\u201d The four-time MVP added that his four years in Miami alongside Wade \u2013 who took part in Riley\u2019s statue unveiling, speaking for five minutes at the ceremony \u2013 and Bosh provided him with \u201cgreat memories.\u201d But James also turned to the reality of where he is in 2026, still playing \u2013 unlike his Big Three peers \u2013 and averaging 21.7 points per game for the Lakers (34-22).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would\u2019ve been interesting to see what could have happened,\u201d James said. \u201cI also would\u2019ve never gave myself another 12 years to be playing this game either. So that\u2019s another story.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to Riley, Miami\u2019s team president, however, James credited the Heat organization with providing him with the tools to win a championship, something James added that he didn\u2019t feel was possible early in his career with Cleveland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I knew how to play the game and I just felt like they could possibly put me in a position where the goals that I had [could be achieved] and I was able to accomplish that,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 LeBron James sat alone on the Lakers\u2019 bench during halftime, before the team\u2019s meeting, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5818,8085,123,125,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-166125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}