It’s unclear whether the fact that Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce lost to Pat Riley’s Miami Heat in the playoffs on multiple occasions during his playing days has anything to do with it, but Pierce has lately been quite critical of the Heat’s longtime president and former head coach.
Earlier this month, he said that Riley is slowly killing the Heat’s culture and noted that Miami legends LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal all had exits from Miami during Riley’s time with the franchise.
Now, the 10-time All-Star and one-time NBA champion seems to think that Riley cares about Miami’s star players for only a finite amount of time before he acts like they’re dispensable. For example, Heat forward Jimmy Butler has led Miami to two NBA Finals appearances since he joined the squad in the 2019 offseason, yet there now seems to be a rift in his relationship with Riley.
“If I’m Jimmy, why I wanna be here if you don’t even respect me?” Pierce asked, speaking from Butler’s perspective. “You don’t respect me nor what I’ve done, and I’ve seen this with your other superstars, like, how D-Wade don’t retire a Heat? He do retire a Heat, and he got a statue and all, but how did he get to Chicago and have to come back? That should have never happened. That was all Riley, though, you know what I’m saying? You ran LeBron because you wouldn’t let him — alright, if his guys wanna come on the plane or whatever — that’s LeBron, bro.”
Pierce continued.
“So now, it make me (Butler) look at Pat Riley, like, ‘Oh, once I get whatever I got out of you, you can get the f— out of here,'” Pierce said, still speaking from Butler’s perspective. “That’s what Pat Riley’s mentality is. ‘Once I got — Shaq, I got a chip out of you. Alright, who gives a f— about you. LeBron, alright get out the — Wade, you too.’ That’s what it’s starting to look like to me (Butler). ‘Once I get what I want out of you, kick rocks.'”
During his playing days as a member of the Celtics, Pierce lost to the Heat in back-to-back years in the playoffs. In the 2011 NBA Playoffs, Miami bested Boston in five games in the second round. Pierce was probably the Celtics’ best offensive player in that series, as he averaged a team-high 19.6 points per game while shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 40.7 percent from deep.
Pierce’s Celtics and Riley’s Heat then faced off in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, and that best-of-seven series was much more tightly contested. It took Miami seven games to eliminate the Celtics, and the Heat had to rally back from a 3-2 series deficit after they dropped Game 5 at home.
To Pierce’s credit, he and the Celtics did eliminate the Heat in the first round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. However, later in his career, the Heat were able to nip him again, as they eliminated his Brooklyn Nets in the second round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs.
Butler’s future in Miami is certainly up in the air at this time, but on the bright side, the Heat have been playing quite well lately in his absence. The team just recently picked up its third win in a row, as Miami beat the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday to improve to 20-17 on the season.
The next game on Miami’s schedule is a road contest versus the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday. Interestingly, the Clippers share an identical record with Miami, though L.A. has lost two straight games.
