During his career as a writer for the Miami Herald, Dan Le Batard frequently covered the Miami Heat and holds the organization in high regard. On the Wednesday edition of the Meadowlark media sports talk program, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, he expressed that he feels bad about criticizing Pat Riley, the president of the organization, and added that the run of success set a new standard in the city of Miami. These comments came after Le Batard expressed that Riley had “botched” a situation involving superstar forward Jimmy Butler, who he said the team would not trade in a statement last month.
Butler was suspended for seven games last week because of conduct detrimental to the team. This suspension followed Butler making public comments about his future with the organization, and the Heat said that his actions and statements conveyed that “he no longer wants to be a part of this team.” The Heat added that Butler and his representative indicated that he wishes to be traded and would thus listen to offers for the six-time All-Star player.
After Le Batard gave plaudits to the Heat in how the organization does business, co-host Jon ‘Stugotz’ Weiner remarked that he must have received a call. Le Batard denied that presumption, but he understood why Weiner may have reached that opinion and disclosed the truth surrounding the situation.
“The crime syndicate across the street is run by a mafia boss we’ve been calling ‘The Godfather’ for 15 years,” Le Batard said of the Heat organization and Riley, “and the people who have gotten here recently, loose lips with their criticism, are awfully comfortable telling Pat Riley he doesn’t know what he’s doing in his job as the head of the crime family, ‘The Godfather,’ and I don’t think it’s wise for me to be doing that.”
Le Batard said that one of the great honors in his journalism life was to go on The OGs podcast with former Heat players Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller. After the show ended, Haslem remarked that he really liked the episode, something that meant a lot to him since Le Batard thought of Haslem as “the muscle” for the Heat. Le Batard also explained that Riley has been there for him throughout his life in grieving moments encouraging him to be better, and that he has also helped Riley through difficult moments.
“That’s what a friend does for another friend, Dan,” Weiner articulated. “Riley did it for you, you’re doing it for Riley. You can criticize, it’s okay. He can take it.”
“More than that, because they listen to this show across the street,” Le Batard replied, referring to the Heat. “The crime family run by ‘The Godfather’ listens to this show across the street. They’re listening to it live now; it plays in their building.”
Le Batard acknowledged that he does not know where the correct line is of him being fair and critical while also realizing that those on the show would defer to Riley and his five decades of basketball expertise. The matter is more complicated, he conveyed, with Tim Donovan, the Heat vice president of sports media relations, whom he characterized as someone “who has served at Pat Riley’s knee” and “the maximum soldier.” The quandary for Le Batard is that he respects the people at the Heat and what they have done, making it more difficult to criticize them in this moment.
“The way Riley wishes for this to end with Spo in charge or whatever, they deserve that,” Le Batard said. “This is a tribute for running a business well in a very difficult market for 30 or 40 years. I’m assigning that grace – that doesn’t have a critic’s heart in it though. The critic will tell you, ‘Breathe fire. Oh, you’ll get all the clicks for just saying, ‘Oh, even Le Batard says Riley’s washed,’’ when I’m not saying that, and I would never say that.”
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