Pat Riley is the President of the Miami Heat, as well as a former player and coach in the NBA. David Samson, host of "Nothing Personal with David Samson," says Riley deserves a lot more credit than he gets.
On his latest podcast episode, Samson called Riley the original creator of the "Big 3," saying while others may claim Big 3's came before him, it was all Riley. The Big 3 we are talking about here is LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
"They manufactured, they sacrificed and they were brought into Miami with a vision that Pat Riley had. Put role players around them and they didn't win 5, 4 or 3 championships, but they did win 2, and they were a huge success," Samson said.
Samson then went a step further when talking about Riley's legacy:
"Pat Riley deserves to be known... as the greatest basketball executive in the history of the game. He's one of the greatest coaches of all time."
He added that, as of late, after losing the Big 3, Riley wanted to give it another shot, but not do a "full process rebuild." So instead, he rebuilt certain pieces and now the Heat are back in a position to win.
"He brought in role players because he could not get a Big 3 back to Miami. It doesn't mean that every one of his signings has been perfect. It hasn't," Samson noted. "Not everything's been perfect. But he has this ability that is so undervalued, to put players in a position to be better than they are, were they not to be in that position."
Looking ahead, Samson believes Riley is the perfect component to a team who is looking for a great leader.
"I want to give him credit and say, if you've got a process you want to trust and you've got an executive you want to trust, and someone who leads and doesn't follow. You're gonna wanna go with Pat Riley," the podcast host said.
While Samson already has said Riley is the greatest of all time in his position, he says a ticket to the NBA Finals would only secure that.
"If Pat Riley's Heat make it to the NBA Finals there should not be another conversation about who the greatest of all time is whoever put on a tie and wore it on a basketball court. It's Pat Riley," Samson said.
