Heat’s Riley opens up about LeBron, Adebayo-v.-Herro and European retreat

MIAMI — Thursday was a whirlwind for Pat Riley at Kaseya Center, as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis were introduced as two of the newest members of the Miami Heat, with plenty more to be said by the Heat president.

So in a more relaxed moment with longtime South Florida media personality Dan Le Batard, Riley touched on a wider variety of topics during a taped podcast interview.

Including:

— Why he would embrace a Heat return by LeBron James.

— Why he wished Bam Adebayo did not get physical with former Heat guard Tyler Herro.

— And why he is in Europe at the moment.

Foremost, Riley said any animus with James over James’ 2014 Heat parting is in the past tense.

“It’s just thawed,” Riley said of that initial freeze, when James opted in the 2014 offseason to return to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. “I’ve seen him at championship fights. I’ve seen him around. I’ve run into him at All-Star games. We had a great embrace when (the Lakers) honored me with a statue out there.”

Well, perhaps not fully thawed, but thawed enough.

“And LeBron and I, we haven’t talked much, but you let go of that stuff,” Riley continued in the interview that was taped Friday. “I mean, I was very disappointed because I thought we were looking at a dynasty, something dynastic. And we now had a chance to add other players to it in 2014. And when he left, it was very, very disappointing.”

Still, if the two can make it happen again, then Riley said the past is in the past.

“I don’t want to see him somewhere on the golf course one day, even though I don’t play golf, or something, or see him somewhere and not be able to go up to a guy that I developed a great relationship with and all the people that were around him. And we celebrated together,” Riley said of the Heat advancing to the NBA Finals in each of James’ seasons with the Heat from 2010 to 2014, with NBA titles in 2012 and ’13.

“I see pictures over in Championship Alley of us hugging and pouring champagne on each other’s head. Those are moments that are etched in your mind forever.”

As for the Adebayo-Herro incident, when Adebayo confronted Herro on a practice court in Las Vegas a week ago dur NBA Summer League about social-media posts from Herro, with Adebayo making contact with Herro, Riley said he wished it didn’t happen.

“I didn’t like it,” Riley said, with neither the Heat nor the NBA taking further action.

Herro on social media had cast Adebayo as a limited offensive player and therefore overpaid.

“I didn’t even know he was upset, because I read it and I didn’t like it,” Riley said of the postings by Herro, who was sent out in the Antetokounmpo trade. “I didn’t like what I read and I think those kind of comments, and that’s what, as I say, social media has consequences, and so he got offended by it and I don’t think they had time to talk about it or anything like that, but it happened.”

Riley added, “Both of them are very competitive men and I was sorry to see that it happened, and I was even more sorry to see that what happened with Bam.”

As for his European trip with wife Chris, there was additional candor when Riley, 81, was asked about potentially retiring.

“Chris and I are going, we’re going over to Europe to get our blood scrubbed and get all these toxins out of our blood and we’re in the longevity and health in as much as we can be to try to extend in a way that you’re vital and you’re doing something that is meaningful,” Riley said. “You know, I don’t think about that. I just think about the next day and what we’re going to do.”