I used to love Pat Riley.  Back when he was the coach of the Showtime Lakers in the 1980's, I thought Riles pushed all the right buttons.  His slicked back hair and his designer suits were a perfect fit for the L.A. Hollywood scene.  But then he jumped ship to the New York Knicks.  And then for the Miami Heat.  Then retired in 2003. 

Today, he resumed the duties of coaching the Miami Heat. 

I just Riley would call this what it is: his ego out of control with the greedy possibility of winning another NBA Title, instead of putting on the show and doing the dance for the media that he's been "forced" to do something or takeover for his "friend" Stan Van Gundy. 

This shouldn't be about Riley returning to coaching to guide the Heat to the Promised Land of the NBA Finals, but about his ego and how it drove a good coach like Stan Van Gundy out of Miami. 

Part of me has lost a lot of respect for Stan Van Gundy, though.  Today at the press conference announcing his forced "resignation", Van Gundy played the part Riley asked him to by leaving because he "made this decision for one reason and one reason only", that being he misses his family. 

Does anyone believe that?  A basketball coach who worked his tail off for years, spending eight years as Riley's lackey from 1995-2003 and coached for years at the college level for schools like Vermont, Castleton State, Canisius, Fordham, UMass-Lowell and Wisconsin,  doesn't leave an NBA Dream Job because he misses his family all the sudden, just  twenty games into his third NBA season, with the best team (on paper) he's ever had

No, no.  I smell ego.  And rest assured, wherever there's ego, there's Pat Riley. 

Van Gundy had spoken many times about this being his dream job and how grateful he was to Riley for giving it to him.  Well, today, Riley gave it to him, alright. 

Riley said at the press conference: "For six weeks I tried to convince him to stay on," his eyes welling with tears.  Remember something: he spent time in L.A.--the tears are fake, he's acting.  Did he name anything he did to make Van Gundy stay on?  Offer to pack his bags, while asking him to stay?  Book Van Gundy a flight while telling him it's a shame he has to go, but there's a one o'clock plane to Houston?

See, Pat Riley's an ego-maniacal force that can't be stopped.  And if you think this little orchestrated "family" leave for Van Gundy is anything but Riley pushing Stan down the back stairs while no one's looking, then you're sadly mistaken. 

The rumors started last summer that Riles wanted to return to coaching.  Oh, sure, Riley denied it by stating Van Gundy was "currently" the Heat coach--but deep down he wanted back in.  The Heat in the Summer of 2005, with Shaq, Dywayne Wade, Jason Williams, Antoine Walker and Gary Payton were nothing like the rag-tag team he left behind in 2003. 

Pat Riley only sees one thing: opportunity--but only for himself.  He stayed on as Heat President in 2003 to help Van Gundy assemble a competitive team, with no idea Shaq would become available in a trade in 2004, or that Wade would become as good as he has. 

Riley bailed on the Heat originally because he was getting older and they were going nowhere.  Now it's a glamour job, just like L.A. and New York were before.  There's the opportunity for a title in it for him.  He's got a great plan, you can guarantee it.  See, he's done things like this before, just never this harsh to such a close "friend". 

Riley learned from one of the master's of ego, Adolph Rupp, during his playing days at Kentucky as one of the famous "Rupp's Runts".  He took over the coaching reign for the Lakers in 1981, the year in between championship for the franchise.  After guiding the Showtime Lakers to championships in 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988, he left after the '89-'90 season to return to broadcasting.  Could this have been because the Lakers looked finished with an aging Magic/Worthy combo and a retired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?

It wasn't long (one season) before he took over a talent-loaded Knicks roster in New York, promising to wield his magic there.  He was run out of town in 1995, a year after losing the NBA Finals to the Rockets.  The next season was his first with the Heat, another team loaded with talent over the years with Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway and Jamal Mashburn.   

The point is to not be "fooled" by Riley's misguided notions and beliefs of what he sees the truth to be in any given situation.  Look at it for what it really is: An ego-extremist with a passion for himself, finding the edge he needs to get back in the game.

He has an intense, yet quiet rivalry with Phil Jackson.  He can't stand Jackson since the days of Bulls-Knicks in the early 1990's.  Plus, he hates that Jackson took over his spot as Lakers legendary coach.  It eats away at Riley.  And maybe this drives him back to the sidelines, too: the chance to do something that Phil couldn't do with the Lakers in 2004.  Think about it.  The Lakers had Shaq, Payton, Kobe, Karl and all that talent.  All those ego's to mesh, including his own, and Phil Jackson couldn't win the championship.  He quit because of it. 

Now Riley looks at the Heat, sees Shaq, Payton, Wade, Williams and Walker and thinks, "it's '04 L.A."  He wants to do what Phil couldn't, to rub his nose in it and laugh.  To get another NBA title.  It's not for anyone but Riley.  He's Ego-Tripping at the Gates of South Beach. 

That's actually o.k. with me.  The ego is what it is--all star players and coaches have it--all of them.  To want to outdo Phil Jackson, to stick it to the Lakers and Knicks, to win a championship and call himself the man who pulled them all together, that's fine.  It's just he went about it all wrong.  As Tom Cruise said in Cocktail to his bar-tending, womanizing buddy, "Where I come from, you don't do that to friends."