With A Title To Defend, Riley Won't Retire

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Pat Riley has every reason to retire, this time for good. Nobody would blame him if he did -- if he decided to enjoy the view from the mountaintop in perpetuity rather than start the climb all over again. Everyone would understand. His would be a heroic farewell. Perfectly timed. Storybook stuff.

He won't do it.

He'll be back.

Just like Alonzo Mourning, who finally got his championship ring but discovered he wants more.

Just like Gary Payton, who satisfied his career's hunger in the same way but found he isn't full yet.

They couldn't walk away from something as good as what the Heat has going, and Riley won't, either.

We don't know this yet, of course. Riley hasn't made his decision public, if he has made it even to himself. He continues on a family vacation in Africa, on safari, presumably searching not only for elephants and lions but for an answer in his soul.

He is to return next week, and bring a decision with him.

Riley announcing he is retiring as a coach wouldn't be particularly surprising, let alone a shock. How can it not be a close, tough call? How tempting it must be for Riley, at age 61, to let this past season's vindication be the taste he savors for all time, after Miami's NBA title ended an 18-year drought for him since the last of his three coaching championships in L.A.

The lack of that ''one last ring'' haunts Don Shula to this day; it is what he mentions first when asked about disappointments. It is that same personal regret that Riley saw disappear last month, the anvils on his shoulders replaced by angels.

So why think he will come back?

Intense lobbying from his players, for one thing, led by the team's unquestioned leader, Shaq, and by the player closest to Riley, Zo.

His players want Riley back for the same reason Heat fans should. That he is the best coach in his sport might be arguable. That he is the best coach for this team is not.

(The media's wish for Riley's return would qualify as equally selfish. There is a depth and eloquence to Riley rare of anyone, let alone coaches. The man gives better quotes than Bartlett).

Greed might be an even bigger part of Riley coming back -- but good greed. The understandable kind.

The chance to shepherd Dwyane Wade's growth from star to superstar to perhaps the greatest player in the league, and to watch this from the best seat in the house, will be too much to pass up. Too much greatness to pass up.

So will the chance to continue on the same side as Shaquille O'Neal, who, even in gradual decline, still is the most dominant center in the game. It was mindful of Riley and Shaq when, earlier this week, Shula told us a small anecdote about his greatest Dolphins team that we had not heard:

''When we were the visiting team, we'd make Zonk get off the bus first,'' Shula said of Larry Csonka, ``because we wanted other teams and everybody else to see this big, strong guy representing us.''

The choice for Riley is to coach Shaq and Wade again or watch some other coach do it. To bequeath this largely intact championship team to some other coach or keep it for himself. Could you blame Riley for feeling proprietary about that? For getting greedy?</div>

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