<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">PHILADELPHIA - It's usually the second question asked in reference to Pat Riley's new stint as Heat head coach. The first, of course, is ``Did Riley force Stan Van Gundy from his post?'' Then comes ``How will Shaquille O'Neal respond once Riley returns to his taskmaster ways?'' Even Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss has chimed in on the subject from a distance. ''I know how [Riley] worked, but whether he's mellowed or not and will make some accommodations [for O'Neal], I don't know,'' Buss told The Los Angeles Times. 'But I know what Magic [Johnson] used to say about Riley: `You better be able to run the extra mile.' '' It hasn't become an issue yet. Riley canceled a planned practice Thursday in Philadelphia and said his team gatherings so far have been little more than rap sessions than anything else. ''We're doing a lot more talking than we're doing moving,'' Riley said. 'It's going to take more time for them to understand all the little things we want to do, and I'm going to do it probably in more of a `grazing in the grass' mentality rather than a real hard workout. We'll get to that, but not right now.'' When he does get to that, however, Riley would like his 340-pound center to participate. That likely would require O'Neal to trim down, something the big man did for Riley when, as team president, he asked O'Neal to lose weight before the start of last season. O'Neal said before this season that he prefers his current playing weight to the 330 or so he played at last season. He feels stronger and more dominant this way. Riley admits O'Neal is different from anyone he has coached, and it might affect the physical demands he places on him. ''Yeah, you have to manage him differently,'' Riley said. ``I want to make sure he's healthy and in shape. ``I'd like to get him to a certain thing, but the fact he was off four weeks, now he's got to work to get it back. Shaq's a phenomenon. He's got a whole different physiological thing. He's a big, big man. ``What I would like to have him at and what is really possible, I should check with physiologists. They'd probably say it's impossible, because he's so large-boned. But he's working real hard at it. He's down in the [330s]. He's working at it. And in another month, he'll be in the [320s], which is where we probably want him.'' Alonzo Mourning is quite familiar with Riley's intense practices, which occasionally would cause him and a few of his teammates to throw up into a trash can from fatigue. Whether Riley returns to that level of intensity, and whether O'Neal responds well to it, remains in question. ''We'll see,'' Mourning said. ``It's really up to [Riley]. We'll respond to how he approaches it and go from there. He's leading us. We've got to follow. So whatever he says, goes. He knows what's best for this team.'' Before he resigned as coach before the 2003 season, Riley claimed he had mellowed out and become a more player-friendly coach. And he said this week that his time from coaching has taught him that being so hard on his players might have been a mistake. Perhaps the desire to win an NBA title forces Riley to instinctively turn to his old ways. For now, it's Riley who has to do the hard work, not his players. ''I remember very well the amount of detail work you really feel you have to do to prepare,'' Riley said. ``Even though I worked hard as a president, it doesn't even compare. The games keep coming at you. It's like a freight train. Games keep coming at you and [you've] got to get ready.''</div> Source
